A SETTLEMENT OUT OF COURT

Two Christians appeared before the court on charges of assault and a breach of the peace.

When the magistrate had listened to all the evidence, he called them to the bench and whispered to them, “Being Christians, the two of you, couldn’t you have settled this matter out of court?”

One of the men, who still had a black eye, said to the judge, “SURE we could have settled this out of court, your Honor! And that’s exactly what we were TRYING to do when the POLICE arrived!”

When missionaries first came to Labrador, they found no word for forgiveness in the Eskimo language.  So they had to make one which meant, “not being able to think about it anymore.”

I can forgive, but I cannot forget” is only another way of saying, “I will not forgive.”

Forgiveness ought to be like a canceled note–torn in two and burned up so that it never can be shown against one.

Thomas Merton: We do not really know how to forgive until we know what it is to be forgiven. Therefore we should be glad that we can be forgiven by others. It is our forgiveness of one another that makes the love of Jesus manifest in our lives, for in forgiving one another we act towards one another
as He has acted towards us.

Marianne Williamson: Forgiveness does not mean that we suppress anger; forgiveness means that we have asked for a miracle:  the ability to see through mistakes that someone has made to the truth that lies in all of our hearts. Forgiveness is not always easy. At times, it feels more painful than the wound we suffered, to forgive the one that inflicted it. And yet, there is no peace without forgiveness. Attack thoughts towards others are attack thoughts towards ourselves. The first step in forgiveness is the willingness to forgive.

As we practice the work of forgiveness we discover more and more that forgiveness and healing are one. — Agnes Sanford

Doing an injury puts you below your enemy; revenging one makes you even with him; forgiving it sets you above him.

Forgiveness is a funny thing—it warms the heart and cools the sting. — William Arthur Ward (1812–1882)

Forgiveness is not that stripe which says, “I will forgive, but not forget.” It is not to bury the hatchet with the handle sticking out of the ground, so you can grasp it the minute you want it. — Dwight Lyman Moody (1837–1899)

If God forgives us, we must forgive ourselves. Otherwise it is almost like setting up ourselves as a higher tribunal than him. — C. S. Lewis (1898–1963)

If God were not willing to forgive sin, heaven would be empty. — German Proverb

Never does the human soul appear so strong as when it foregoes revenge and dares to forgive an injury. — Edwin Hubbel Chapin (1814–1880)

Only one petition in the Lord’s Prayer has any condition attached to it. It is the petition for forgiveness. — Sir William Temple (1628–1699)