Forgiving What You Can't Forget: Discover How to Move On, Make Peace with Painful Memories, and Create a Life That’s Beautiful Again

by Lysa TerKeurst

Progress is hard to see when triggered feelings make our vision clouded with intense emotions.

Forgiveness is both a decision and a process. You make the decision to forgive the facts of what happened. But then you must also walk through the process of forgiveness for the impact those facts have had on you.

“Just say what you need to say. I am listening. You are safe. I will remember who you are in light of how God created you. Together, we’ll fight the shame threatening to bully its way into your mind. I will not add to your shame. I will speak the truth but always with the goal of helping you and helping us to stay healthy. I will not reduce you to being a sum total of your struggles. I will speak life by reminding you who you really are in Christ.”

saving someone isn’t possible if they don’t agree they need to be saved.

If your heart is more committed to change than theirs is, you may delay the train wreck but you will not be able to save them from it. And from what I’ve experienced, the more you keep jumping onto the tracks to try and rescue them, the more likely it is that the train will run over you both.

And yet to say I was losing hope sounded like I had no faith.

God loves us too much to answer our prayers at any other time than the right time.

What makes faith fall apart isn’t doubt. It’s becoming too certain of the wrong things.

He didn’t promise their grief would be taken away and replaced with joy. He promised the grief would turn into joy.