[The shooter’s family] were actually receiving . . . forgiveness from the Amish community, which was offered generously from the very beginning. . . . You can stop the cycle of forgiveness by rejecting it, and often people who feel guilty or ashamed do that. But in this case, they have received it and that’s really what the heart of the gospel is all about – receiving forgiveness from God and sharing that with others.
—Rev. Rob Schenck, in an interview with Larry King on CNN, Oct. 4, about the Pennsylvania schoolhouse shooting.
When we don’t forgive ourselves we almost continue to revel in the wrong – we can’t leave it go. . . . we continue to enjoy the wrong but delicious feelings. We feel miserable, sorry for ourselves, wounded, and that God must be abandoning us because see, I can’t forgive myself. I might as well go and do something else wrong.
—Melodie Davis, “Forgiving Yourself” (at Third Way Café ).
Some people think that if you forgive somebody you once trusted, it means that you have to go back into the same relationship with him or her that you had before. . . . Not a good idea. Forgivers do not have to be fools.
—Lewis Smedes, “Five Things Everyone Should Know About Forgiving”.
Forgiveness does not equal forgetting. It is about healing the memory of the harm, not erasing it.
—Ken Hart, quoted in Zest magazine, Oct. 2000.
Forgiveness is a process that takes a safe place, tools, and time.
—David Doerfler, Facilitator of Concentric Journeys, Texas.
Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.
—Jesus
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