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Inspirational Quotations

by RightAttitudes.com

Inspirational Quotes by Lewis B. Smedes (American Christian Theologian)

Inspirational Quotations by Lewis B. Smedes (American Christian Theologian)

Lewis Benedictus Smedes (1921–2002) was a renowned Christian author, ethicist, and theologian in the Reformed tradition. He was a professor of theology and ethics for twenty-five years at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California.

Born in Muskegon, Michigan, Smedes attended Calvin College and Seminary, earning his Th.B. in 1950. He went on to earn his Th.D. from the Free University of Amsterdam in 1954. Ordained in 1954, he was pastor at the Christian Reformed Church 1954–57 in Paterson, New Jersey, and was a professor of Bible 1957–70 at Calvin College. Smedes taught at the Department of Theology and Ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, until 1989 and later became chairman of integrative studies in the school of psychology until his retirement in 1995.

Smedes’s popular books include Forgive & Forget: Healing the Hurts We Don’t Deserve (1984,) Mere Morality: What God Expects from Ordinary People (1982,) A Pretty Good Person: What it Takes to Live with Courage, Gratitude, & Integrity (1990,) and Shame and Grace: Healing the Shame We Don’t Deserve (1992.) His memoirs are My God and I (2003.)

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Lewis B. Smedes

I worry about fast forgivers. They tend to forgive quickly in order to avoid their pain. Or they forgive fast in order to gain an advantage over the people they forgive. And their instant forgiving only makes things worse… People who have been wronged badly and wounded deeply should give themselves time and space before they forgive… There is a right moment to forgive.
—Lewis B. Smedes
Topics: Forgiveness

To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.
—Lewis B. Smedes
Topics: Forgiveness

We forgive freely or we do not really forgive at all.
—Lewis B. Smedes
Topics: Forgiveness

The difference between guilt and shame is very clear—in theory. We feel guilty for what we do. We feel shame for what we are.
—Lewis B. Smedes
Topics: Guilt

Forgiving is love’s toughest work, and love’s biggest risk. If you twist it into something it was never meant to be, it can make you a doormat or an insufferable manipulator. Forgiving seems almost unnatural. Our sense of fairness tells us people should pay for the wrong they do. But forgiving is love’s power to break nature’s rule.
—Lewis B. Smedes
Topics: Forgiveness

You will know that forgiveness has begun when you recall those who hurt you and feel the power to wish them well.
—Lewis B. Smedes
Topics: Forgiveness

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