Art of Forgiving: When You Need to Forgive and Don't Know How Paperback - 1997

First line

Jennifer Klein was the kind of woman you could count on to reach out to a person in trouble.

From the jacket flap

"Lewis Smedes writes about forgiveness like no one has ever written about it before. There is no better book in the English language about this subject, which, if properly mastered, can change the face of human relationships."
--Neil Clark Warren Author of The Triumphant Marriage and Make Anger Your Ally
If you are ready to make peace with those who have hurt or betrayed you, there can be no finer road map than this thoroughly practical book. Lewis Smedes brings true forgiveness, "Gods own gift," within the capacity of every wounded person, even in circumstances when only hate seems possible. With inspiring words, he leads you through the three stages of forgiveness and helps you understand:

Why we forgive (often the person who benefits most is the forgiver)
What we do when we forgive (perhaps not what we expect) Whom we forgive (only those who directly wrong us)
How we forgive (we start by owning our pain)

Using many dramatic examples drawn from life, this wise author illuminates, step by step, the healing path to peace and freedom.
"Altogether a wonderfully wise and enabling book, one of Smedes's very best. The Art of Forgiving is itself a work of art. Throughout my reading I found myself exclaiming, 'That never occurred to me, but yes, that's right!' I felt as if I were being led by an extraordinarily lucid and perceptive guide on a tour through the land of forgiveness." --Nicholas Woltersdorff
Professor of Philosophical Theology The Divinity School, Yale University