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

Narrated by: Lysa TerKeurst, Gabe Wicks

READ BY THE AUTHOR

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

You deserve to stop suffering because of what other people have done to you.

Have you ever felt stuck in a cycle of unresolved pain, playing offenses over and over in your mind? You know you can't go on like this, but you don't know what to do next. Lysa TerKeurst has wrestled through this journey. But in surprising ways, she's discovered how to let go of bound-up resentment and overcome the resistance to forgiving people who aren't willing to make things right.

In Forgiving What You Can't Forget, Lysa’s deep empathy, therapeutic insight, and rich Bible teaching, coming out of more than 1,000 hours of theological study, will help you:

• Learn how to move on when the other person refuses to change and never says they're sorry.
• Walk through a step-by-step process to free yourself from the hurt of your past and feel less offended today.
• Discover what the Bible really says about forgiveness and the peace that comes from living it out right now.
• Identify what's stealing trust and vulnerability from your relationships so you can believe there is still good ahead.
• Disempower the triggers hijacking your emotions by embracing the two necessary parts of forgiveness.

If you are ready to begin the process of healing and moving forward, Lysa has some words of comfort and encouragement for you as you begin the journey:

“Dear friend, I understand, deeply and personally, how hard it is when someone does something unchangeable that also feels unforgivable. I've cried countless tears and wrestled through so many questions.

If you can relate, you're in the right place. Within these pages, your heart will be tenderly held. Your thoughts don't need to be edited. Your resistance is understood. But there are some biblical perspectives to consider that have finally brought peace into my life. And I want the same for you.

And if no one else has ever said they're sorry for your deep pain, I will. My heart breaks for what breaks so many of us. So, let me take your hand and lead you through how forgiveness is not only possible but is one of the most healing decisions to embrace."

Forgiveness explained in a super empathetic way

This book is written by a woman who has known immense grief. She explains forgiveness in ways even the people in the most pain will be willing to hear out. There's no sense of condemnation thrown at the reader. Just empathy and an approach of great love and so much care toward the hurting person seeking the right avenues.

As someone who struggles with unforgiveness due to great pain, I decided to listen to the audio of this book as a way to help unfold why I am having such a hard time forgiving and letting something go that the people I am upset with already let go and moved on from forgetting I even exist while they live off of using others to keep themselves above water and constantly leave people worse off than when they found them, but are happy while I'm sobbing. At least this was the view I had going into it. I have realized more than ever that it wasn't so much what was done to me, but what emotional triggers that were already there inside me from early childhood traumas that the actions from these two brought to the surface (feelings of inadequacy and rejection, feeling that I don't matter, etc.). I learned that in order for people to do this to others, however, they have to be experiencing their own sort of emotional hell, and may not fully realize what they're leaving in their wake. Broken people are selfish sometimes due to wanting to prevent what hurt them before from happening again. They take from others to feel better, but are too tired or distracted by grief to give back in return. I realized from this book too that those people are loved by God more than I will ever fully understand in this life, and they need prayer for healing. They need the love of Christ. They need God to fill their voids. I realize it may be for that very reason I met them, so I could see the extent to their detriment, see past their emotional projections stemming from their internal emotional hell, and pray for whatever it is causing them to act out in such a way to be brought to the surface and for them to seek healing from it. This book allows you to see different perspectives like this. It's worth about 10 more listens. I can't give anything word for word after the first read, but I can say how much better I feel and how softened my heart is in comparison to before I started. My Holy Spirit heard every word which is evidence to my softened heart and my determination to forgive and to pray for those who hurt me to heal and to turn to God for their affirmation and to stop using and then hurting others.

Too much God, Lord etc stuff

A good book overall but had I known there were dozens of references to God, our Lord etc; I would never have purchased.

incredible book with honest and transparent truth!

incredible book with honest and transparent truth! Thank you Lysa for sharing how God is using an incredibly hard time in your life to touch others who have been through the same thing!

too focused on religion for me.

definitely not for the non-religious, as she keeps talking about Jesus' forgiveness, which is just about useless for anyone who doesn't profess and genuinely believe in that specific religion.

The best book on forgiveness I have ever read

Excellent sections on true forgiveness, grief, and boundaries. The author narrates with one or the most soothingly, calming voices I have heard in an audiobook. Takes a Christian perspective in the purest and truest sense such that it is a non-denominational work. If you are having trouble forgiving someone, or just holding into anger, resentment, or bitterness, this book will help.