the central question was how to remember rightly. And given my Christian sensibilities, my question from the start was, How should I remember abuse as a person committed to loving the wrongdoer and overcoming evil with good?

Human beings are curious, and especially curious about other human beings.

When we as God's children realize that His grace is sufficient for every situation, at that point we are no longer victims. We are free to rise above and move on beyond whatever may have been done to us, to release those who have wronged us, and to become instruments of grace, reconciliation, and redemption in the lives of other hurting people—even in the lives of our offenders.

Everything in your spiritual life depends on the sort of God you worship. Because the character of the worshiper will always be molded by the character of what he worships: If it is a cruel and revengeful God, the worshiper will be the same, but if it is a loving, tender, forgiving, unselfish God, the worshiper will be transformed slowly, wonderfully, into this likeness.1

Anything you do to and for another person, you do it to and for yourself.

Until you have learned to be tolerant with those who do not always agree with you;until you have culrivated the habit of saying some kind word of those whom you do not admire; until you have formed the habit of looking for good instead of the bad there is in others, you will be neither successful nor happy

Until you have formed the habit of looking for the good instead of the bad there is in others, you will be neither successful nor happy.

During times of disaster sorrow brings people together in a spirit of friendship, and influences man to recognize the blessings of becoming his brother's keeper.

As I got older, I guess I became more mellow and more forgiving and more loving.

Understanding is the very foundation of love. When you understand someone, you cannot help but love him or her.

You see clearly that he has a lot of pain inside and doesn't know how to handle it. That is why he suffers so much and makes the people around him suffer. What he needs is help, not punishment. If you stay with this practice, the suffering of anger or jealousy in you will dissipate and the flower of compassion will be born.

If the human species has been able to make any progress, it is because of our heart of love and compassion. We need to learn from compassionate beings how to develop the practice of deep observation for the sake of others. Then others will be able to learn from us the way to live in the present and see the impermanent and selfless nature of all that is. This insight will lighten suffering.