Jessica's Reviews > The Gift of Forgiveness: Inspiring Stories from Those Who Have Overcome the Unforgivable

The older I get, the more fascinating I find the topic of forgiveness. What a beautiful but sometime illogical idea. Right? Except that when you truly start to unpack the idea of forgiveness, it isn't illogical at all. It's powerful.
That's what this beautiful book is all about. The power of forgiveness. I love that story after story points out that forgiveness is something you do for yourself. It's, in fact, a form of self-love. Maybe people have wrong idea about forgiveness--that it somehow absolves the other person of what they have done or the trauma that they have caused. But in fact, it doesn't. It isn't about them at all. It's about getting your power back in a situation and not allowing what they have done to hold control over you anymore.
Each of the stories throughout the book show a different side of forgiveness, a different way to forgive, even a different reason for forgiveness. And each one is truly impacting.
I had never thought about ti before, until this book a conversation I had about one of the stories, but forgiveness is really a two-fold chord with empathy. They go hand-in-hand. In fact, if you are able to understand someone or their situation through empathy, then it either makes forgiveness easier to come by or possibly even unnecessary.
I highly recommend this book and a journey of discovering what true forgiveness is.
The diversity in the stories was also interesting to look at, but at the end the majority of the people were able to reach a point of forgiveness and healing through their faith. And I found that inspiring all by itself!