Forgiving What You Can’t Forget: Your Path to Healing & Peace

Have you been carrying the pain of a betrayal you can’t forget?
 Do you long to forgive… but don’t know how to let go of what still hurts?

In this heart-centered episode, Sista’ Joy offers three sacred steps to help you find healing, clarity, and deep spiritual peace. Inspired by the best-selling book Forgiving What You Can’t Forget by Lysa TerKeurst, this episode brings soulful guidance for anyone ready to release the weight of the past.

You’ll learn how to:

• Choose forgiveness even when it still hurts
• Acknowledge the pain without shame
• Reframe your story with spiritual strength
• And why forgiveness does not require you to reopen the door to the one who hurt you

Let this message be the beginning of your emotional freedom.

🕊️ Mentioned in This Episode:
📚 Forgiving What You Can’t Forget by Lysa TerKeurst
👉 https://amzn.to/4ex7Dsy
(When you use our link, we receive a small commission that helps keep this podcast going—thank you for your support.)

🎧 Subscribe, leave a kind review, or share this episode with someone who may need a little light on their healing journey.

May you Manifest I AM.

Chapters

• 2:12 Questions for You to Think About?
• 5:01 Relaxing and Taking the First Sacred Step
• 7:00 The Second Sacred Step
• 10:27 The Third Sacred Step and Decree of Forgiveness
• 12:41 Invitation and Thank You

Transcript

Let me ask you something, beautiful soul…

Have you ever been hurt so deeply by someone—
 someone you trusted… someone you loved…
 that the memory of what they did still stings,
 no matter how much time has passed?

Have you ever lain awake at night,
 and suddenly their voice echoes in your mind?
 Or you hear a song, see a photo,
 and just like that—you’re right back in that moment,
 feeling it in your chest, your throat, your belly…

Have you ever said to yourself,
 “I want to move on. I know I should forgive…
 but I just can’t forget what they did”?

If so, beloved…
 Come closer. You’re not alone.

Today, I want to take your hand and gently walk you through the sacred path of forgiveness.
 Not the kind that says, “Pretend it never happened,”
 and not the kind that demands you welcome them back into your life.

But the kind of forgiveness that cracks open the hardened places of the heart
 so God can pour in peace… and light… and freedom.

This episode was inspired by the best-selling book Forgiving What You Can’t Forget by Lysa TerKeurst.
But more than that, it was inspired by real life.
By my own healing journey…
By the stories whispered in prayer…
By the sacred truth that your soul was not meant to live in chains.

So breathe with me now.
 Feel the air enter your lungs—cool and sacred.
 Feel the tension start to loosen in your shoulders.
 Let your body know this is a safe space.
 Because it is.

Now, here’s the first truth I want you to hold close:
 Forgiveness doesn’t begin when the pain ends.
 It begins when your spirit says, “I am ready to be free.”

You don’t need the perfect apology.
 You don’t need them to understand what they did.
 You don’t even need to feel ready.
 You just need to decide that carrying their poison in your bloodstream one more day is too much.

Forgiveness is not about the other person.
 It’s about your own healing.

Imagine yourself holding a heavy bag of stones—
 each one a memory, a word, a betrayal.
 Now imagine setting that bag down and walking away,
 your hands finally empty, your spine straightening,
 your breath coming back home to you.

That’s what forgiveness feels like.

And maybe, right now, you’re standing in your kitchen,
 hands warm from washing dishes…
 or you’re sitting in your car,
 the steering wheel cool beneath your palms…

Wherever you are, whisper it with me:
 “I choose to forgive. Not for them. But for me.”

Now, here’s the second sacred step:
 You must own your pain before it owns you.

So many of us try to bury what happened.
 We dress it up with spiritual language or fake smiles.
 But the wound stays raw underneath.
 It festers. It leaks.
 And it keeps us from truly healing.

You have to speak it.
 Feel it.
 Let it breathe.

Say:
 “That hurt me.”
 “That broke my trust.”
 “That shattered a piece of me I’m still trying to find.”

And then let the tears fall, if they come.
 Let your body release what it’s been holding.

You might feel the pain in your chest… like a weight pressing down.
 Or in your stomach—tight, twisted.
 Or behind your eyes, burning like a storm waiting to fall.

Let it fall.
 Let it move through you like sacred water.
 Tears are holy. They are a river back to yourself.

You don’t need to justify what you feel.
 You only need to honor it.

And when that old wound starts to throb again—maybe because of a memory, or a smell, or a voice on the radio—
 pause and ask yourself:
 “What am I really feeling right now?”
 Then breathe.
 And release it to the Light.

Now here’s the third truth, and it is powerful:
 You can’t erase the past.
 But you can rewrite what it means.

The mind loves to replay the scene—like a broken record, skipping back to the pain.
 But your soul, oh baby, your soul is the storyteller.
 And you get to choose a new ending.

Maybe it sounds like this:
 “That moment didn’t break me. It revealed who I really am.”
 “That betrayal didn’t ruin me. It woke me up to my worth.”
 “That loss didn’t destroy me. It made me softer, stronger, more real.”

You are not your wound.
 You are the wisdom that rose from it.

Now before we go further, I want to speak this with love and clarity…

Forgiveness does not mean reconciliation.

Let me say that again:
 Just because you forgive someone does not mean they get to stay in your life.
Forgiveness is a spiritual release.
It is not a social obligation.

Most of the time, it’s not wise to let them back in.
 If they hurt you once without repentance, they are likely to do it again.
 You can forgive from your spirit…
 And still choose to protect your peace.

So what do we do?

We bless them.
 We say:
 “I forgive you. I release you. I wish you peace…”
 And then we close the door.

You can love someone from afar.
 You can pray for them without sitting at the same table.
 You can wish them light as they walk away…
 and choose never to open that door again.

That, my love, is holy.

So let’s seal this healing together—heart to heart—with a sacred decree.

Place your hand over your heart.
 Feel the warmth of your own skin.
 Feel the rhythm of your own life.

And say this with me:

“I choose to forgive.
 Not to forget what happened,
 but to remember who I AM.
 I AM healing.
 I AM rising.
 I AM free.”

If this message touched your heart today—if it opened something soft inside you—I want to gently invite you to go deeper.

The book that inspired this episode is Forgiving What You Can’t Forget by Lysa TerKeurst.
And baby, it is a balm for the soul.

If you feel called to read it, you’ll find a special link in the show description.
 When you use that link, we receive a small commission as an Amazon Affiliate—at no extra cost to you.
 It’s a little blessing that helps us continue this podcast and the sacred work of healing and light.

So if this message stirred something in you…
 let it bless you—and bless us—by clicking that link and taking that next step in your healing journey.

And if you’d like to support this podcast in other ways, I’d be so grateful if you’d subscribe, leave a kind review, or share this with someone who might need it.
 Your voice, your love, can be someone else’s miracle.

Until next time, remember…

You are not your past.
 You are not your pain.
 You are the radiant, rising, unstoppable presence of the great I AM.

And I love you deeply.

May you Manifest I AM.