In Love Like You’ve Never Been Hurt, Pastor Jentezen Franklin cheers us on to fight for our relationships with unconditional love and forgiveness.
He uses his own story of personal pain to help others find the courage to love like they’ve never been hurt.
During a time when Franklin’s books were becoming New York Times Best Sellers and his sermons were being broadcast all over the world, it felt like his family was falling apart.
Their oldest daughter moved away to college and got involved with the wrong crowd. It broke his heart to watch her stray from everything he had taught his children to value. He and his wife decided to bring her home. Shortly after, she ran away without contacting them for a week. A few months later she informed her parents she got married via a text.
A week later, he performed the wedding ceremony for one of his daughter’s friends and felt disappointed that he wouldn’t have the same opportunity to officiate at his own daughter’s wedding.
The ones whom you love the most can hurt you the most.
But Franklin decided to love her as if he’d never been hurt and she eventually came back to the Lord.
Love is the answer to the broken home. Love is the answer to the addict. Love is the answer to fractured relationships. Love is the answer to being offended. Love is the answer to heartbreak. Love is a weapon that can shatter division and rebuild what has been broken.
Throughout the book, Franklin offers these practical ways to build a successful family:
- Openly communicate with and express love to your spouse.
- Openly communicate with and express love to your children.
- Enable open communication and expression of love between siblings.
- Respect the personhood of each individual.
- Respect personal property.
- Respect their privacy, but consider their safety and well-being first.
- Establish, communicate and enforce boundaries.
- Be committed to the process.
- Place Jesus above all else.
- Lead by example.
The tone of this book felt like listening to a sermon motivating you to fight for your children and your marriage and love them unconditionally.
I especially enjoyed the quotes highlighted in bold throughout the chapters.
“The depth of your hurt determines the width of your response.”
“The greater the battle the greater the victory.”
“God never commanded us to reject people because they are not living up to a certain spiritual standard.”
“Forgiveness is not about keeping score, it’s about losing count.”
“Want to know how holy you are? Determine how kind you are.”
“Trying times are not the times to stop trying.”
I received a free copy of this book from Chosen Publishing in exchange for my honest review.
Hello there! I'm Valerie, a mom of four and wife of 27 years. My writing inspires others to cultivate courageous faith and find solace in trusting God, especially in moments of fear and uncertainty. Join me on this adventure as we explore the beauty of trusting God when we are afraid. 
Valerie, this sounds like a profound read and I’m curious to find out what he says of the balance between loving like you’ve never been hurt and still keeping boundaries intact, particularly in marriage. Looks like I’ll be adding this to my list. Happy Mother’s Day!
I am from Atlanta, and Pastor Franklin’s church is a little further north in Gainesville. Though I was unable to attend, my family supported his ministry as much as possible and were very blessed to receive his teaching. I saw his children grow up and am sorry they have had problems, but I’m sure this is a wonderful book. I am especially thankful for some intercessory prayer on his part, I truly believe he is obedient to his calling and would highly recommend reading this, I plan to.
Thank you so much for sharing how he impacted your life.
You are so welcome, Valerie.
This sounds like a powerful read! It can be so scary to love those who have hurt us, but I’m reminded that Christ never gives up on us and love us unconditionally despite our rejections of Him. Visiting from #FreshMarketFriday. 🙂
So true Emily! Thank you for commenting.
I found, bought and read this book. Very powerful. I had recently gone through an unexpected and ugly divorce. I have also entered into a “friendship” with a lady that was hurt tremendously from her last marriage. This book was so inspiring and helpful.
So good to hear that this book was inspiring and helpful. Thank you for sharing, Walter!
This book sounds like a great tool to fix broken families and heal relationships. I love the practical ways he suggests to build a successful family and I love the quotes especially this one; “Trying times are not the times to stop trying.”
What I’ve observed over the years is relationships of every kind will remain broken and unhealed until our hearts are broken by the brokenness and we have a resolve in us that makes us fight for it until it is healed and whole. I believe that is why Jentezen was able to love his daughter like she never hurt him. That relationship was too important to let it fall by the wayside.
Nothing is fixed until and unless we want to fix it.
Yvonne, your words are powerful: “relationships will remain broken and unhealed until our hearts are broken by the brokenness and we have a resolve in us tha makes us fight for it until it is healed and whole.” So true. We have to want to fix it. Thank you so much for commenting!
I loved her quote to…VERY POWERFUL!!! am going to read this. I really need help in this area with some family members.