Quotable

I love quotes. I love how they challenge me. make me think. cause me to stop. inspire me. spur me on. give me hope. encourage. have me saying a big me too. speak life. bring joy. and are just fun.

I also tend to collect them and like to use them randomly so a spot for many of my favorites is always handy.  That’s what this page has become.  A dumping spot for the many quotes I’ve gathered from books, blogs, websites, sermons, people, and the like. I’ve tried to give credit where credit is due, but sometimes that gets lost in translation.  So, if you see a quote that needs some credit and you know who to give it to–let me know!  Otherwise, enjoy perusing the beautiful words.

A day can be transformed by a single lovely act.

“My heart has heard you say, ‘Come and talk with me’ and my heart responds, “Lord I am coming.” Psalms 27:8‎

“Wrestling with God is not a bad thing. It’s impossible to wrestle with someone who is far away from you. You can only wrestle someone who is close to you. Sometimes we interpret it as failure, but I think God sees it as intimacy.”

“Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.” – Corrie ten Boom

“The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he’s always doing both.” –James Michener.

“It had opened her eyes to the fact that right down in the depths of her own heart she really had but one passionate desire, not for the things which the Shepherd had promised but for himself.  All she wanted was to be allowed to follow him forever. “Nothing else really matters only to love him and to do what he tells me.” -Hinds Feet in High Places

Life is not a color-within-the-lines project;

life is a work of art.

You have to keep mixing the colors,

creating new blends,

and seeing things in fresh ways.

You must be willing

to get paint

all over you.

-Erwin McManus

I hope that I can be a good lover of Christ before He lets me be a lover of someone else.

A forgiven person is dangerously beautiful because they no longer fear the sting of failure. Let’s be dangerous today. -prodigaljohn

A promise from God is not a magic coin for us to cash in at will. It is an invitation to a process. When we embrace His promises we say yes to a process that prepares us for fulfillment. Some promises reach their maturity rather quickly, only requiring us to say yes and express a confidence in God’s word. But other’s require that we offer a bigger container of character, refined and developed through perseverance. -Bill Johnson

The challenge in all that though is being honest about the things that burn. The good things that turned out to not be the good things after all. I think God wants to dialogue about the desires we have that didn’t get met. I don’t think he wants us to fake it and shine up our hurts as if they didn’t. I think he wants to hear you say, “God, I want to die when I see Bill and his fiancée. That should be me.” I think he wants us to be honest about those things so that in those moments he can hold us, he can comfort us and he can reveal our true good things. -Jon Acuff

Spend time with great people

Visit great places

Attend great events

Read great books

Listen to great tapes

Place yourself around greatness because you know the power of association.

-Maxwell

are my words kind? are my words true? are my words necessary? –Lysa

He calls for a living sacrifice…when we place our heart’s desire on the altar He answers in so many ways. Place that desire before Him. Place Him alone first and see what He will do. then..come to africa -June

She must feel those depths of the passions and emotions she wishes to inspire..” Pride and Prejudice

usually you have to cut down a tree to dig out the roots. i mean, its easier and usually safer -Tara

I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.”  (Jeremiah 29:11, MSG)

So I take a deep breath.  Calm down.  Say a prayer of surrender…again.  And remember that I don’t want to be on someone else’s path regardless of how alluring or attractive it may appear.

Because y’all?  The Creator of the universe, He has plans for me.

And I don’t want to miss it.

-Cindy Beall

“Love seeing the theme in there for you. You love sharing you. Seems like you love spending yourself loving others through your passions and depth.” -Tracee commenting on my “element”

in the words of Reepicheep, “All’s not as lost as it seems”.

“The mountains may move, and the hills may shake, but my kindness will never depart from you. My promise of peace will never change,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you. (Isaiah 54:10)

purity does not come about by us being passive about it…but rather by us being passionate about it and doing whatever it takes to fight for it. -Perry Noble

The will of God is never exactly what you expect it to be. It may seem to be much worse, but in the end it’s going to be a lot better and a lot bigger.

— Elisabeth Elliot

“Choices will continually be necessary and — let us not forget — possible. Obedience to God is always possible. It is a deadly error to fall into the notion that when feelings are extremely strong we can do nothing but act on them.”
— Elisabeth Elliot

“No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness.” ~Wollstonecraft

Trust says…

I am fully aware that in trusting I’m being vulnerable to being hurt (again).

Trust says…

“I am for you” and “I am thinking the best of you”… not the worst.

-posted at RefineUs

Every time you are tempted to say something negative about someone, trump it and say something good about them. -Jenn Johnson

Trying to grasp at a past that isn’t there anymore is likely to taint the memories you’ll hold about it in the future -Caroline Collie

“the things we feel most deeply we ought to learn to be silent about at least until we have talked them over thoroughly with God.” -Elisabeth Elliot

Joy: the unwavering trust that God knows what He’s doing and has blessed me with the opportunity to be a part of it… not despite what’s happening in my life but because of it. When everything earthly feels heavy He gives me an internal lightness that can’t be touched. -Gitz

“We sometimes encounter people, even perfect strangers, who begin to interest us at first sight, somehow suddenly, all at once, before a word has been spoken” – fydor ♥

“If you heart is tuned into God, he will make sure you’re at the right place and time to accept his next move for you. He might not consult you about it, in fact he most likely won’t. But he definitely will meet you there and see you through it. If your ultimate comfort zone is in his presence, then you can feel at home and fulfilled anywhere he leads. Go with him, and grow with him.”
-Daily God Book

god’s people were designed to live on new discoveries

jesus was never led by needs, only by the Father

let it be done to me because of my earnest expectation

truth is in us only to the degree we walk in it

when you marry someone, you marry their destiny

if you want to grow with god, you have to be ruthlessly honest with yourself

-kevin leal

“well, it’s like living in denial—what if you are having a bad day—don’t you think it could get better if you would just focus on the lord in worship—for one moment I’m going to focus on god—I’m saying God it truly is all about you—these may be the circumstances I’m in right now, but those are going right over there those aren’t nearly as important right now as worshipping you with a joyful heart ready to love” -Kim Walker

Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones. And when you have finished your daily task, go to sleep in peace. God is awake. ~Victor Hugo

“Joy is not the absence of trouble but the presence of Christ.”

“be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart”

Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue.  Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them.  And the point is, to live everything.  Live the questions now.  Perhaps you will find them gradually, without noticing it, and live along some distant day into the answer.  ~Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

“there is a safe place with the lord where we don’t have to have all the answers” -i will carry you by angie smith

“Take your time, don’t live too fast. Troubles will come, they will pass.” -lynyrd skynryd

“Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that, unless we love the truth, we cannot know it.”  <– Blaise Pascal

“God writes the gospel not in the Bible alone, but on trees and flowers and clouds and stars.” ~Martin Luther

‘Your destiny will always pull you. Nothing can disqualify you from the destiny God has for you.’

– Pastor Moloi

‎”Your destiny is greater than your mistakes” – Pastor Abram Moloi

“I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.” -Albert Einstein

He says He loves us. Why worry about who likes us?
He says we have destiny. Why worry about who will notice us?
He says we have gifts and talents. Why worry about who thinks we are good enough

i’ll trust you god with where i am & believe that you will have your way. remind me that you take broken things & turn them into beautiful -britt nicole “have your way”

“If we keep doing what we’re doing, we’re going to keep getting what we’re getting.” ~ Stephen Covey

“Always do what you are afraid to do.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson

Oswald Chambers says “you are God’s will”

(From Irenaeus)

“If you are the work of God, wait patiently for the hand of your artist who makes all things at an opportune time…

“It takes a deep commitment to change and an even deeper commitment to grow” – Ralph Ellison ♥

Give to Him a pure and supple heart and watch over the form which the artist shapes you in…lest, in hardness, you lose the traces of his fingers.

By guarding this conformity, you will ascend to perfection…To do this is proper to the kindness of God, to have done is becoming human nature. If therefore, you hand over to Him what is yours, namely, faith in Him and submission, you will see his Skill and be a perfect work of God.”

(Merton, Journals, August 25-26, 1965, V284-85)

“We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature—trees, flowers, grass—grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence…. We need silence to be able to touch souls.”

~Mother Teresa

To fly, we have to have resistance.
Maya Lin

–Gitz/fortune cookie

Creativity is a choice you make every morning, not just a surprise that shows up in those rare eureka moments. -prodigaljohn

Phelang ka lerato, live with love

Nothing is more practical than finding God, that is, than falling in love in a quite absolute, final way.
What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination will affect everything.
It will decide what will get you out of bed in the mornings, what you will do with your evenings, how you spend your weekends, what you read, who you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude.
Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide everything.
~ Pedro Arrupe

Where we love is home-home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts.” ~Oliver Wendell Holmes

when i think of home i think of a place where there’s love overwhelming. i wish i was home i wish i was back there. -glee

“being fully me is so much better than an imitation version of someone else.” -(in)courage

There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.  ~Nelson Mandela

You will find, as you look back upon your life, that the moments when you have truly lived are the moments when you have done things in the spirit of love.
– Henry Drummond

You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. -Plato

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, & go do it. The world needs people who have come alive.”― Howard Thurman

So much of daily comfort comes from circumstances making sense…But waiting takes you beyond your wisdom, understanding & ability -Paul Tripp

“When you deny pain, you deny the discovery of God in the pain.” -Serena Woods

From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life.–Arthur Ashe

“There isn’t any room for anything but love. And I seal my lips and I tape up my tongue lest I say anything else.”

INHALE LIFE

and if life were easier…would i give my heart so fully to god? -paraphrase from Her Mother’s Hope by Francine Rivers

Home is the God who understands each of the unique languages, thoughts, hopes and dreams of our individual hearts. Nothing can separate us from His love. Not time zones or cultures or the things we wish we could change about ourselves. -Lisa Jo

“Love is multifaceted. It is like a diamond with many surfaces yet one display of beauty.” -Gary Chapman

“Everyday the enemy tries to offer you an apple, when God has already given us an orchard.” -Prodigal John

Psalm 46:5 says, “God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day.”

to move w/God is to accept a life full of uncertainties -chasing daylight

—-

So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure.”

“The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.”

“I know that I could not bear the routine and humdrum of the life that you are forced to lead. I don’t think I could ever settle down. I have known too much of the depths of life already, and I would prefer anything to an anticlimax.”

-Into the Wild

—–

“Those who say it can’t be done, shouldn’t interrupt the people doing it.”

If I’m not happy in this time,
in this place,
I’m not paying attention.

“Where we love is home. Home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts” ♥

“But God doesn’t call us to be comfortable. He calls us to trust Him so completely that we are unafraid to put ourselves in situations where we will be in trouble if He doesn’t come through”
— Francis Chan

“Trusting anything – your family, your instincts, the dim-witted anchor on the 10:00  news – it’s all a gamble. With plenty of promises and no guarantees.

But I’m finding, the longer I live, no matter how often I fall on my face, that folding is for losers. That winners take hits. Call it going all in. Call it rolling the dice. Screw hedging your bets.

Bluff. Raise. Call. Stand.

Again and again and again.”

From the closing monologue in
In Plain Sight, S3 E10

“Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.” Maria Robinson

When we wake up in the morning, we have two simple choices: go back to sleep and dream, or wake up and chase those dreams.

Its Between You and God

People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered.
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you.
Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone may destroy overnight.

Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, others may be jealous.

Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow.

Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough.

Give the world the best you have anyway.

Why?

Because in the final analysis, all of this is between you and God….

It was never between you and them anyway. –Mother Theresa

“We all underestimate our need for joy. If we are not careful, we live as if our schedules are our lives. We cross one thing after another off the list. At the end of the day, we have completed our chores, but we haven’t necessarily been present for our own experiences.”

Mary Pipher, Seeking Peace

He has ordered my steps. my responsibility is only to take them, not to figure out where they go. -alece

“In Paradise God gave man 1 no in the midst of an endless yes. just 1 bad option & absolute freedom 2 choose from all the good he preferred” -Chasing Daylight

We long for more & God’s promise is that there is more awaiting us. More to delight us than we will ever exhaust. -CS Lewis

“There are better things ahead than any we leave behind.”  -CS Lewis

“Christians must understand most emphatically that the world around us is in conflict with the Word within us.” AW Tozer

sometimes I let the things I long for keep me from the things I’ve been given. -Amy

Amy Carmichael says, “If I can enjoy a joke at the expense of another; if I can in any way slight another in conversation, or even in thought, then I know nothing of Calvary love.”

We must quit bending the Word to suit our situation. It is we who must be bent to that Word…~Elisabeth Elliott

what if we stopped grabbing for what we’re owed and tried to receive each moment with gratitude? –plan b

“We have an anchor that keeps the soul

Steadfast and sure while the billows roll,
Fastened to the Rock which cannot move,
Grounded firm and deep in the Savior’s love.”

-Pricilla Jane Owens

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart )

-ee cummings

We who have run for our very lives to God have every reason to grab the promised hope with both hands and never let go. It’s an unbreakable spiritual lifeline – an anchor – reaching past all appearances right to the very presence of God where Jesus, running on ahead of us, has taken up his permanent post.

Hebrews 6:19 (The Message version)

Friends love through all kinds of weather. Proverbs 17:17 MSG

Every minute you doubt yourself is a minute wasted that you can’t ever get back. -Gussy

We’re to seek for beauty…
and refuse to see
anything else.”~Anne of Avonlea

“Our greatest temptation is not that which is ridiculously evil, but that which is deceptively good.” -Pete Wilson

Psalm 33:3 Play skillfully with a shout of joy

C. S. Lewis once said:  ‘Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another:  “What! You too? I thought I was the only one.”

“Compassion is sometimes the fatal capacity for feeling what it is like to live inside somebody else’s skin. It’s the knowledge that there can never really be any peace and joy for me until there is peace and joy finally for you. ” -Frederick Buechner

Every day that we are given is like an empty coffee cup….and we get to decide how we individually will fill our cup It is our choice. Daily.

I can choose joy for right now, but to have it in a lasting way I must mend my heart. Joy comes from, A heart that is solid.A heart that is directed toward heaven and not earth. A heart that seeks the best from each day. Joy can be a choice.  But the best joy is the symptom of a heart that’s full of it.

Joy: the unwavering trust that God knows what He’s doing and has blessed me with the opportunity to be a part of it… not despite what’s happening in my life but because of it. When everything earthly feels heavy He gives me an internal lightness that can’t be touched.

“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NIV)

“Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something will make sense, regardless of how it turns out.” – Vaclav Havel

Life is a conversation. -Char

“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”
— Frederick Buechner (Wishful Thinking: A Seeker’s ABC)

“The abuse of a harmless thing is the essence of sin.” -A.W. Tozer

“It is a safe thing to trust Him to fulfill the desires which He creates” — Amy Carmichael

Faith Barista: From My Single Days

“I knew I wanted to stay passionate about life.”

My Top 10 Questions To Keep Desire Alive — Whether Single or Married.

1.  Do I say “I want” more than “I should”?

2. Do I take time to smell the roses or find myself more indoors with the windows shut?

3. Is my approach to enjoyment “a little bit of this or that is great” or “all-or-nothing”?

4. Do I pay attention to the Positives or the Negatives?

5.  When’s the last time I took time to read a book, listen to live music, or visited a museum?

6.  When’s the last time I tried something new?

7.  How can I take a small step outside my comfort zone?

8.  Who can I call to just hang out for coffee?

9.  When’s the last time I laughed?

10.  Am I taking steps to try something I’ve always wanted to do?

As Tomaine writes, “God is before us and within us, waiting to be found. The challenge is that every day we have so many things to do, and the crush of work can leave us hurrying through one task to move onto the next. But is it possible instead to do our work on one level, yet reflect with our mind and heart on where God is in the task? Can we allow the task before us to reveal itself as an opportunity to find God?”

Writers are always hungry for compelling topics to explore. The problem is that the best ones are mortifying. —Ralph Keys, The Courage to Write

Be a person who lets go of past regrets, lives in the present, and never gives up on a fabulous future. -Joyce Meyer

“today is not the day to hide your past. today is the day to leave your past behind.”

James Cameron(Avatar, Titanic) had to say…

“Don’t put limitations on yourself. Other people will do that for you…failure has to be an option in art and exploration because it’s a leap of faith. In whatever you’re doing, failure is an option, but fear is not.”

“But it actually made me think about something. I don’t want to be the girl who camps in the past, who can’t look forward, who has to use her “problems” or her sin to create her identity today. I don’t want to be that girl.” -Sarah Markley

“And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”

“It is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all.”–Laura Ingalls Wilder

“When you can’t go any further or pray any longer call/email me & I will stand firm & intercede for you.”

“The ordinary acts we practice every day at home are of more importance to the soul than their simplicity might suggest.”

“No moment from my God is a rock of burden, it’s just a rock waiting to be broken apart into stepping stones.” –Gitz

“When I met Christ, I felt that I had swallowed sunshine.” ~E. Stanley Jones

God often puts us in situations that are too much for us so that we will learn that no situation is too much for Him. -Erwin Lutzer

“These are the moments that convince me God is not particularly interested in our happiness. It is our holiness that’s at stake.” –Gypsy Mama

“Don’t always make things perfect. Perfectionism doesn’t leave room for imagination.”

“Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak.  We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.  We are far too easily pleased!” -C.S. Lewis

We want to challenge each other to dream about what we do after we’ve messed it all up. We are about admitting our failures authentically, amending our wrongs adequately, and then getting back to work. This is about action steps, practical application, shooting straight and moving forward. -People of the Second Chance

i’ve also learned that our awkward moments may be just the thing that makes someone else feel comfortable so… let’s DO IT! -June

“For a righteous man falls seven times, and RISES AGAIN.” Proverbs 24:16

“me I love you” -Lindo

ke a o rata

“So let us know, let us press on to know the Lord.”

“If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all” (Isaiah 7:9b) “I believe: God is who He says He is. God can do what He says He can do. I am who God says I am. I can do all things through Christ. God’s Word is alive and active in me.

History tells us that God doesn’t forget His people and He’s not going to start with you. When He does show up, you’ll know that it’s unmistakably Him.

Hope Now by Addison Road: “if everything comes down to love then just
what am I afraid of? when I call out your name something inside awakes in my soul. how quickly I forget I’m yours. I’m not my own. I been carried by you all my life. Everything rides on hope now, everything rides on faith somehow. when the world has broken me down Your love sets me free. when my life is like a storm rising waters all I want is the shore…you are my shelter from the storm.”

home will always be the place for which you feel the deepest affection for, no matter where you are.

I’m a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world.

some pursue happiness..others create it

“I have you in my heart.” Philippians 1:7

“see you in His timing”

“Nothing’s gonna hold me back”

And here I am, and I stand, so tall, just the way I’m supposed to be.  Standing with Him, falling into His gravity.

“You know all my thoughts.  You see through my ways.  And still You come to me.  So I sing a love song to You.  From heaven above, from earth down beneath.  Your love rains down on me.  You know all my thoughts.  You see through my skin.  And still You come to me.  And so I sing a love song to You.  You walk on waves.  You run with clouds. You paint the sky for me to see.  Your majesty, Your majesty is why I sing.  And this is a love song to You.  My life’s a love song to You.“

“But once the issue has a name and a face, it changes everything, doesn’t it? God knows each of those names. God knows each of those faces. And it breaks His heart.” -Primal by Mark Batterson

“whatever the world may throw at us, God will always be there for us and He will help us.” -Sipho from LaunchPad

He: loves, provides, protects, guides, guards, holds, shepherds, showers me with abundance, gives, fights, pursues, cares, doesn’t give up, runs to me, does the impossible, shows up, makes a way, doesn’t hold love back, wants me, talks to me, laughs with me, never leaves, just is with me, shows me, breaks me, teaches me, refines me, disciplines, me, rebukes me, restores me, redeems me, saves me.

It’s okay to: hurt, be vulnerable, let God in, dream BIG, let go, look only to Him, be single, love, plan with God, be happy, choose joy, laugh, move on, be free, be ME, cry, ask questions, lay it all out on the table, get out of that hole and stay out, not know, take time, be passionate, share, refuse to compromise, hold fast, trust God more than circumstances, stand firm in what He’s told you, believe, hope, expect, pray BIG.

In conclusion: “So let us know, let us press on to know the Lord.”

“Wondering leaves a person in indecision, and indecision causes confusion. Wondering, indecision and confusion prevent an individual from receiving from God, by faith, the answer to his prayer or need.”

Who told you that there was something outside of Me you needed?

Joy and gladness will be found in her.” Isaiah 51:3

47. people you know you’ll love forever

Part of being made new is also a call to to forget “the former things” (Isaiah 43:18).  The decision to let go of our expectations based on what has been familiar can be really tough.  But when we do, we give God permission to knock our socks off. We let go of our self-imposed limitations. We dream bigger and reach higher.-Thrive

Matthew 5:3 “You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule. 4 “You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you. (The Message Version)

In hard times she’d learned three things–

She was stronger than she’d ever imagined.

Jesus was closer than she ever realized.

And she was loved more than she ever knew.

–Holley

willingness to trust Him to fulfill ALL my needs

willingness to wait for His timing

willingness to say “See you in His timing”

willingness to let Him into my heart and be transformed how He wants

willingness to believe in Him even when the world says I’m crazy

willingness to praise Him when I’m teary eyed yet again

Africa’s stolen my heart and I can’t wait to see her again in His timing.

God’s glory is of the utmost importance to Him and He is willing to withhold things I want if He sees a greater glory for Him and a better good for me coming in a different way.

חֶפְצִי־בָהּ Hephzi-bah: “My delight is in her”

“I will betroth you to Me forever.” Hosea 2:19

“I am the Lord’s.”Isaiah 44:5

“Beloved.” Romans 9:25

“Belonging to the Lord.” Isaiah 44:5

“My delight is in her.”Isaiah 62:4

“So, let us know, let us press on to know the Lord.” Hosea 6:3

“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you: I have called you by name: you are Mine… Do not call to mind the former things or ponder things of the past.  Behold, I will do something new, now it will spring forth…I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake, and I will not remember your sins.” Isaiah 43:1,18-19,25

“As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” Psalm 103:12

“I am enough because He is enough.” –Alece

b’ahava (with love): הבהאב

I will go with you for you know I do love you and you have the right to choose for me anything that you please.“ -Hinds Feet in High Places

“I was that woman, but am not that woman now.“ -Hinds Feet in High Places

“I love you more than my clothes (dress, socks, shoes).  I love you as a teacher and as a friend.” -Sylvia

“To someone who thinks not only for herself but thinks for everyone.  And that person is you.  You have re-created my world and made me a believer.  My life is a more Holy and loving place than before.  You have been my pillow of strength throughout this course.  I appreciate you and I don’t know how life would’ve been possible without you.  You have taught me a lot and I hope you’re gonna keep on changing many other lives as you changed my life.” -Malefu

“I missed you too”

1 Corinthians 13:7 “Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything”

To let us rest in shalom שָׁלוֹם: nothing missing. nothing broken. life as it was meant to be.

“Now then, stand still and see this great thing the LORD is about to do before your eyes!”
-1 Samuel 12:16

More often than we care to admit, inconsequential decisions change our lives.-Rhett Butler’s People

“Imagine taking a walk in a beautiful forest on a splendid summer’s day. The earth is ablaze with the fire of God and the sights, sounds and smells are enough to make you want to take your shoes off before the burning bush. But if your mind and heart are hopelessly torn, and if, for example, you are painfully infatuated with someone who has just rejected you, you will see virtually nothing on this walk-not just of beauty and creation, but nothing at all. You are inside yourself, torn by your pain, endlessly reviewing past and future conversations, possibilities, and fantasies. For all you are actually seeing, hearing, or smelling of beauty and nature, you could just as profitably be walking in a parking lot or a rubbish dump. You are locked in an inner world whose obsessive reality absorbs all your awareness.”ht: Pete

“I have to trust that I can really know a person. Deep-down, hearts-connected, honest-to-goodness, truly know someone.  I desire to be known in that way, and I desire to know others on that level. And I refuse to believe that intimacy is only a sandcastle waiting for a wave to erase it from the shoreline. Some things just have to be real.”–Grit and Glory

“Do everything without complaining or arguing, ¹⁵so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe ¹⁶as you hold outthe word of life…” Philippians 2:14-16

“If your career path doesn’t seems to match your heart’s longing, it may be you have a skill that doesn’t match your passion.  You were good at something, so it seemed obvious that is what you should do.”

“When you live a life of love, you are not bound to who are you but to who you will become.”

“If you don’t lock into the life God has called you to live, you will find yourself pulled and torn by everyone else’s desire and expectation for your life.”

“If you haven’t defined who you are at the core, you will find yourself making choices that lead you down a path you would never have chosen if you could have thought more clearly.”

“You are being manipulated by the circumstances of your life rather than being moved by a calling with purpose and mission.”

“Are you settling for a life that essentially seeks the measure of everyone else’s value of who you are? Are you a prisoner to the opinion of others, or are you willing to allow God to create the life of your dreams?” -Wide Awake

David. (to Elijah) This morning was the first morning I can remember, that I didn’t open my eyes and feel that sadness…I thought the person who wrote that note had an answer for me.

Elijah. (to David) That little bit of sadness in the mornings you spoke of? I think I know what that is. Perhaps you’re not doing what you’re supposed to be doing.

-M. Night Shyamalan’s film Unbreakable

Life is not a color-within-the-lines project;

life is a work of art.

You have to keep mixing the colors,

creating new blends,

and seeing things in fresh ways.

You must be willing

to get paint

all over you.

Life is about growth. Growth

demands change. Change

requires humility.

ht: Wide Awake

“Influence and relationship are inseparably linked.” -Bill Hybels

“Don’t say yes just because it’s difficult to say no. If you don’t know who you are and who you’re not, you’ll probably say yes when you should say no. Why? Because you’ll focus on the wrong thing. You’ll focus on the position instead of your calling.”

“But it brought me back to ground zero: I want to be dead-center in the will of God. That is the only position that counts. That is the place of blessing. That is where God can use us most.”

“Everyone I’ve met carries with them a picture of what they want life to be. This picture may be well defined…”I want to get married, have 2.5 children, live in this neighborhood…” or it may an unconscious picture that drives their decision-making. I believe that God asks us to give up the picture. Not because there is something wrong with it but because He has something else in mind. This is where the rub is. Most often we don’t trust Him to give us a life that is better than the one we dream up for ourselves. Jesus said in Luke 9:24 & 25, “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?” Let go of your picture so you can enter the adventure that God has for you!”

“Sometimes, no matter how carefully you plan your playlist, there is no right track for what awaits you” -Definitely Maybe

Practice seeing beauty—practice being astonished by life, take time every day where you in a moment become breathless, remove the dust and see the treasure that is there” –Kim McManus

Thoughts from Beth Moore: Extraordinary things happen around us continually.  We just don’t always recognize them.  The thought occurs to me afresh that great lives don’t always seem great while we’re living them.  They may seem embarrassingly regular.  Seeking to be extraordinary isn’t the answer because great lives are never achieved by making greatness the goal.

Everyone of us who embraces the glory of God as our purpose will end up doing great things precisely because we do God-things. His holy hand resting on the least act renders the ordinary extraordinary.  Spooning soup into the mouth of the weak or manning the nursery so a tired mom can go to church are acts of high worship when offered in the name of Christ.  He beholds the sight like a breathtaking work of art, tilting His head to study each subtle detail. ht: Brandi

“I believe in the sun even when it isn’t shining.
I believe in love even when I am alone.
I believe in God even when He is silent.”

Thirsty hearts are those whose longings have been wakened by the touch of God within them. –A.W. Tozer

“(I wish we could) Go and “DO” something and catch a glimpse of the bigger picture that causes us to dream even bigger.” -me

HT: Alece

“It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, anyone could do it. It’s the hard that makes it great.”

I am not who I want to be, but I am on the journey there, and thankfully I am not whom I used to be.” -Soul Cravings

“There is only one reason for God to come himself, because in issues of love, you just can’t have someone else stand in for you.” -Soul Cravings

“Home is ultimately not about a place to live but about the people with whom you are most fully alive.  Home is about love, relationship, community and belonging, and we are all searching for home.” -Soul Cravings by Erwin McManus

“No, I don’t think I will kiss you, although you need kissing, badly. That’s what’s wrong with you. You should be kissed and often, and by someone who knows how.”

“The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:5-7

“Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” Proverbs 4:23

I NEED AFRICA MORE THAN AFRICA NEEDS ME

Where do you find your identity? What is your source of security? Is it a title? a paycheck? a relationship? a degree? a name?  There is nothing wrong with any of those things as long as you can lay them down.  If you find your security outside of Christ, you have a false sense of security. And you have a false sense of identity.  p. 67

“Who you are isn’t the issue; the issue is whose you are!” -Batterson

Instead of trying harder, trust Him more.

“Maybe all we really want to know in life is that we’re not alone.  We’re in this fight together.  Someone else knows what it’s like…what the tears feel like, the lonely nights, the phone calls, the struggle.  Maybe in our honesty, we want to know we’re not the only ones in the dark and that there really is a light at the end of the tunnel.  When we find the commonality and shared experience, we can laugh, joke, smile, or even cry together about the darkness.”

“Everyone approaches God with a set of preconceptions gleaned from many sources: church, Sunday school lessons, books, movies, sermons by television evangelists, stray comments by believers and skeptics alike. These tend to linger, as afterimages burned into the mind. … I spend time with my closest friends not because of what they can do for me but for the pleasure of their company. How can I do that with God?”

“if we were given all we want here, our hearts would settle for this world rather than the next” -Elisabeth Elliot

“Silence comes to heal the blows of sound.”~Oliver Wendell Holmes

“Living life was like putting the beach into a jar.  The point wasn’t to fit everything in; it was to attend to the most important things first–the big, beautiful rocks–the most valuable people and experiences–and fit the lesser things in around them.  Otherwise, the best things might get left out.”

Sam’s Letters for Jennifer p. 88

—

“Imagine life is a game in which you are juggling five balls.  The balls are called work, family, health, friends, and integrity.  And you’re keeping all of them in the air.  But one day you finally come to understand that work is a rubber ball.  If you drop it, it will bounce back.  The other four balls–family, health, friends, integrity–are made of glass.  If you drop one of these, it will be irrevocably scuffed, nicked, perhaps even shattered.  And once you truly understand the lesson of the five balls, you will have the beginnings of balance in your life.”

Suzanne’s Diary for Nicholas p. 20-21

“But we are all creatures of habit.  It is far too easy to stay in the familiar ruts we dig for ourselves.” p. 187

“My parents danced together, her head on his chest.  Both had their eyes closed.  They seemed so perfectly content.  If you can find someone like that, someone who you can hold and close your eyes to the world with, then you’re lucky.  Even if it only lasts for a minute or a day.  The image of them gently swaying to the music is how I picture love in my mind even after all these years.” p. 118-119

-The Name of the Wind

1. Fall in love with the Promiser not the Promise
2. Focus on God, not your circumstances

“Let me say something about that word: miracle.  For too long it’s been used to characterize things or events that, though pleasant, are entirely normal.  Peeping chicks at Easter time, spring generally, a clear sunrise after an overcast week–a miracle, people say, as if they’ve been educated from greeting cards.  I’m sorry, but nope.  Such things are worth our notice ever day of the week, but to call them miracles evaporates the strength of the word. Real miracles bother people, like strange sudden pains unknown in medical literature.  It’s true: They rebut every rule all we good citizens take comfort in.  Lazarus obeying orders and climbing out of the grave–now there’s a miracle, and you can bet it upset a lot of folks who were standing around at the time.  When a person dies, the earth is generally unwilling to cough him back up.  A miracle contradicts the will of the earth.” p. 3 Peace Like a River by Leif Enger

“Just because I like it. Just because that’s what I like.”

When you refuse to let go of the past, you lose all hope.  When you walk backwards into the future, you cannot see anything to hope for.  This is one reason why a person who is embittered ultimately cannot be encouraged into a new frame of thinking.  Until he is willing to let go of the past, he is not ready to take hold of the future.

“The closer you are to the point of need, the more you can charge.” -Seth Godin

“I’m a writer mostly because I don’t know what I think until I write about it”

Our feelings and epistemologies are DISTORTED

Repentance is not about pretending the sin did not happen–rather it is about turning and living faithfully

Would you act differently if Jesus was there?”

“Make him earn it.  If he wants you, he will make it work.  Too many women make it too easy.”-Mark Driscoll, Dating

“After all… tomorrow is another day.”

“When you forgive, you love.  And when you love, God’s light shines upon you.” -Mr. Franz

“Happiness is only real when shared.” -Christopher

“So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more dangerous to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future.  The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure.  The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon for each day to have a new and different sun.” -Christopher

“I invited the memories to take permanent resident in my mind and heart and prevent me from receiving God’s acceptance and mercy.” Tam

“When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don’t throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer. ” -Corrie Ten Boom

“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful”–William Morris

“Change interrupts my nesting habits,intrudes into my comfort zone. Say the word change, and I freeze. I have learned to live to the full–wherever I am–by simply pretending I’ll be there forever. Otherwise I’d never get involved in a new project, or invest myself in someone’s life, or bother to contribute to a group.”

Jill Briscoe, Renewal on the Run