Happiness is that simple. Once you discover what the Lord wants you to do, and you start doing it, you will achieve happiness….
If God has told you to stand for marriage restoration, you will not be happy doing anything else.
— Robert E. Steinkamp, The Prodigal’s Pen, p. 59, 61
Frankly, I think it’s time we take a page out of their book. The next time a guy you have a remote interest in fails to call you when he says he will, do not ponder the potential whys and wherefores of the situation. If at all possible, be so busy with your own wonderful life that you simply don’t even notice he hasn’t called. It would be great if you could just be so involved having a Big Time with all the people in your life who do right that if in fact he does call at some point, it takes you a minute to remember who he is.
— Jill Conner Browne, The Sweet Potato Queens’ Field Guide to Men, p. 195
For the Christian who has embraced God’s sovereignty, the choice is God’s; and the result, whatever that choice may be, is rejoicing. In Him is our joy and peace. If He gives marriage, then in marriage we rejoice. If He gives singleness, we rejoice in singleness. In whatever state we are, we know contentment.
— Margaret Clarkson, So You’re Single, p. 117
The negative idea of Unselfishness carries with it the suggestion not primarily of securing good things for others, but of going without them ourselves, as if our abstinence and not their happiness was the important point. I do not think this is the Christian virtue of Love. The New Testament has lots to say about self-denial, but not about self-denial as an end in itself. We are told to deny ourselves and to take up our crosses in order that we may follow Christ; and nearly every description of what we shall ultimately find if we do so contains an appeal to desire. If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. 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, The Weight of Glory
Not only do we want what immediately feels good and dislike what in fact is good for us, but we’re also out of touch with what would bring us the most pleasure if it were given to us….
The highest dream we could ever dream, the wish that if granted would make us happier than any other blessing, is to know God, to actually experience Him. The problem is that we don’t believe this idea is true. We assent to it in our heads. But we don’t feel it in our hearts.
We can’t stop wanting to be happy. And that urge should prompt no apology. We were created for happiness. Our souls therefore long for whatever we think will provide the greatest possible pleasure. We just aren’t yet aware that an intimate relationship with God is that greatest pleasure.
— Larry Crabb, Shattered Dreams, p. 2
If we limit ourselves to the possible and provable, as I saw these people doing, we render ourselves incapable of change and growth, and that is something that should never end. If we limit ourselves to the age that we are, and forget all the ages that we have been, we diminish our truth.
Perhaps it is the child within us who is able to recognize the truth of story — the mysterious, the numinous, the unexplainable — and the grown-up within us who accepts these qualities with joy but understands that we also have responsibilities, that a promise is to be kept, homework is to be done, that we owe other people courtesy and consideration, and that we need to help care for our planet because it’s the only one we’ve got.
I never want to lose the story-loving child within me, or the adolescent, or the young woman, or the middle-aged one, because all together they help me to be fully alive on this journey, and show me that I must be willing to go where it takes me, even through the valley of the shadow.
— Madeleine L’Engle, The Rock That Is Higher, quoted in Glimpses of Grace, collected by Carole F. Chase, February 21 entry
Happiness is not squandered when it comes to people long bereft of it. They know what to do — hold it gently like a small bird, amazed the bird came to alight, and be pleased to let it stay as long as it will.
— Tracy Groot, Madman, p. 159
Today, though, I choose to worship a God whose justice is beyond my understanding in all particulars but this one that my children have taught me: God is not mean.
God gave me a husband who loves me and children who are not horribly sick and a job I like and a mother-in-law who passes on her cars to us for their bluebook prices and, two Sundays ago, eight newborn Labrador puppies who are just now opening their eyes…. God hears my prayers and answers them in my best interest, every one of them, although I sometimes don’t recognize that he has or agree with him about what my best interest might be….
God is not mean. He chose me, despite my own frequent meanness. He chose me when there were better people. Better mothers. Better writers. Better Christians. Better cooks, probably. There are so many others that he could have chosen, others that I hope he will choose, every one of them. And after he chose me he has kept on choosing me: rewarding me, reassuring me, burying me in blessings.
Our God, I have learned from my daughters, is the God of promises — promises of healing and happiness and all good things — for those who look forward to their own fulfillment. Promises available not only in the Word of God but in all creation, in newborn puppies with their eyes still closed and ditches and frothed milk and silly games. In children. In our ability to imagine heaven.
— Patty Kirk, Confessions of an Amateur Believer, p. 229-232
When we choose to forgive others, even when they are not broken themselves, God pours out freedom, grace, peace, joy, love — and even forgiveness itself into our hearts. It takes your breath away when you experience it yourself. It takes you to depths with God that you never could have reached except through this mysterious path.
— testimonial quoted in Choosing Forgiveness, by Nancy Leigh DeMoss, p. 141
You can outgrow the wounds of the past with a deep appreciation of yourself, your courage, sensitivity, resilience, and desire for a better life. You have enormous power and potential to become the person you were meant to be. Appreciate your strengths and resilience. Trust your inner voice — it tells you that you do not need to have value poured into you from outside sources. Your vessel is full and ready to “runneth over.” As you feel the light of your core value within, you can make it shine out of you, to illuminate all your days.
— Steven Stosny, You Don’t Have to Take It Anymore, p. 316