“When he told us not to cast our pearls before swine, for example, it was not to be mean but because he knew that swine cannot digest pearls; they do them no good (Matt. 7:6). We, too, should have the good sense to refrain from giving people truth that they are not ready to receive, for it will do them no good.”
— Richard J. Foster, Prayer, p. 232
“The road to psychological ruin begins with blame.
“The road to psychological power begins with responsibility.
“You cannot blame and find good solutions at the same time….
“Blame is always about the past. Solutions must occur in the present and future.
“Blame obscures solutions by locking you into the problem and by focusing attention on damage, injury, defects, and weakness, on what is wrong. Blame makes you feel like a powerless victim.”
– Steven Stosny, The Powerful Self, p. 112
“God works against evil and suffering. But God, in immense divine power and inscrutable divine wisdom, also works through evil and suffering.”
–Miroslav Volf, Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace, p. 30
“When we relinquish the neurotic need to be perfect, we are freed of the pressures of sainthood and can learn from our mistakes instead of being destroyed by them.”
— Leo Buscaglia, Born for Love, p. 32
“Even when no one else seems to recognize how truly remarkable we are, we always have ourselves, the one inexhaustible resource for positive reinforcement, the one person who will always proudly wave our personal flag.”
–Leo Buscaglia, Born for Love: Reflections on Loving, p. 16.
“God never gives guidance for two steps at a time. I must take one step, and then I get light for the next. This keeps the heart in abiding dependence upon God.”
–C. H. Mackintosh, quoted in Then Sings My Soul, by Robert J. Morgan
“Often the only way to look clearly at this extraordinary universe is through fantasy, fairy tale, myth.”
–Madeleine L’Engle, Margaret A. Edwards Award Acceptance Speech, June 27, 1998.
Quoted in Journal of Youth Services in Libraries, Volume 12, no. 1, Fall 1998.
“God’s faithfulness is not incapacitated by human circumstances–even human failings.”
–Pastor Ed Allen, sermon, August 5, 2007.
“I’ve found that when you give up on using your mind to solve a problem–which your mind is holding on to like a dog with a chew toy–writing it down helps turn off the terrible alertness. When you’re not siphoned into the black hole of worried control and playing fretful Savior, turning the problem over to God or the elves in the glove compartment harnesses something in the universe that is bigger than you, and that just might work.”
–Anne Lamott, Grace (Eventually), p. 27
“Sometimes, when you’re lucky, you get to a point where you’re sick of a problem, or worn down by tinkering with it, or clutching it. And letting it go, maybe writing it down and sending it away, buys you some time and space, so maybe freedom and humor sneak in–which is probably what you were praying for all along.”
–Anne Lamott, Grace (Eventually), p. 32
“We live in the constant astonishment that God uses broken people to minister to broken people.”
–Carol Kent, A New Kind of Normal, p. 220.