Women have a remarkable way of helping other women. The wisdom of women can be a life raft when you are in the midst of a transition. When you get together with them, they always tell you how fabulous you are even when you don’t feel fabulous!
— This Is Not the Life I Ordered, by Deborah Collins Stephens, Jackie Speier, Michealene Cristini Risley, and Jan Yanehiro, p. 205
If you’re a child of God, the ordeal you’re undergoing, however wrong or unfair or heartless it may be or may have been, in His providence and skillful hands will be used to take you somewhere good — deeper into His heart, to a place of greater dependence and trust, more perfectly refined into the likeness of Christ.
— Nancy Leigh DeMoss, Choosing Forgiveness, p. 107
There is no story without conflict, I tell would-be story writers. Universal truth is ratified, in literature as in life, not through a character’s mere mindless affirmations of it but through the lifelong study that comes from doubting and challenging and searching and returning to the problem again and again.
— Patty Kirk, Confessions of an Amateur Believer, p. 73
Being in God’s presence is all about following after him through destruction and turmoil and discovering his treasures in the secrecy and darkness of our struggling hearts.
— Patty Kirk, Confessions of an Amateur Believer, p. 71
And yet, paradoxically, during those years of struggle, not believing in him, not seeing him, having no faith at all, I nevertheless felt him there. He was present in my anger. Present in my loneliness. Present in my world’s refusal to be what I wanted it to be, and present in his own denial of anything I wanted to make him into. Present. With me. Patiently waiting for me to turn and see him. And still I struggled.
— Patty Kirk, Confessions of an Amateur Believer, p. 67
This Scripture does not say that all things are good, but it does say that all things work together for good.
— Joyce Meyer, Battlefield of the Mind
Remember to ask Jesus to stand between you and your spouse, and to say only things you would say to Jesus and to listen to everything through the heart of Jesus. When I have felt discouraged, thinking all this was unfair, I often hear Jesus from the cross saying, “And me, what have I done to deserve this?” Bear your cross with humility, patience, and confidence in the Lord.
— testimonial in Your Father Knows Best, compiled by Bob and Charlyne Steinkamp, p. 71
We learned an important lesson in our decade-long friendships. We learned that we had been fooled. We had convinced ourselves that if we could manage our schedules, break through the glass ceiling, spend quality time with our families, bring home the bacon (and fry it up in a pan) while bouncing children on our hips and creating warm and loving relationships with our husbands, in-laws, and colleagues, somehow, some way, we would be rewarded with the problem-free lives that had, up until then, eluded us. We were wrong….
We learned that the problem-free life we sought was more than an illusion. It had become a myth to which too many women had fallen victim. A woman’s life is much more than success, having it all, or the elusive balance we all seek. It is more than seeking perfection or conquering the world (although you might). It is more than gritting your teeth and making it through. It is about surviving and thriving.
For us, surviving and thriving meant reinventing, rebuilding, and realizing that success was never final and failure was never fatal. It meant putting our best foot forward (Nike for some, Nine West for others) no matter what, and walking. Walking forward looking like a pillar of success on the outside while that tiny voice inside reminded us that our teenagers were out of control, our job could end tomorrow, and our spouses, colleagues, and bosses had been untruthful, selfish, unfaithful, or just plain stupid.
Surviving and thriving meant taking what life offered up and looking for the opportunities, the joy, and the compassion in less-than-pleasant or less-than-perfect circumstances.
–Deborah Collins Stephens, Jackie Speier, Michealene Cristini Risley, and Jan Yanehiro, This Is Not the Life I Ordered, p. 18-19
If everything looks black, we’ve probably got our eyes shut.
— Melody Beattie, Beyond Codependency, p. 71
“Satan’s lie is that our temptation is unique to us.”
— Robert E. Steinkamp, The Prodigal’s Pen, p. 149