Just like the level of resentment you carry, the amount of suffering you endure is entirely up to you. Change your limiting beliefs about suffering and the subtle ways you cause yourself to suffer, and I guarantee at least 50 percent of your suffering will disappear. (And how many martyrs does it take to change that lightbulb? Absolutely none, because they all just sit in the dark — by their own choice — and quietly suffer.)
— Christel Nani, Sacred Choices, p. 207
Judgment sticks labels on people. Forgiveness peels them off. God doesn’t label; God sees.
— Hugh Prather, Spiritual Notes to Myself, p. 19
Loss of love is always devastating, but it can also be a time for airing out stuffy inner rooms, reassessing values, starting anew. Relationships may become stagnant or wither and die, but life and love continue.
— Leo Buscaglia, Born for Love, p. 204
We need to rid our to-do lists of things that don’t matter, don’t create value, don’t make a difference. We need to restructure our lives and take more time to do things that bring us joy. Women need to carve out time for the activities that will create meaningful lives and discard the things that won’t.
— This Is Not the Life I Ordered, by Deborah Collins Stephens, Jackie Speier, Michealene Cristini Risley, and Jan Yanehiro
Apology energy will not only drain you, it will teach others that you are open to criticism and judgment. Apology energy will reinforce that you don’t deserve to be happy, wealthy, healthy, or successful but that you have to earn your way to make it acceptable to others….
You can eliminate apology energy by rewriting limiting beliefs that create conflict because you are happy, successful, or have ease in life….
To eliminate victim energy, be honest about the need to blame others for your lot in life because it’s easier than making different choices; this honesty will start you on the road to reclaiming your power….
Please avoid, at all costs, the tragedy of your apology energy colliding with victim energy. Your apology will simply justify a victim’s belief that life isn’t fair, and the person’s powerlessness will intensify your need to apologize….
— Christel Nani, Sacred Choices, p. 204-206
Sure, you may want to change some of the ways you think, feel, eat, breathe, value, choose, or move. That’s fine. The point is to make these changes not to make yourself “better” or “different.” The point is to make such changes because they enhance and nourish, amplify and magnify, illuminate and celebrate who you already are.
— Lisa Sarasohn, The Woman’s Belly Book, p. 5
How gracious God is; how gentle with His earth-bound children! Despite my reluctance to follow, little by little He led me deeper into His truth. How could I know that in committing myself to God’s sovereignty I was embracing the richest love, the purest joys, the truest source of fulfillment the human heart can know?
— Margaret Clarkson, So You’re Single, p. 35
Forgiveness isn’t something nice I do for someone who is “guilty.” Forgiveness is something nice I do for my own mind. Do I want a mind that tortures me or one that is a friend to me?
— Hugh Prather, Spiritual Notes to Myself, p. 19
In the environment of the courtroom, with man-made laws laying wait to render a decree of dissolution of your marriage, keep foremost in your mind, precious one, that the Lord God Himself was witness to the covenant made at your marriage. You might feel frightened and all alone, but you won’t be. Just be strong and of good courage. Do not fear nor be afraid, for the Lord Your God, He is the one who goes with you. Regardless of the outcome, know for certain that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
— Testimonial in Your Father Knows Best, compiled by Bob and Charlyne Steinkamp
What does faith see? For that, we must return, I think, to the moment when we saw by faith for the very first time. In that moment, we saw differently than we had ever seen before. We had x-ray vision then. We were able to see through the things of this world and recognize in them God’s invisible qualities — love, order, patience, enthusiasm — revealed in the world he created for our benefit. Faith, after all, merely confirms what creation shows us in that first lightning bolt of believing. We looked at apples, grass, shade and saw provision. We looked at algebra and saw order. We looked at our pain and struggles, even our terror, and recognized God’s patience and his amazing gift of free will.
— Patty Kirk, Confessions of an Amateur Believer, p. 55