love for a lifetime

open doors

 “Sometimes we stare so long at a door that is closing that we see too late the one that is open.” - Alexander Graham Bell

to love

 
"To love and to be loved is to feel the sun from both sides." - David Viscott

i heart c.s. lewis

A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell.

God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.

It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.

No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear.

Some people feel guilty about their anxieties and regard them as a defect of faith but they are afflictions, not sins. Like all afflictions, they are, if we can so take them, our share in the passion of Christ.

The real problem is not why some pious, humble, believing people suffer, but why some do not.

There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, "All right, then, have it your way."

- C. S. Lewis

 

so so good.

"Wherever the providence of God may dump us down, in a slum, in a shop, in the desert, we have to labour along the line of His direction. Never allow this thought- 'I am of no use where I am,' because you certainly can be of no use where you are not! Wherever He has engineered your circumstances, pray." - Oswald Chambers

quotes to live by

I have been compiling a list of quotes that really speak to my heart, and I hope they will to yours as well. Now, that being said, I frequently post scripture here. It's usually about something that God is dealing with in me or a verse that just pops in my head when I sit down to write. My disclaimer is that I believe with every fiber in me that the Bible is the book to live by - hands down.

However, I do believe God speaks through people now too. Friends/Neighbors/Coworkers/Random Cashiers say just the right thing at just the right time and they don't even know it! It's happened to me and I know it's happened to you too. Sometimes we don't even realize how God used them until hours or days later.

You are wondering why I am on my soapbox? It's because some of the quotes I am about to share are from non-believers. I don't think we should dismiss them merely because of that fact. No, they aren't found in scripture, but some of them contain biblical truths anyway. Remember we serve a big God! One that can use whoever he wants however he wants whenever he wants to speak to us!

"Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans." - John Lennon

"If you judge people, you have no time to love them." - Mother Teresa

"A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous." - Ingrid Bergman

"Anyone can be passionate, but it takes real lovers to be silly." - Rose Franken

 "Friendship improves happiness, and abates misery, by doubling our joys, and dividing our grief." - Joseph Addison

"If you have nothing to say, say nothing." - Mark Twain 

"We have to pray with our eyes on God, not on the difficulties." - Oswald Chambers 

"A good marriage is the union of two forgivers." - Ruth Graham

well that stings a little

"Both worry and stress reek of arrogance. Worry implies that we don’t quite trust that God is big enough, powerful enough or loving enough to take care of what’s happening in our lives. Stress says that the things we are involved in are important enough to merit our impatience, our lack of grace towards others, or our tight grip of control." - Francis Chan, Crazy Love

psssst: you still have time to enter the big giveaway...

psssst again: my hot husband is famous...

sanctification

sanctification - being set apart to be made holy or consecrated for God's use. It describes the transformation of the believer into the image of Christ.

"Sanctification is never advanced by self-focused grief or guilt. It is energized by joy and driven by love." - David Harrell (my pastor)

shades of brown

"There is no such thing as race. There is no black or white, we are all just different shades of brown; we are all one race." - David Harrell (my Pastor)

"and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us." - Acts 17:26-27

manure

"Christians are like manure. Heap them all together and they smell, a lot. Spread them out and they become fertilizer!"

- Rick Warren (via my pastor David Harrell)