“Lord, give me firmness without hardness, steadfastness without dogmatism, love without weakness.”
(Jim Elliot)
“Be kind. Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about.”
“A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones.”
(Proverbs 14:30)
“It is no bad thing to celebrate a simple life.”
(J.R.R Tolkien)
“Jesus is looking specifically for the people who can’t get their act together. After all, what is the use of telling a guy in bare feet to pull himself up by his bootstraps. Our obedience is not the grounds of our relationship with Jesus, but the overflow of it.”
(Jared Wilson)
“Love me when I least deserve it, because that’s when I need it the most.”
“…it is misleading to say that God accepts us the way we are. Rather, He accepts us despite the way we are. He receives us only in Christ and for Christ’s sake. Nor does He mean to leave us the way He found us, but to transform us into the likeness of His Son.”
(Sinclair Ferguson)
“The biggest problem with bureaucracy isn’t having too many rules. It’s having rules that fail to serve core values and goals. Dysfunctional organizations have rigid policies that thwart the mission. Healthy organizations have policies that can be changed to advance the mission.”
(Adam Grant)
“If the culture in an organization is strong, new people will become like the culture. If the culture is weak, the culture will become like the new people. Building a strong culture is what builds a strong organization.”
(Simon Sinek)
“People are not asking Christians for their beliefs on ‘right and wrong.’ They want to know: ‘Does it work?’ People are not asking if Christianity is true. They are asking whether it is good. People are not walking away from the church because they don’t believe what the church is saying. They are walking away because they don’t believe the church believes what it is saying.”
(Kevin Brown, President of Asbury University)
“One donut won’t make you fat.
One workout won’t make you jacked.
What you do in a day won’t define you.
But the habits you repeat for a year will.”
(Brooks Coleman)
Anglican Prayer of Confession:
“I confess that I have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what I have done and by what I have left undone. I am truly sorry, and I humbly repent… Have mercy on me and forgive me; that I may delight in your will and walk in your ways to the glory of your name. Lord, have mercy upon me, pardon and deliver me from all my sins, confirm and strengthen me.”
“Sometimes life is so hard that you can only do the next thing. Whatever that is, just do the next thing. God will meet you there.”
(Elisabeth Elliot)
“All the years that Jacob assumed Joseph was dead and gone, Joseph was actually being used by God to prepare for saving everyone else’s life. Our Lord often does his best work when we suppose all hope is lost.”
(Chad Bird)
“Every once in a while, I meet a person who radiates joy. These are people who seem to glow with an inner light. They are kind, tranquil, delighted by small pleasures, and grateful for the large ones. These people are not perfect. They get exhausted and stressed. They make errors in judgment. But they live for others, and not for themselves. They’ve made unshakable commitments to family, a cause, a community, or a faith. They know why they were put on this earth and derive deep satisfaction from doing what they have been called to do.
Life isn’t easy for these people. They’ve taken on the burdens of others. But they have a serenity about them, a settled resolve. They are interested in you, make you feel cherished and known, and take delight in your good. When you meet these people, you realize that joy is not just a feeling, it can be an outlook. There are temporary highs we all get after we win some victory, and then there is also this other kind of permanent joy that animates people who are not obsessed with themselves but have given themselves away.”
(David Brooks – from The Second Mountain)