Joshua Harris > Quotes

“When God knows you're ready for the responsibility of commitment, He'll reveal the right person under the right circumstances.”
― Joshua Harris, I Kissed Dating Goodbye

“The right thing at the wrong tme is the wrong thing.”
― Joshua Harris, I Kissed Dating Goodbye

“‎True love isn't expressed in passionately whispered words an intimate kiss or a embrace; before two people are married, love is expressed in self-control, patience, even words left unsaid.”
― Joshua Harris

“A Woman's Question

Do you know you have asked for the costliest thing
Ever made by the Hand above?
A woman's heart, and a woman's life---
And a woman's wonderful love.

Do you know you have asked for this priceless thing
As a child might ask for a toy?
Demanding what others have died to win,
With a reckless dash of boy.

You have written my lesson of duty out,
Manlike, you have questioned me.
Now stand at the bars of my woman's soul
Until I shall question thee.

You require your mutton shall always be hot,
Your socks and your shirt be whole;
I require your heart be true as God's stars
And as pure as His heaven your soul.

You require a cook for your mutton and beef,
I require a far greater thing;
A seamstress you're wanting for socks and shirts---
I look for a man and a king.

A king for the beautiful realm called Home,
And a man that his Maker, God,
Shall look upon as He did on the first
And say: "It is very good."

I am fair and young, but the rose may fade
From this soft young cheek one day;
Will you love me then 'mid the falling leaves,
As you did 'mong the blossoms of May?

Is your heart an ocean so strong and true,
I may launch my all on its tide?
A loving woman finds heaven or hell
On the day she is made a bride.

I require all things that are grand and true,
All things that a man should be;
If you give this all, I would stake my life
To be all you demand of me.

If you cannot be this, a laundress and cook
You can hire and little to pay;
But a woman's heart and a woman's life
Are not to be won that way.”
― Joshua Harris, I Kissed Dating Goodbye

“Don’t concern yourself with being right in others’ eyes. And don’t secretly hope that their lives will fall apart so that your opinion will be vindicated. Instead, concentrate on obeying God in your own life and, when possible, helping others to obey Him as well. You don’t have to prove others wrong to continue on the course you know God has shown you.”
― Joshua Harris, I Kissed Dating Goodbye

“The world takes us to a silver screen on which flickering images of passion and romance play, and as we watch, the world says, “This is love.” God takes us to the foot of a tree on which a naked and bloodied man hangs and says, “This is love.”
― Joshua Harris, I Kissed Dating Goodbye

“Living to glorify God means doing everything...
for Him,
His way,
to point to His greatness
and to reflect His goodness.”
― Joshua Harris, Boy Meets Girl: Say Hello to Courtship

“The most romantic things a man can do for a woman are the little things that let her know that she's on his mind and in his heart.”
― Joshua Harris

“The right thing at a wrong time is a wrong thing.”
― Joshua Harris

“Every relationship for a Christian is an opportunity to love another person like God has loved us.”
― Joshua Harris, I Kissed Dating Goodbye

“Terms don't define our lives; our lives define our terms.”
― Joshua Harris, Boy Meets Girl: Say Hello to Courtship

“God gave people 2 ears and 1 mouth because He wants us to listen twice as much as we talk.”
― Joshua Harris

“The joy of intimacy is the reward of commitment.”
― Joshua Harris, I Kissed Dating Goodbye

“Just because something is good doesn't mean we should pursue it right now. We have to remember that the right thing at the wrong time is the wrong thing.”
― Joshua Harris I Kissed Dating Goodbye

“Women need to remember that if nature has made them plain, grace can make them beautiful, and if nature has made them beautiful, good deeds can add to their beauty. Grace will make you beautiful and will attract truly godly men to you. Make godliness and inward beauty your priority.”
― Joshua Harris, Boy Meets Girl: Say Hello to Courtship

“I've come to see that you can limit God is different ways. You can limit Him by thinking he can never work in spectacular ways. But you can also limit Him by thinking that only the spectacular is meaningful."
- from "Dug Down Deep”
― Joshua Harris

“I'm looking for someone who will light candles, not just curse the darkness.”
― Joshua Harris, I Kissed Dating Goodbye

“During courtship, guarding each other's purity and refraining from intimacy are the acts of lovemaking.”
― Joshua Harris, Boy Meets Girl: Say Hello to Courtship

“Having a girlfriend was no longer my greatest need. Knowing and obeying Him was . I wanted to please Him in my relationships even if it meant looking radical and foolish to other people - even if it meant kissing dating goodbye.”
― Joshua Harris, I Kissed Dating Goodbye

“If you ant to feel deeply, you have to think deeply. Too often we separate the two. We assume that if we want to feel deeply, then we need to sit around and, well, feel. But emotion built on emotion is empty. True emotion- emotion that is reliable and does not lead us astray- is always a response to reality, to truth.”
― Joshua Harris

“And I think that's the story of our generation's pursuit of fulfillment in relationships. We wished for intimacy without obligation. We wished for sex with no strings attached. We wished for the pleasure of love with none of work, none of the vows, none of the sacrifice.

And we got it.

But the results aren't what we hoped for. And we're left feeling emptier than before. The intimacy is superficial. The sex leaves us dissatisfied and hungry for something real, something true.

Where is true joy? It's found in God's brand of love - love founded on faithfulness, rooted in commitment.

The joy of intimacy is the reward of commitment.”
― Joshua Harris, I Kissed Dating Goodbye

“True purity, however, is a direction, a persistent, determined pursuit of righteousness. This direction starts in the heart, and we express it in a lifestyle that flees opportunities for compromise.”
― Joshua Harris, I Kissed Dating Goodbye

“I especially loved the Old Testament. Even as a kid I had a sense of it being slightly illicit. As though someone had slipped an R-rated action movie into a pile of Disney DVDs. For starters Adam and Eve were naked on the first page. I was fascinated by Eve's ability to always stand in the Garden of Eden so that a tree branch or leaf was covering her private areas like some kind of organic bakini.

But it was the Bible's murder and mayhem that really got my attention. When I started reading the real Bible I spent most of my time in Genesis Exodus 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings. Talk about violent. Cain killed Abel. The Egyptians fed babies to alligators. Moses killed an Egyptian. God killed thousands of Egyptians in the Red Sea. David killed Goliath and won a girl by bringing a bag of two hundred Philistine foreskins to his future father-in-law. I couldn't believe that Mom was so happy about my spending time each morning reading about gruesome battles prostitutes fratricide murder and adultery. What a way to have a "quiet time."

While I grew up with a fairly solid grasp of Bible stories I didn't have a clear idea of how the Bible fit together or what it was all about. I certainly didn't understand how the exciting stories of the Old Testament connected to the rather less-exciting New Testament and the story of Jesus.

This concept of the Bible as a bunch of disconnected stories sprinkled with wise advice and capped off with the inspirational life of Jesus seems fairly common among Christians. That is so unfortunate because to see the Bible as one book with one author and all about one main character is to see it in its breathtaking beauty.”
― Joshua Harris, Dug Down Deep: Unearthing What I Believe and Why It Matters

“Intimacy without commitment, like icing without cake, can be sweet, but it ends up making us sick.”
― Joshua Harris, I Kissed Dating Goodbye

“When we define our happiness by some point in the future, it will never arrive. We'll keep waiting until tomorrow. If we allow impatience to govern us, we will miss the gift of the moment. We'll arrive at that point in time we expected to provide fulfillment and find it lacking.”
― Joshua Harris, I Kissed Dating Goodbye

“We want to stay on the straight and narrow path and serve God, yet we continue a practice that often pulls us in the wrong direction.”
― Joshua Harris, I Kissed Dating Goodbye

“When you let God be God you can let humans be humans. When we place God in His rightful place in our lives, we don't struggle so much when human relationships let us down.”
― Joshua Harris, I Kissed Dating Goodbye

“The best relationships are between two people who care more about each other's good than their own momentary pleasure.”
― Joshua Harris, I Kissed Dating Goodbye: Study Guide

“Just because lips have met doesn't mean hearts have joined. And just because two bodies are drawn to each other doesn't mean two people are right for each other. A physical relationship does not equal love.”
― Joshua Harris, I Kissed Dating Goodbye: Study Guide

“The common error today is to bring God so close that we strip Him of His "godness." We think we have him figured out. So God becomes our pal, our buddy, our Divine Butler."
from "Dug Down Deep”
― Joshua Harris