Rachel Gardner > Quotes

“The more I listen to young people, the more I saw that what would begin as a question about heartbreak or want to start dating would quickly move onto issues of profound self-worth and purpose. These embodied conversations with young people became the door into the holy, soulful place where the biggest questions of life were asked. It was like watching a bonfire being lit - tiny sparks igniting flames of curiosity to know the bigger things of life, to have their greatest ‘why’ questions answered.”
― Rachel Gardner, The Sex Thing: Reimagining conversations with young people about sex

“The deepest intimacy any of us will ever know is with God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is why we’re not surprised that, when he has asked what’s the most important thing, Jesus replies, ‘Love the Lord of God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind with all your strength’. He’s encouraging us to put everything into this relationship with God because this is the relationship we’re made for and are held and sustained by. There’s a trajectory in our lives of always getting closer to God. This journey of spiritual maturity is about an increasing awareness that we are loved by God, no matter what.”
― Rachel Gardner, The Sex Thing: Reimagining conversations with young people about sex

“Jane Austen famously wrote that time on its own doesn’t equal intimacy. You could spend five minutes with one person and feel you’ve always known them and work with another person for 30 years and still have no idea who they really are. Why is that? How is that ugly? The greatest gift is having someone in your life that you can share a deep connection with. This could be sexual, but it doesn’t need to be. Sexual intimacy is one type of intimacy, but by no means the only, or the most fulfilling. Our lives are rich for having people we share emotional or intellectual intimacy with. There are friends we share experiences or intellectual intimacy with. Still others we experience a spiritual intimacy with as we pray and worship together.”
― Rachel Gardner, The Sex Thing: Reimagining conversations with young people about sex

“The word ‘integrity’ has a beautiful synergy with shalom. It is derived from both the French word intégrité, meaning blameless purity and the Latin word integer meaning wholeness, completeness. It’s the sense of being truthful in all your actions and consistent in your character. It’s ‘you do you’ because you’re increasingly no under peace with who that is. It’s more than simply being true to yourself - it’s being true to the beliefs and ideas you have about yourself. In discipleship terms, it’s living in undivided devotion to the One we follow. It’s God before Google, before self-interest, before status, before all else. It’s not about getting things right all the time, but it’s about a hunger to live in such a way as to tell the truth about who you are and whose you are.”
― Rachel Gardner, The Sex Thing: Reimagining conversations with young people about sex