Annie F. Downs > Quotes

“I believe in the me God made and in the me God can make. I believe he made me on purpose and didn’t make any mistakes when it came to my creation. I believe he is doing a good work in me, and in you. And that though I am flawed, God is loving me and refining me and reminding me that God in me is where I can place my trust. And that is the place where I find my courage.”
― Annie F. Downs, Let's All Be Brave: Living Life with Everything You Have

“I love when the darkness ends, don't you? Maybe that's the whole thing. Maybe I find so much breath taking beauty in the sunrise not so much because of what is starting, but more because of what it signals has ended.”
― Annie F. Downs, Looking for Lovely: Collecting the Moments that Matter

“be brave enough to love the people around you, even if it looks like sacrifice and feels like loss.”
― Annie F. Downs, Let's All Be Brave: Living Life with Everything You Have

“Believe in yourself,” this is what I want you to think about. Don’t believe in yourself in such a way that you think you can accomplish anything on your own. You can’t. To believe in yourself means to believe that God made you and there is no one like you, that you have a unique call to courage, and that you can do the thing that is staring you in the face.”
― Annie F. Downs, Let's All Be Brave: Living Life with Everything You Have

“To see yourself the way God sees you is the first step in being brave.”
― Annie F. Downs, Let's All Be Brave: Living Life with Everything You Have

“Courage doesnt tell you to let go when you know what to grab next. Brave people let go when its time to let go.”
― Annie F. Downs, Let's All Be Brave: Living Life with Everything You Have

“... to pause is to win & to rest can actually be part of the victory.”
― Annie F. Downs, Looking for Lovely: Collecting the Moments that Matter

“God is perfect (we are not). He sees the big picture (we do not). He knows everything (we do not). So I choose to believe in this — that I am who I am on purpose, that the One who made me has a purpose and has unconditional love for me and those in my life.”
― Annie F. Downs, Let's All Be Brave: Living Life with Everything You Have

“When God tells you to be brave, he will make it work. It won’t be perfect. It won’t be easy. But it will be your story and your best story.”
― Annie F. Downs, Let's All Be Brave: Living Life with Everything You Have

“Courage is doing things even when you’re scared. Being brave isn’t something that happens when you’re not scared anymore. Brave people don’t stop hearing the whispers of fear. They hear the whispers but take action anyway. Being brave is hearing that voice of fear in your head, but saying, “Okay, but the truth is, God made me on purpose and for a purpose.”
― Annie F. Downs, 100 Days to Brave: Devotions for Unlocking Your Most Courageous Self

“if you will go where you’ve never gone before, you will see God like you’ve never seen him before.”
― Annie F. Downs, Let's All Be Brave: Living Life with Everything You Have

“Seeing other people be brave makes me want to be brave too.”
― Annie F. Downs, 100 Days to Brave: Devotions for Unlocking Your Most Courageous Self

“Whether you are trying to finish a race or a book or that hard conversation you've been avoiding, the training leading up to that event is what makes it possible to face the fear & walk forward anyway. Quit complaining about discipline & start seeing it as a powerful tool for courageous living.”
― Annie F. Downs

“It is scary to be who you’re meant to be. It doesn’t feel easy because it’s not. But we were made for this. Like today’s scripture says, we have holy work. Why be brave? Because when we’re brave enough to share the God stories in our lives, it changes the people around us. It changes us to share them.”
― Annie F. Downs, 100 Days to Brave: Devotions for Unlocking Your Most Courageous Self

“Every day is the first day we’ve ever done today, so maybe there just needs to be a little more acknowledgment of the amateur who lives and actually thrives in each of us.”
― Annie F. Downs, That Sounds Fun: The Joys of Being an Amateur, the Power of Falling in Love, and Why You Need a Hobby

“And to say gracious words is brave. To speak life into someone else takes courage. Whether you are correcting in love, standing up for the voiceless, praying for the sick, or praising and loving others, your words are changing the atmosphere.

Don't be afraid. Be brave. Say the things that will speak truth and heal. Hold your tongue in anger or fear—those are the times when a coward speaks. But when the moment comes to say the gracious thing that will mark a heart forever?

Say it.

Speak love, and watch as beautiful things come to life.”
― Annie F. Downs, Let's All Be Brave: Living Life with Everything You Have

“The Bible makes it plain and simple in Matthew 12:34: For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.”
― Annie F. Downs, Perfectly Unique: Praising God from Head to Foot

“You have to find purpose in the suffering so you don’t give up. You have to persevere. And when you persevere, your character, your proven faith and tried integrity, grows. And then hope. Hope arrives.”
― Annie F. Downs, Looking for Lovely: Collecting Moments that Matter

“That’s why we have to start. That’s why we have to go first. That’s why we have to be brave—so that others will be inspired to be brave along with us.”
― Annie F. Downs, 100 Days to Brave: Devotions for Unlocking Your Most Courageous Self

“He knows we need dreams in pieces because we would be too scared of the whole puzzle.”
― Annie F. Downs, Let's All Be Brave: Living Life with Everything You Have

“Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.” —Proverbs 12:18”
― Annie F. Downs, Speak Love: Making Your Words Matter

“Be brave for yourself, be brave for your God, and be brave for the onlookers, the ones who will be inspired by you to inspire others.”
― Annie F. Downs, Let's All Be Brave: Living Life with Everything You Have

“Yet He loves me to pieces—all my pieces. I cannot earn it, I don’t deserve it, and yet I am drowning in it.”
― Annie F. Downs, 100 Days to Brave: Devotions for Unlocking Your Most Courageous Self

“I don't know how it works, the science and math of it all, but I know that love given is courage gained.”
― Annie F. Downs, Let's All Be Brave: Living Life with Everything You Have

“I’m so tired of having more faith in the arrows that are being fired at me than the shield that God has given to protect me.”
― Annie F. Downs, Walking Free: Taking Small Steps to a Big God

“It seems that Jesus did that for us over and over again. He said yes to uncomfortable things — like being friends with tax collectors and eating in their homes. Like letting a “woman . . . who lived a sinful life” (Luke 7:37) break a bottle of expensive perfume over his feet in an act of love and gratitude. Like considering Judas one of his best friends, even when he knew, he knew, Judas would be the one to turn on him.”
― Annie F. Downs, Let's All Be Brave: Living Life with Everything You Have

“BE BRAVE: Copy this prayer into your journal (or write one of your own): God, tell me the truth of who I am. I’m listening. I want to be free from the lies—do that for me. Rescue me. Bring truth like a waterfall.”
― Annie F. Downs, 100 Days to Brave: Devotions for Unlocking Your Most Courageous Self

“There is so much power when you begin to understand that you are who God says you are, not who other people say you are or who you believe you are.”
― Annie F. Downs, 100 Days to Brave: Devotions for Unlocking Your Most Courageous Self

“Look for the light. The light at your feet. And follow it. An when you know its right to hold on, hold on. Grip tightly until your hands are sore. But dont let go.”
― Annie F. Downs, Let's All Be Brave: Living Life with Everything You Have

“I never felt brave. I never had a moment of extreme courage or belief that this was going to be the best decision I had ever made. I just did the next thing.”
― Annie F. Downs, Let's All Be Brave: Living Life with Everything You Have