Emily P. Freeman > Quotes

“I don't believe there is one great thing I was made to do in this world. I believe there is one great God I was made to glorify. And there will be many ways, even a million little ways, I will declare his glory with my life.”
― Emily P. Freeman, A Million Little Ways: Uncover the Art You Were Made to Live

“I can't prevent storms from coming, but I can decide not to invent my own.”
― Emily P. Freeman, Simply Tuesday: Small-Moment Living in a Fast-Moving World

“To accept the lively, the messy, and the unexpected things in our days, knowing that God sees them and has an eternal perspective, is to say with confidence I receive your timing.”
― Emily P. Freeman, Grace for the Good Girl: Letting Go of the Try-Hard Life

“The best part of hiding is being found.”
― Emily P. Freeman, Grace for the Good Girl: Letting Go of the Try-Hard Life

“God is not a technician. God is an Artist. This is the God who made you. The same God who lives inside of you. He comes into us, then comes out of us, in a million little ways. That's why there's freedom, even in the blah. Hope, even in the dark. Love, even in the fear. Trust, even as we face our critics. And believe in the midst of all that? It feels like strength and depth and wildflower spinning; it feels risky and brave and underdog winning. It feels like redemption. It feels like art.”
― Emily P. Freeman, A Million Little Ways: Uncover the Art You Were Made to Live

“You may not be the first to say it, write it, create it, or believe it—but you saying it may be the first time someone finally hears. Yes, someone else can say it better, but that doesn’t mean you can’t say it too. Throw out your inhibitions and spin around in this crazy world of recycled ideas. There is nothing new to say. Say it anyway.”
― Emily P. Freeman, A Million Little Ways: Uncover the Art You Were Made to Live

“What gives moments meaning is not the moments themselves but the presence of Christ with us in the midst of them.”
― Emily P. Freeman, Simply Tuesday: Small-Moment Living in a Fast-Moving World

“The story of redemtion and healing is that Jesus came to exchange my not-good-enough with his better-than-I-could-ever-imagine. He came to trade my life for His, my weak for His strong, my ashes for His beauty. He longs for each of us to recieve the gift of Himself.”
― Emily P. Freeman, Grace for the Good Girl: Letting Go of the Try-Hard Life

“Your childhood dream delights God. I don’t say that because every secret dream will come true. But having a dream is evidence of a person who is fully alive. Having a dream is a reflection of the image of God.”
― Emily P. Freeman, A Million Little Ways: Uncover the Art You Were Made to Live

“And so the meaning of our lives is not dependent upon what we make of it but of what he is making of us.”
― Emily P. Freeman, A Million Little Ways: Uncover the Art You Were Made to Live

“We may call it "people pleasing," but it is entirely self-serving because it is really all about keeping myself comfortable. Boiled down, it could be more accurately called "me pleasing.”
― Emily P. Freeman, Grace for the Good Girl: Letting Go of the Try-Hard Life

“Being his workmanship doesn’t mean we are all poets. It means we are all poems, individual created works of a creative God. And this poetry comes out uniquely through us as we worship, think, love, pray, rest, work, and exist.”
― Emily P. Freeman, A Million Little Ways: Uncover the Art You Were Made to Live

“Life is so much further from my control than even I know.”
― Emily P. Freeman, Grace for the Good Girl: Letting Go of the Try-Hard Life

“Don’t try to handle your anxiety. Bring your anxiety into the presence of Christ. Don’t try to fix your loneliness. Bring your loneliness into the presence of Christ. Don’t try to hide your addiction. Bring your addiction into the presence of Christ. Don’t try to change your attitude. Bring your attitude into the presence of Christ. Don’t despise your humanity. Bring your humanity into the presence of Christ.”
― Emily P. Freeman, Simply Tuesday: Small-Moment Living in a Fast-Moving World

“Sometimes that's what prayer is--simply inviting God to join us where we actually are, not because He isn't already here but because inviting Him reminds us it's true.”
― Emily P. Freeman, Simply Tuesday: Small-Moment Living in a Fast-Moving World

“It isn't about what we are supposed to 'do'; it is about what we choose to 'believe'.”
― Emily P. Freeman, Graceful (For Young Women): Letting Go of Your Try-Hard Life

“God is already carrying your load. Why do you insist on carrying it too?”
― Emily P. Freeman, Graceful (For Young Women): Letting Go of Your Try-Hard Life

“Rather than admitting you don't know what to do next, you fake it in public and feel lost when you're alone.”
― Emily P. Freeman, Graceful (For Young Women): Letting Go of Your Try-Hard Life

“You miss the living because you are waiting for perfect, and so you let goodness and blessings pass you right on by.”
― Emily P. Freeman, Graceful (For Young Women): Letting Go of Your Try-Hard Life

“I choose to believe God rather than my feelings. I choose to believe I am acceptable even though I feel unacceptable.”
― Emily P. Freeman

“We were made to build, to co-create, to bring glory to God with the work of our hands, to move into the world as unique reflections of Christ. But we were not made to fill rooms, stadiums, or bank accounts. We were not made to fill our souls with worth we construct with our hands.”
― Emily P. Freeman, Simply Tuesday: Small-Moment Living in a Fast-Moving World

“I want to encourage you today: needy is a beautiful place to be. When we recognize our need, we will finally look around for something (or someone) to fill it.”
― Emily P. Freeman, Graceful (For Young Women): Letting Go of Your Try-Hard Life

“I can’t imagine anything more dangerous to the enemy of our hearts than people who know who they are.”
― Emily P. Freeman, A Million Little Ways: Uncover the Art You Were Made to Live

“But understand that the reason it is so difficult to extend forgiveness to those who have failed us is because we are unable to receive forgiveness for our own failures.”
― Emily P. Freeman, Grace for the Good Girl: Letting Go of the Try-Hard Life

“Just because things change doesn't mean you chose wrong in the first place. Just because you're good at something doesn't mean you have to do it forever.”
― Emily P. Freeman, The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions

“I don’t want to live my life in such a hurry that I’m always closing the fridge door with my foot and scribbling out birthday cards in my car at the last minute. I want to make bread, or at least find the time to toast it.”
― Emily P. Freeman, Simply Tuesday: Small-Moment Living in a Fast-Moving World

“Jesus does not turn away from the world, but turns to face it. Jesus came down. He turns toward. He makes his face to shine upon. He shows compassion. He sits with. His with-ness is so important that every time we say his name, we declare it—Immanuel, God with us.”
― Emily P. Freeman, Simply Tuesday: Small-Moment Living in a Fast-Moving World

“You are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her" (Luke 10:41-42)
Choosing to please God sounds right at first, but it so often leads to a performing life, a girl trying to become good, a lean-on-myself theology. If I am trying to please God, it is difficult trust God. But when I trust God, pleasing him is automatic.
Anything we do to get life and identity outside of Christ is an idol, even service to Christ. He doesn't want my service. He wants me. And from that life-giving relationship, "streams of living water will flow from within" (John 7:38 NIV)”
― Emily P. Freeman

“He (God) never promises that our families will be safe. Not in the way we think. He does promise his presence, though.”
― Emily P. Freeman, Grace for the Good Girl: Letting Go of the Try-Hard Life

“Sometimes it looks like you're going nowhere or that you're headed in the wrong direction. I'm learning that the decision itself is rarely the point. The point is becoming more fully ourselves in the presence of God, connecting with Him and with each other, and living our lives as though we believe He is good and beautiful. The point is being honest about where you are and what you need and then looking around in your own community for people to walk with you and with whom you can walk. I spent years wishing people would support me only to later realize I was waiting around for something to come to me when I was perfectly capable of going out and getting it. I'm convinced God is less interested in where we end up then He is in who we are becoming. Whether we're employed or unemployed, encouraged or discouraged, filled with vision or fumbling in the fog. More than anything, our Father just wants to be with us. The most common way He shows His "withness" to us is in the actual, physical presence of other people.”
― Emily P. Freeman, The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions