Amy Kannel

“The gifts are intensifiers of desire for Christ himself in much the same way that fasting is. When you give a gift to Christ like this, it's a way of saying something like this: The joy that I pursue is not the hope of getting rich with things from you. I have not come to you for your things but for yourself. And this desire I now intensify and demonstrate by giving up things in the hope of enjoying you more, not the things. By giving to you what you do not need and what I might enjoy, I am saying more earnestly and more authentically, "You are my treasure, not these things." I think that's what it means to worship God with gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.”
― John Piper, The Dawning of Indestructible Joy: Daily Readings for Advent

“Every time you're tempted to say 'I'm too busy' say instead, 'That's not a priority for me, therefore it's not a promise I've made and I'll have to decline.' If you're brave enough to make the switch, one of two things is going to happen when you do:

Either you're going to feel really bad when you realize that something that deeply matters to you (your kids, your health, your marriage, your commitment to justice, cultivating lifelong friendships) isn't actually the priority you want to believe it is. This will compel you to go back to your Very Important Promises and see what you can cut in order to create space for the things that really matter to you.
OR
Saying that statement may initially sting because we've been conditioned to feel bad about 'Nos,' but as the words settle, it will feel true to you. Instead of allowing this thing you're 'too busy for' to perpetually hang over your head, your NO (because it is not a priority or a promise) will free you up to unapologetically and confidently spend your limited moments and resources on the things that matter most to you.”
― Liz Forkin Bohannon, Beginner's Pluck: Build Your Life of Purpose and Impact Now

“In moments of struggle, I've often muttered Jesus's claim and asked myself his question [from John 11]. A few years ago, in a period of intense relational turmoil--as I felt the psychological floor fall away under my feet--I stood in my bedroom clinging onto my dresser and rehearsed, "I am the resurrection and the life." "Do you believe this?" You see, if it's true, nothing that can happen in my life on earth can rob me of that everlasting life. And if it's false, nothing in my life on earth ultimately matters anyway. Either everything ends in death, or Jesus is the resurrection and the life.”
― Rebecca McLaughlin, Jesus through the Eyes of Women: How the First Female Disciples Help Us Know and Love the Lord

“Ours is like any marriage that lasts. We had to give up enough of ourselves to make room for the other person, but we had to retain a sufficient amount of who we were to avoid bitterness. All marriages become a third thing—neither one partner’s dream, nor the other’s, but a different glory, an ordinary one we made together.”
― Esau McCaulley, How Far to the Promised Land: One Black Family's Story of Hope and Survival in the American South