Aaron Brawner

“Shame is not a mirage. It is very real. A sexually violated woman feels contaminated by what has been done to her, and she really is contaminated. A person who has lived with rejection can’t neutralize it with happy thoughts. Shame is like dirt. No matter how it happened, you are a mess and something has to be done about it. When you are dirty, there is no feel-as-if about it.”
― Edward T. Welch, Shame Interrupted: How God Lifts the Pain of Worthlessness and Rejection

“There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, in the end, "Thy will be done." All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. Those who knock it is opened.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce

“All it takes is a tradition of demeaning, critical words from the right person. All it takes is nothing from the right person. No interest in you, no words spoken to you, no love. If you are treated as if you do not exist, you will feel shame.”
― Edward T. Welch, Shame Interrupted: How God Lifts the Pain of Worthlessness and Rejection

“Shame is life-dominating and stubborn. Once entrenched in your heart and mind, it is a squatter that refuses to leave.”
― Edward T. Welch, Shame Interrupted: How God Lifts the Pain of Worthlessness and Rejection