Andy Alexis

“Let me be clear: the president just used a Bible, the most sacred text of the Judeo-Christian tradition, and one of the churches in my diocese, without permission, as a backdrop for a message antithetical to the teachings of Jesus. Everything he has said and done is to inflame violence. We need moral leadership, and he’s done everything to divide us.” [5]”
― Mariann Edgar Budde, How We Learn to Be Brave: Decisive Moments in Life and Faith

“This is your life, he says softly. Lean into it. View your burden as a gift. It's the theme that has been given you to work with. This is the only life you'll have.”
― Mariann Edgar Budde, How We Learn to Be Brave: Decisive Moments in Life and Faith

“To persevere in faithfulness is our greatest gift to this world.”
― Marianne Edgar Budde

“I am convinced that we all have the capacity to live within a narrative of great adventure, no matter our life circumstances. The courage to be brave when it matters most requires a lifetime of small decisions that set us on a path of self-awareness, attentiveness, and willingness to risk failure for what we believe is right. It is also a profoundly spiritual experience, one in which we feel a part of something larger than ourselves and guided, somehow, by a larger Spirit at work in the world and in us. Decisive moments make believers out of everyone, for no matter what name we give to it, the inexplicable, unmerited experience of a power greater than our own working through us is real. The audacious truth is that we matter in the realization of all that is good and noble and true. I want to expand our notion of what constitutes a decisive moment, for they come in many forms and require a wide range of decisions, equally decisive yet different in their energy and outcome.”
― Mariann Edgar Budde, How We Learn to Be Brave: Decisive Moments in Life and Faith