Jacqueline Gray

“No matter how much you talk to yourself, read, study, or practice, you can’t develop or set boundaries apart from supportive relationships with God and others. Don’t even try to start setting limits until you have entered into deep, abiding attachments with people who will love you no matter what.”
― Henry Cloud, Boundaries: When To Say Yes, How to Say No

“The way to deeper knowledge of God is through the lonely valleys of soul poverty and giving up of all things. The blessed ones who possess the kingdom are they who have repudiated every external thing and have rooted from their hearts all sense of possessing. These are the “poor in spirit.” They have reached an inward state paralleling the outward circumstances of the common beggar in the streets of Jerusalem;”
― A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God

“Healing from trauma requires that you tell the story . . . and tell the story . . . and tell the story. There are a variety of ways to tell the story. You can write it out in a narrative. Assemble a memory book of pictures of yourself at different ages and describe the pain of each one. Create a collage of pictures that illustrate your feelings because of your abuse or abandonment. Verbally share with safe people. With each repetition part of the shame falls away and God’s voice of truth becomes louder.”
― Marnie C. Ferree, No Stones: Women Redeemed from Sexual Addiction

“I think most American churchgoers are the soil that chokes the seed because of all the thorns. Thorns are anything that distracts us from God. When we want God and a bunch of other stuff, then that means we have thorns in our soil. A relationship with God simply cannot grow when money, sins, activities, favorite sports teams, addictions, or commitments are piled on top of it.”
― Francis Chan, Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God