Rose

“What it meant was learning to find God in the center of everything I did, and to see everything I did as what God wanted of me in that moment. Folding this load of laundry, driving this carpool, feeding this hungry, cranky child. These were the things God asked of me, and I would do them for him. I would give him my YES in each moment, as often as I could remember. In doing so, Jesus could act in me and I could grow in love for him. If I moved about the hours of my day with a trust that whatever I was doing was what God wanted me to be doing, I would have incredible peace.”
― Rachel Balducci, Make My Life Simple: Bringing Peace to Heart and Home

“When I was no longer of the world, I would miss its extravagant beauty. I would miss the complex and charming layers of subterfuge by which the truth of the world’s mysteries were withheld from us even as we were tantalized and enchanted by them. I would miss the kindness of good people who were compassionate when so many were pitiless, who made their way through so much corruption without being corrupted themselves, who eschewed envy in a world of envy, who eschewed greed in a world of greed, who valued truth and could not be drowned in a sea of lies, for they shone and, by the light they cast, they had warmed me all my life.”
― Dean Koontz, Saint Odd

“To love is to be vulnerable; and it is only in vulnerability and risk—not safety and security—that we overcome darkness.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, A Wrinkle in Time

“It is more beautiful to trust in God. The beautiful in this world is all from his hand, declaring the perfection of taste; he is the author of all form; he clothes the lily, he colours the rose, he distils the dewdrop, he makes the music of nature; in a word, he organized us for this life, and imposed its conditions; and they are such guaranty to me that, trustful as a little child, I leave to him the organization of my Soul, and every arrangement for the life after death. I know he loves me.”
― Lew Wallace, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ