Lottie

“Redemption was a word I couldn’t quite comprehend at that point. Having heard it all my life, I associated it with what happened to sin-blackened hearts, but I wasn’t sure what it meant for good little God-fighting girls like me. I hadn’t yet understood it as the goodness of God invading my most intimate moments of depression, taking the shards of my broken self and setting about the work of new and mended creation. I still thought redemption was one big event that God did, not the whole of my daily story transformed by his generous life. But one thing I knew. I could not find it unless I took God’s hands in mine once more.”
― Sarah Clarkson, This Beautiful Truth: How God's Goodness Breaks into Our Darkness

“It all matters. That someone turns out the lamp, picks up the windblown wrapper, says hello to the invalid, pays at the unattended lot, listens to the repeated tale, folds the abandoned laundry, plays the game fairly, tells the story honestly, acknowledges help, gives credit, says good night, resists temptation, wipes the counter, waits at the yellow, makes the bed, tips the maid, remembers the illness, congratulates the victor, accepts the consequences, takes a stand, steps up, offers a hand, goes first, goes last, chooses the small portion, teaches the child, tends to the dying, comforts the grieving, removes the splinter, wipes the tear, directs the lost, touches the lonely, is the whole thing. What is most beautiful is least acknowledged. What is worth dying for is barely noticed.”
― Laura McBride, We Are Called to Rise

“Requests can stem only from belief, even if it is just the tiniest inkling of belief.”
― Barnabas Piper, Help My Unbelief: Why Doubt Is Not the Enemy of Faith

“Most days, we wake up to our own monsters, desperately in need of a heavenly parent to remind us the truth about reality—that we are loved by a good God, and because of him, everything is going to be okay.”
― Justin Whitmel Earley, Habits of the Household: Practicing the Story of God in Everyday Family Rhythms