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

“In the passing of dishes we practice delayed gratification. In complimenting the meal, we practice the power of spoken encouragement. In withholding criticisms, we practice the virtue of silence, we are reminded that lots of things we think aren’t worth saying. In roses and thorns and questions and pepper games, we practice telling stories, recalling memories, celebrating and sympathizing with each other.9 We practice forgiving when someone spills something (again!). And in waiting until we’re excused, we practice sticking around even when we don’t want to—the root of learning loyalty.”
― Justin Whitmel Earley, Habits of the Household: Practicing the Story of God in Everyday Family Rhythms

“..I didn't yet understand that I could trust what a fallen leaf or an autumn feast, a lilting song or the coming of spring was speaking to me as true. I didn't see that these small glories had been offered to me as communion with my Maker.”
― Sarah Clarkson, This Beautiful Truth: How God's Goodness Breaks into Our Darkness

“God loves messy things. Really. He loves broken people. He loves earnest half efforts that don’t look right to everyone else. God is crazy about loud children (and self-conscious adults) who don’t exactly know how to do the worship thing right but come and give it a shot anyway, because they know that some little bit of God is better than the nothing they have. This is what Christians call grace. And grace is the church at its best, the AA of spirituality: Sinners Anonymous, where the only thing you have to show off is your scars. The only ticket that gets you in is the list of reasons you should be kicked out.”
― Justin Whitmel Earley, Habits of the Household: Practicing the Story of God in Everyday Family Rhythms