Hannah Sorenson’s Reviews > Secure in the Everlasting Arms > Status Update

^The vow creates the couple, not the couple the vow.^

^A holiday is a holy day, meant to be hallowed—meant also to hallow the rest of life. Alexander Schmemann says that to the man of the past, “a feast was not merely a ‘break’ in an otherwise meaningless and hard life of work, but a justification of that work, its fruit, its—so to speak—transformation into joy and therefore into freedom.^

^Any who long for holiness must learn that that quality cannot be merely “bestowed” on us. Holiness is a lifetime process which requires suffering.^

^I wish I knew the author:

Help me to live this day quietly, easily;
To lean upon Thy great strength trustfully, restfully;
To meet others peacefully, joyously;
To face tomorrow confidently, courageously.^

^But I always remember the donkey—he was not proud. He knew that the palms and hosannas were not for him. They were for Jesus! So when I’m given compliments I make a little bouquet of them at the end of the day, and I give my bouquet to Jesus.^

^Thanksgiving brings contentment.
[…]
Discontent dried up the soul.^

^The trivial round, the common task,
Will furnish all we ought to ask—
Room to deny ourselves, a road
To bring us daily nearer to God.
(John Keble, 1822)^

^The world is full of noise. As Wordsworth said, “Late and soon, getting and spending, we lay waste our powers.” Might we not set ourselves to learn silence, stillness, solitude?^

^It is always possible to do the will of God. In every place and time it is within our power to acquiesce in the will of God.^

^He [George MacDonald] writes, “Questions imply answers. If God has put the question in my heart, then He must hold the answer in His. I will seek them from Him. I will wait, but not until I have knocked. I will be patient, but not until I have asked. I will seek until I find. He has something for me. My prayers shall go up unto the God of my life” (Unspoken Sermons, First series, “The Higher Faith”)^