“Whatever we have done in the past, be it good or evil, great or small, is irrelevant to our stance before God today. It is only NOW that we are in the presence of God.”

That which is denied cannot be healed.

Assured of your salvation by the unique grace of our Lord Jesus Christ” is the heartbeat of the gospel, joyful liberation from fear of the Final Outcome, a summons to self-acceptance, and freedom for a life of compassion toward others.

If asked whether I am finally letting God love me, just as I am, I would answer, ‘No, but I’m trying.

God loves you unconditionally, as you are and not as you should be, because nobody is as they should be.

God is enough. That is the root of peace. When we start seeking something besides Him, we lose it.

The temptation of the age is to look good without being good.

Faithfulness requires the courage to risk everything on Jesus, the willingness to keep growing, and the readiness to risk failure throughout our lives.

A saint is not someone who is good but who experiences the goodness of God.

The sorrow of God lies in our fear of Him, our fear of life, and our fear of ourselves. He anguishes over our self-absorption and self-sufficiency… God’s sorrow lies in our refusal to approach Him when we sinned and failed.

For me the most radical demand of Christian faith lies in summoning the courage to say yes to the present risenness of Jesus Christ.

When absolute control and rigid obedience pose as love within the family and the local faith-community , we produce trained cowards rather than Christian persons.

On the last day, Jesus will look us over not for medals, diplomas, or honors, but for scars.

The deepest desire of our hearts is for union for God. God created us for union with himself. This is the original purpose of our lives.

The secret of the mystery is: God is always greater. No matter how great we think Him to be, His love is always greater.

When our inner child is not nurtured and nourished, our minds gradually close to new ideas, unprofitable commitments and the surprises of the Spirit.

we unwittingly project onto God our own attitudes and feelings toward ourselves… But we cannot assume that He feels about us the way we feel about ourselves — unless we love ourselves compassionately, intensely, and freely.

Every day, parents and teachers ask me, ‘How do I build grit in kids? What do I do to teach kids a solid work ethic? How do I keep them motivated for the long run?’ The honest answer is, I don’t know.

People attain worth and dignity by the multitude of decisions they make from day to day.

I suppose, used a different language or a different etiquette, but ultimately, these are still people that loved and breathed and lived and ate and weed and pooed just like we do now.

The only thing my husband and I have in common is that we were married on the same day.

I don’t know any other way to live but to wake up everyday armed with my convictions, not yielding them to the threat of danger and to the power and force of people who might despise me.

While day by day the overzealous student stores up facts for future use.

The solitude of writing is also quite frightening. It’s quite close to madness, one just disappears for a day and loses touch.

When I first found out I had HIV, I had to find somebody who was living with it, who could help me understand my journey and what I was going to have to deal with day-to-day.