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You don’t choose your family. They are God’s gift to you, as you are to them.

Tutu Desmond

A person is a person through other persons; you can’t be human in isolation; you are human only in relationships.
TUTU DESMOND

Alone Human Person Relationship
Forgiveness does not relieve someone of responsibility for what they have done. Forgiveness does not erase accountability. It is not about turning a blind eye or even turning the other cheek.
TUTU DESMOND

Accountable Eyes Forgiveness Philosophy Responsibility
Religion is like a knife: you can either use it to cut bread, or stick in someone’s back.
TUTU DESMOND

Deep Hurt Religion
Don’t raise your voice, improve your argument.
TUTU DESMOND

Argument Improvement One Liner Raise Voice Yourself
We are not responsible for what breaks us, but we can be responsible for what puts us back together again. Naming the hurt is how we begin to repair our broken parts.
TUTU DESMOND

Break Healing Hurt Repair Responsibility Togetherness
We have hardship without becoming hard. We have heartbreaks without being broken.
TUTU DESMOND

Break Hard Heart Broken Philosophy
A person is a person through other persons.
TUTU DESMOND

Deep One Liner Person Philosophy
When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said “Let us pray.” We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land.
TUTU DESMOND

Eyes Land Oppression Religion War
Dear Child of God, I write these words because we all experience sadness, we all come at times to despair, and we all lose hope that the suffering in our lives and in the world will ever end.
TUTU DESMOND

End Experience God Hope Live Lose Sad Suffer Time Word World Writing
There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream to find out why they’re falling in.
TUTU DESMOND

Deep Fall People Pull River Stop
We are made for loving. If we don’t love, we will be like plants without water.
TUTU DESMOND

Love Philosophy Plant
Transformation begins in you, wherever you are, whatever has happened, however you are suffering. Transformation is always possible.
TUTU DESMOND

Beginning Possible Suffer Transformation
A very important but difficult piece of renewing relationships is accepting responsibility for our part in any conflict.
TUTU DESMOND

Acceptance Difficult Relationship
To protect our children, we must talk to them about rape.
TUTU DESMOND

Children Protect Sex Violence
We learn from history that we don’t learn from history.
TUTU DESMOND

History Learning Sarcastic
Life of wholeness does not depend on what we experience. Wholeness depends on how we experience our lives
TUTU DESMOND

Deep Experience Human Life Live Philosophy Whole

You don’t choose your family. They are God’s gift to you, as you are to them.

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You don’t choose your family. They are God’s gift to you, as you are to them.

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Popular Authors

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