the joy and terror of being a parent

"Being a parent is the greatest combination of joy and terror one can experience."
~ David Letterman
10-17-2013 show, YouTube

Be in charge of how and when you heal

"We could spend our whole lives waiting for someone to apologize or take responsibility for how they hurt us before we decide to let go.
But the problem with that scenario is, we've made someone else in charge of how and when we heal.
If we truly want to break a cycle and heal, we have to forget about what the other person is or isn't doing, and focus entirely on our own process."
~ Rising Woman, Mindful Christianity

Samuel Rutherford Quotes

Samuel Rutherford Quotes
Scottish Theologian, 1600-1661
https://www.azquotes.com/author/12820-Samuel_Rutherford

Humility is a strange flower; it grows best in winter weather, and under storms of affliction.
~ Samuel Rutherford
Samuel Rutherford (1885). “Quaint Sermons of Samuel Rutherford: Hitherto Unpublished”

Believe God's love and power more than you believe your own feelings and experiences. Your rock is Christ, and it is not the rock that ebbs and flows but the sea.
~ Samuel Rutherford

They lose nothing who gain Christ.
~ Samuel Rutherford
Samuel Rutherford (1765). “Joshua redivivus, or Mr Rutherford's letters”, p.321

I urge you a nearer communion with Christ, and a growing communion. There are curtains to be opened in Christ that we have never seen before... Therefore dig deep, and sweat, and labor. Take pains for Him, and set aside as much time as you can in each day for Him.
~ Samuel Rutherford

In our fluctuations of feelings, it is well to remember that Jesus admits no change in His affections; your heart is not the compass Jesus saileth by.
~ Samuel Rutherford

I find it most true that the greatest temptation outside of hell is to live without temptations; if water stands, it rots; faith is the better for the sharp winter storm in its face and grace withers without adversity. The devil is but God's master fencer to teach us to handle our weapons.
~ Samuel Rutherford

I pray God that I may never find my will again. Oh, that Christ would subject my will to His, and trample it under His feet.
~ Samuel Rutherford
Samuel Rutherford (1863). “Letters of Samuel Rutherford: With a Sketch of His Life”, p.174

O my Lord Jesus Christ, if I could be in heaven without Thee, it would be hell; and if I could be in hell, and have Thee still, it would be heaven to me, for Thou are all the heaven I want.
~ Samuel Rutherford

The secret formula of the saints:
When I am in the cellar of affliction, I look for the Lord's choicest wines.
~ Samuel Rutherford

The great Master Gardener, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, in a wonderful providence, with his own hand, planted me here, where by his grace, in this part of his vineyard, I grow; and here I will abide till the great Master of the vineyard think fit to transplant me.
~ Samuel Rutherford
Samuel Rutherford (1867). “Letters of the Rev. Samuel Rutherford”, p.487

I have been benefited by praying for others; for by making an errand to God for them I have gotten something for myself.
~ Samuel Rutherford
Samuel Rutherford (1818). “Joshua redivivus, or, three hundred and fifty-two religious letters: to which is added a testimony to the convenanted work of Reformation between 1638 and 1649”, p.148

Praise God for the hammer, the file, and the furnace. The hammer molds us, the file sharpens us, and the fire tempers us.
~ Samuel Rutherford

Verily, we know not what an evil it is to indulge ourselves, and to make an idol of our will.
~ Samuel Rutherford
Samuel Rutherford (1845). “Religious Letters”, p.80

You will not get to steal quietly into heaven, into Christ's company, without a conflict and a cross. I find crosses to be Christ's carved work that he marks out for us and that with crosses he portraits us to his own image, cutting away pieces of our ill and corruption. Lord cut - Lord carve - Lord wound - Lord do anything that may perfect thy Father's image in us and make us ready for glory.
~ Samuel Rutherford

Be not cast down. If ye saw Him who is standing on the shore, holding out His arms to welcome you to land, ye would wade, not only through a sea of wrongs, but through hell itself to be with Him.
~ Samuel Rutherford
Samuel Rutherford (1863). “Letters of Samuel Rutherford: With a Sketch of His Life”, p.92

No pen, no words, no image can express to you the loveliness of my only, only Lord Jesus.
~ Samuel Rutherford
Samuel Rutherford (1867). “Letters of the Rev. Samuel Rutherford”, p.344

Show yourself a Christian by suffering without murmuring. In patience possess your soul - they lose nothing who gain Christ.
~ Samuel Rutherford
Samuel Rutherford (1867). “Letters of the Rev. Samuel Rutherford”, p.360

Howbeit your faith seeth but the black side of providence, yet it hath a better side, and God shall let you see it. ... “For we know that all things work together for good to them that love God,” ergo, shipwreck, losses, &c., work together for the good of them that love God: hence I infer, that losses, disappointments, ill tongues, loss of friends, houses, or country, are God's workmen, set on work to work out good to you, out of everything that befalleth you.
~ Samuel Rutherford
"Letters of the Rev. Samuel Rutherford".

Since He looked upon me my heart is not my own. He hath runaway to heaven with it.
~ Samuel Rutherford
Samuel Rutherford, Hamilton Smith (2008). “Extracts from the Letters of Samuel Rutherford”, p.83, Scripture Truth

Our little time of suffering is not worthy of our first night's welcome home to Heaven.
~ Samuel Rutherford
Samuel Rutherford (1818). “Joshua redivivus, or, three hundred and fifty-two religious letters: to which is added a testimony to the convenanted work of Reformation between 1638 and 1649”, p.124

My Lord Jesus has fully recompensed my sadness with his joys, my losses with his own presence. I find it a sweet and rich thing to exchange my sorrows with Christ's joys, my afflictions with that sweet peace I have with himself.
~ Samuel Rutherford
Samuel Rutherford (1824). “Joshua redivivus: or, three hundred and fifty two religious letters ... To which is added, the Author's testimony to the covenanted work of reformation, between 1638 and 1649 ... As also, a large preface and postscript ... by the Rev. Mr. McWard. The tenth edition”, p.40

After winter comes the summer. After night comes the dawn. And after every storm, there comes clear, open skies.
~ Samuel Rutherford

Christ chargeth me to believe His daylight at midnight.
~ Samuel Rutherford
Samuel Rutherford (1848). “Letters of ... Samuel Rutherford, whith biogr. notices of his correspondents, by J. Anderson, and a sketch of his life, &c., by A.A. Bonar”, p.543

My faith has no bed to sleep upon but omnipotence.
~ Samuel Rutherford

There is nothing that will make you a Christian indeed, but a taste of the sweetness of Christ.
~ Samuel Rutherford
Samuel Rutherford (1863). “Letters of Samuel Rutherford: With a Sketch of His Life”, p.259

the cellar of affliction

"When I am in the cellar of affliction, I look for the Lord's choicest wines."

~ Samuel Rutherford,
Scottish Theologian, 1600-1661

telling the truth is a revolutionary act

“In times of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”

~ Author unknown
(quote has been mistakenly attributed to George Orwell's novel 1984)

God Uses Everything

"When I understand that everything happening to me
is to make me more Christlike,
it resolves a great deal of anxiety."
~ A.W. Tozer

Matthew 5:3–4, Message paraphrase:
“You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope.
With less of you there is more of God and his rule.
You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you.
Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.”
~ Eugene Peterson

“When we lose what is most dear to us on earth,
we value our heavenly Father’s embrace even more.”
~ Vaneetha Rendall Risner

from:
December 7, 2019
God Uses Everything
Why Our Suffering Is Never Wasted
by Vaneetha Rendall Risner
https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/god-uses-everything

a document containing enough dynamite . . .

“You Christians look after a document containing enough dynamite to blow all civilisation to pieces, turn the world upside down and bring peace to a battle-torn planet. But you treat it as though it is nothing more than a piece of literature.”
~ Mahatma Gandhi

If Christians would really live according to the teachings of Christ . . .

When the missionary E. Stanley Jones met with Gandhi he asked him,
“Mr. Gandhi, though you quote the words of Christ often, why is that you appear to so adamantly reject becoming his follower?”
Gandhi replied, “Oh, I don’t reject Christ. I love Christ. It’s just that so many of you Christians are so unlike Christ.”
“If Christians would really live according to the teachings of Christ, as found in the Bible, all of India would be Christian today,” he added.

from http://in.christiantoday.com/articledir/print.htm?id=2837

Vocation — Frederick Buechner

Vocation — Frederick Buechner

www.frederickbuechner.com/quote-of-the-day/2018/12/12/vocation

VOCATION COMES FROM the Latin vocare, "to call," and means the work a person is called to by God.
There are all different kinds of voices calling you to all different kinds of work, and the problem is to find out which is the voice of God rather than of society, say, or the superego, or self-interest.
By and large a good rule for finding out is this: The kind of work God usually calls you to is the kind of work (a) that you need to do and (b) that the world needs to have done. If you really get a kick out of your work, you've presumably met requirement (a), but if your work is writing cigarette ads, the chances are you've missed requirement (b). On the other hand, if your work is being a doctor in a leper colony, you have probably met requirement (b), but if most of the time you're bored and depressed by it, the chances are you have not only bypassed (a), but probably aren't helping your patients much either.
Neither the hair shirt nor the soft berth will do. The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet.

-Originally published in Wishful Thinking and later in Beyond Words

Unconditional love?

"Let me be clear, my love is unconditional,
but your presence in my life is not."
"I'll have no problem unconditionally loving the memory of you."
~ Mars

The Christmas 5-Gift Rule

With the 5-gift rule, each person gets just five gifts for Christmas:
Something you want,
Something you need,
Something to wear,
Something to read, and
Something to make.

~ from Facebook

quotes from Jan Karon - Somewhere Safe with Somebody Good: The New Mitford Novel

quotes from Jan Karon - Somewhere Safe with Somebody Good: The New Mitford Novel
Kindle edition, as of 11/25/2019

It’s what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it. Oscar Wilde

Bonhoeffer said: “We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God.”

All that happens to us, including our humiliations, our misfortunes, our embarrassments, all is given to us as raw material, as clay, so that we may shape our art. JL Borges

Charles Dickens said, It opens the lungs, washes the countenance, exercises the eyes, and softens the temper—so cry away.

Victor Hugo. ‘“Sleep in peace, God is awake.”’

All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really happened [Ernest Hemingway]

what Julian of Norwich said as she suffered a devastating illness of her own: “All shall be well and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.”

‘“All that I have seen,” Mr. Emerson said and I say with him, “teaches me to trust the Creator for all that I have not seen.”’

‘Deep in their roots,’ Roethke had said, ‘all flowers keep the light.’

‘Mazel tov!’ Abe would say. ‘May you live to finance the education of your grandchildren!’

"Loneliness is the leprosy of the modern world" Mother Teresa

“The greatest disease in the West today is not TB or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is love. There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread but there are many more dying for a little love. The poverty in the West is a different kind of poverty -- it is not only a poverty of loneliness but also of spirituality. There's a hunger for love, as there is a hunger for God.”
~ Mother Teresa, A Simple Path: Mother Teresa  (1995)

Mother Teresa saw loneliness as leprosy of the West
News-Times, The (Danbury, CT), The Rev. Kendall Palladino Published 1:00 am EDT, Saturday, April 17, 2004
quote:
Ever since I first heard about Mother Teresa, I admired her. For this reason, I decided to join a team working with her in Calcutta in 1994. I will never forget her words to me because they changed the course of my life and helped me understand some of the needs in our country.
After a day working together, Mother Teresa spoke with our team. I told Mother Teresa that I planned to enter medical school after seminary to work with people with leprosy overseas.
Mother Teresa surprised me when she said, "Why do you want to do that?"
She continued, "There is a poverty in your country that is just as severe as our poorest of the poor."
I wondered what she could mean by that, since I had seen poverty that would make even our poorest in the United States look wealthy.
Mother Teresa went on to say, "In the West there is a loneliness, which I call the leprosy of the West. In many ways, it is worse than our poor in Calcutta."
The implication of her statement was that I should look first for the difference that I could make right around me. She said that we make a difference one person at a time. . . .
https://www.newstimes.com/news/article/Mother-Teresa-saw-loneliness-as-leprosy-of-the-250607.php

"It is easy to love the people far away. It is not always easy to love those close to us. It is easier to give a cup of rice to relieve hunger than to relieve the loneliness and pain of someone unloved in our own home. Bring love into your home for this is where our love for each other must start."
~ Mother Teresa

"When Christ said: I was hungry and you fed me, he didn't mean only the hunger for bread and for food; he also meant the hunger to be loved.
Jesus himself experienced this loneliness. He came amongst his own and his own received him not, and it hurt him then and it has kept on hurting him. The same hunger, the same loneliness, the same having no one to be accepted by and to be loved and wanted by.
Every human being in that case resembles Christ in his loneliness; and that is the hardest part, that's real hunger."
~Mother Teresa
Teresa (Mother), Roger (frère) (1986). “Meditations on the Way of the Cross”, Burns & Oates

"Loneliness is the leprosy of the modern world."
~ Mother Teresa

Shared Mottos

Shared Mottos
https://www.masteryconsulting.net/post/join-our-motto-share

“Treat others as you want to be treated.”
Several people responded that the eternally simple and effective Golden Rule will always be their primary motto.

“It’s all about perspective.”
We come to our opinions through our current perspective, and if our perspective shifts, our ideas and actions may shift too. Understanding another’s perspective helps me understand their actions. D.S.

“It’s not what happens to us; it’s who we are within what happens to us.”
Nobody is spared a share of ugliness, fear, and despair in their lives, but what defines those dark times is who we choose to be in those times. This is the part that defines us and is lasting. D.S.

“This is where we are, not who we are.”
from singer-songwriter Billy Bragg

“Measure from the bottom up, not the top-down.”
This motto reminds me to give myself credit for what I’ve done, not what I didn’t do. S.B.

“Leave the place better than you found it.”
I use it when camping but also for people too. This means fixing typos, sharing resources, spreading the wealth when I pass along stuff that someone gave me that others might use), smiling at strangers on my walk to work, saying ‘good morning’ to co-workers when I come into work, holding a door for others, and picking up trash. K.W.

Resolutely, Ridiculously, Radically, Remarkably, Resilient.
This has been my motto for the past four years and was well earned. Karin Rex (Geeky Girl)

Beauty, Order, Simplicity, Grace.
These values help me to set priorities and make choices. B. G.

"The inevitable corollary to self-righteousness is contempt for other people."

"The inevitable corollary to self-righteousness is contempt for other people."
~ author unknown, can't find source again

Self-righteousness (also called sanctimoniousness, sententiousness, and holier-than-thou attitudes) is a feeling or display of (usually smug) moral superiority derived from a sense that one's beliefs, actions, or affiliations are of greater virtue than those of the average person. Self-righteous individuals are often intolerant of the opinions and behaviors of others.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-righteousness

quotes on how to stay married for a long time

quotes on how to stay married for a long time:

In her book "Wedding Toasts I'll Never Give," the writer Ada Calhoun recounts asking her mom, in a fit of frustration with her husband, how she had stayed married.
Her mother's response: "Don't get divorced."

The actor Jamie Lee Curtis expressed a similar sentiment when asked about her longtime marriage to actor-director Christopher Guest.
"It's a fascinating thing," Curtis told Today in 2015. "I could write a book on marriage called 'Don't Leave.'"
She later elaborated in an interview with Good Housekeeping. "There's a recovery phrase that says, 'Stay on the bus...the scenery will change,'" she said. "I think it can apply to almost anything where you feel unhappy in that moment. I'm not a wild romantic. I'm a realist. I respect him. And I just don't leave."

Gwyneth Paltrow shared something her late father had said of his and her mother's long union:
"How did you and Mom stay married for 33 years?" she asked him.
" 'Well,' he said, 'we never wanted to get divorced at the same time.' "

quotes from CNN "This may be the secret to Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter's amazingly long marriage" by Peggy Drexler, October 19, 2019, https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/19/opinions/jimmy-carter-rosalynn-carter-long-marriage-drexler/index.html  as of 10/20/2019

other quotes:

"The best way to get most husbands to do something is
to suggest that perhaps they're too old to do it."
~ Shirley MacLaine

"Always look out for Number One
and be careful not to step in Number Two."
~ Rodney Dangerfield

"Do it once.  Do it right.  And never do it again."
~ Unknown

"The secret to a happy marriage is the same as the secret for alligator wrestling.
You must never let go."

"If dependence upon God is the objective, weakness is an advantage."

"If dependence upon God is the objective, weakness is an advantage."
~ Rev. Alistair Begg, Truth for Life

Christians celebrating Halloween

Hillsong pastor Nathan Finochio addressing criticism that Christians who celebrate Halloween are participating in a pagan practice and glorifying the devil:
A follower asked Finochio “Halloween yes or no?” and he replied with a very detailed response.
“Pagan Feast of Winter Solstice? Oh that’s now JESUS BIRTHDAY.
Pagan Feast of Spring Planting? Oh that’s now EASTER WEEKEND.
Pagan Celtic Festival involving dressing up and warding off evil spirits? Oh now it’s ALL SAINTS DAY and we celebrate the VICTORIOUS CHURCH THAT HAS BEEN OVERCOME BY THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB!!! CANDY PLEASE!!!” he wrote.
The pastor added, “I’m not afraid of any devil or demon or incantation. They are terrified of me. Halloween is now MY HOLIDAY and I am claiming all candy for the glory of God and the celebration of the Saints.
What now? I’ll dress up however I like! My favorite characters, pop culture stuff, whatever. It’s my party and you’re invited. I’m alive today and a Saint tomorrow. Give me candy.”

www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/celebrity/hailey-baldwin-claps-back-at-fake-christian-halloween-comments/ar-AAJ2h0q

Native American Seven Generations Teaching

Indigenous Practices and Seven Generations Teaching

Seven Generations Teaching: What we do today impacts the next seven generations to come. Conversely, what happened in the past seven generations impacts us today.

The Seven Generations Teaching is a concept that is part of many North American Indigenous cultures, specifically the Anishnaabe. Many understand this teaching as what you do today affects the next seven generations. We can have a positive impact on the next seven generations or a negative impact depending upon our choices as individuals and as a collective. This teaching also reflects upon knowing your ancestors, the past seven generations. If you do not know where you have come from you will not know where you are going.

quoted from:
Western University
Scholarship@Western
Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International (APRCi)
8-18-2009
Beyond Recovery: Colonization, Health and Healing for Indigenous People in Canada
Lynn F. Lavallee
Jennifer M. Poole

Citation of this paper: Lavallee, Lynn F. and Poole, Jennifer M., "Beyond Recovery: Colonization, Health and Healing for Indigenous People in Canada" (2009).Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International (APRCi). 254. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/aprci/254

https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1190&context=aprci


"Rich people plan for four generations.
Poor people plan for Saturday Night."
~ Gloria Steinem

Responding to Unjust Accusations

“Tammie Jo, you will never be held responsible for what they say to you. You will be held accountable for every word you say to others. Let God take care of them.”

~ Jerolene Bonnell, the mother of Captain Tammie Jo Bonnell Shults, Navy lieutenant commander pilot, Southwest Airlines pilot, Captain of Southwest Flight 1380, author of Nerves of Steel

We are called to live by faith — not fairness.
~ Habbakuk 2:4

Contend, O Lord, with those who contend with me; fight against those who fight against me.
~ Psalm 35:1

The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.
~ Exodus 14:14

Do not be afraid of them; the Lord your God himself will fight for you.
~ Deuteronomy 3:22