To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me. It is the most-requested column I’ve ever written.
In time, I found out that in God’s economy nothing is ever wasted. All those “dead-end jobs” prepared me for the job of my dreams in journalism.
Someone once told me the difference between a rut and a grave is this: a rut has a little more room to move around. When I find myself in a rut, I know I better get out fast before it becomes a grave.
Look, at the end of it all, God us going to ask just one question: Did you love? Eh? That’s all that matters. Did you love.
This is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice in it and be glad.
When you finally let go of the person you used to be, you get to discover the person you are now and the person you want to become.
But miracles aren’t what other people do. They’re what each of us does. They’re what happens when ordinary people take extraordinary action.
If you think you’re too small to make a difference, you’ve never been in a tent with a mosquito.
We are all afraid of making the mistake that will ruin our lives. There’s probably no such thing. Even if we made every mistake we feared would ruin us, our lives wouldn’t be ruined. They would be changed.
If you want to accomplish the impossible, get busy on the possible.
Like every wounded woman, I wanted someone who would never hurt me, never let me down, never reject or abandon me. It was an impossible order.
Cry alone and you’ll keep crying those same tears over and over. Cry with someone and those tears have the power to heal you once and for all.
It takes a strong person to cry. It takes a stronger person to let others see those tears.
I don’t always understand how God works, but I still pray. It’s like that old saying, I don’t understand how electricity works, either, but I don’t let that keep me in the dark. I don’t have to understand God to believe in God. What gives me hope are those words some anonymous soul wrote: “I believe in the sun, even when it is not shining. I believe in love, even when I feel it not. I believe in God even when He is silent.
He’d be the first to say God never gives us more than we were designed to carry. Some of us were designed for more, some for less. No matter what, even if we are asked to carry a portion of sky, it is beyond bearable. It is a gift.
We need to stop hiding our tears and actually share them. It takes a strong person to cry. It takes a stronger person to let others see those tears. We need to be tough enough to be tender, no matter who is watching.
Is this reaction about the present moment? Or is it about the past? I can’t change the past. But by changing my response to its leftovers, I can change the present.
Rewiring your thoughts won’t get rid of the holes in your life, but it can prevent you from falling in them.
There’s something special about letting your kids see you cry. It doesn’t mean you’re weak. It means you are human.
Each morning I would start from scratch: forget all about yesterday, and not even think about tomorrow. I’d try to just live in today.
It’s up to us to call forth our greatest light and love and be the miracle, right here, right now.