I don’t need to punish people for sin. Sin is its own punishment, devouring you from the inside. It’s not my purpose to punish it; it’s my joy to cure it.
Don’t ever discount the wonder of your tears. They can be healing waters and a stream of joy. Sometimes they are the best words the heart can speak.
Trust is the fruit of a relationship in which you know you are loved.
I suppose that since most of our hurts come through relationships so will our healing, and I know that grace rarely makes sense for those looking in from the outside.
Forgiveness in no way requires that you trust the one you forgive.
Forgiveness is not about forgetting. It is about letting go of another person’s throat.
So many believe that it is love that grows, but it is the knowing that grows and love simply expands to contain it.
Life takes a bit of time and a lot of relationship.
You can kiss your family and friends good-bye and put miles between you, but a the same time you carry them with you in your heart, your mind your stomach, because you do not just live in a world but a world lives in you.
I don’t just want a piece of you and a piece of your life. Even if you were able, which you are not, to give me the biggest piece, that is not what I want. I want all of you and all of every part of you and your day.
Grace doesn’t depend on suffering to exist, but where there is suffering you will find grace in many facets and colors.
Relationships are never about power, and one way to avoid the will to power is to choose to limit oneself- to serve.
You cannot produce trust just like you cannot ‘do’ humility. It either is or is not.
I am especially fond of you.
If a rainbow makes a sound, or a flower as it grows, that was the sound of her laughter.
You don’t play a game or color a picture with a child to show your superiority. Rather, you choose to limit yourself so as to facilitate and honor that relationship.
Let me say for now that we knew once the Creation was broken, true fathering would be much more lacking than mothering. Don’t misunderstand me, both are needed- but an emphasis on fathering is necessary because of the enormity of its absence.
Authority, as you usually think of it, is merely the excuse the strong use to make others conform to what they want.