Do you happen to have stack of unread books, staring at you, mocking you? Couple this stack with a bunch of good friends on Goodreads and‘¦well for me, it just reminds me of piles of laundry, dishes in the sink, and paperwork on the counter Sometimes all of this unfinished business starts. to. make. me. crazy!

Don’t get me wrong I love books! Books are friends! So today, we’ve begun to play nice with that snarky stack of books again. We’ve carved out a little time. We’ve curled up on the couch, and we’ve looked for the words that matter to us. The words here have connected with our hearts, and so we share just a few of them now, with you:

Gail

“This is the hardest thing of all to make some of you understand. If I say that this would be disobedience to God, and that is why I cannot “mind my own business,” you will not believe that I am serious. If on the other hand I tell you that to let no day pass without discussing goodness and all the other subjects about which you hear me talking and examining both myself and others is really the very best thing that a man can do, and that life without this sort of examination is not worth living, you will be even less inclined to believe me.” Plato, quoting Socrates, in The Last Days of Socrates.

While not a Christian, Socrates hits on a very important truth of the Christian life: examination. This includes self-examination, but much more also. This is why community is so important, as we strive to come to a more mature knowledge of God. We should be asking questions, and discussing the scriptures and life, together.

Kortnee Leigh

A person could make up his last will and testament, become angry with his designated heirs, and write them out of his will. I say this to my children: “you’re out of the will!” Of course, I am just joking when I say that, but it actually does happen that people are disinherited, written out of people’s wills. But when God makes a covenant with His people,He can punish them for breaking His covenant, but He never abandons the covenant promises that He makes.” The Promises of God, R.C. Sproul

Cati

As women, we like to make sacrifices in one big piece, to give God something grand, but we can’t. Our lives are a mosaic of little things. Like putting a rose in a vase. Pulling a child onto your lap, wiping the tears of a friend, staying up late to meet the needs of someone else, to minister to the spirit of those you come into contact with. The beauty of a grace filled sacrifice. It’s the little stuff, that accumulates and ends up being the big stuff, the noble stuff, the Jesus stuff. Ingrid Trobisch, as quoted by Sally Clarkson, in her Seasons of a Mother’s Heart.