Pss 16:9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope.
CHANGE
“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”
― Leo Tolstoy
“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.”
― Albert Einstein
“Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.”
― Mary Shelley
“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don't resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.”
― Lao Tzu
ACCEPTANCE
“No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow.”
― Alice Walker
“to love life, to love it even
when you have no stomach for it
and everything you've held dear
crumbles like burnt paper in your hands,
your throat filled with the silt of it.
When grief sits with you, its tropical heat
thickening the air, heavy as water
more fit for gills than lungs;
when grief weights you like your own flesh
only more of it, an obesity of grief,
you think, How can a body withstand this?
Then you hold life like a face
between your palms, a plain face,
no charming smile, no violet eyes,
and you say, yes, I will take you
I will love you, again.”
― Ellen Bass
“Hate is a lack of imagination.”
― Graham Greene
“If God were our one and only desire we would not be so easily upset when our opinions do not find outside acceptance.”
― Thomas à Kempis
HATE
“I have decided to stick to love...Hate is too great a burden to bear.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
“I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.”
― James Baldwin
“Now there is a final reason I think that Jesus says, "Love your enemies." It is this: that love has within it a redemptive power. And there is a power there that eventually transforms individuals. Just keep being friendly to that person. Just keep loving them, and they can’t stand it too long. Oh, they react in many ways in the beginning. They react with guilt feelings, and sometimes they’ll hate you a little more at that transition period, but just keep loving them. And by the power of your love, they will break down under the load. That’s love, you see. It is redemptive, and this is why Jesus says love. There’s something about love that builds up and is creative. There is something about hate that tears down and is destructive. So love your enemies. (from "Loving Your Enemies")”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
“When swimming in an ocean of hate, we never see ourselves as the shark.”
~ Joni Zipp
ARROGANCE
“Arrogance is someone claiming to have come to Christ, but they won't spend more than five minutes listening to your journey because they are more concerned about their own well being, rather than being a true disciple of Christ. Blessed is the person that takes the time to heal and hear another person so they can move on.”
― Shannon L. Alder
“The biggest challenge after success is shutting up about it.”
― Criss Jami
“Arrogance is a creature. It does not have senses.
It has only a sharp tongue and the pointing finger.”
― Toba Beta
“A prig is a fellow who is always making you a present of his opinions.”
― George Eliot
“It may be a species of impudence to think that the way you understand God is the way God is.”
― Joseph Campbell
DIGNITY
“There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me.”
― Jane Austen
“These are the few ways we can practice humility:
To speak as little as possible of one's self.
To mind one's own business.
Not to want to manage other people's affairs.
To avoid curiosity.
To accept contradictions and correction cheerfully.
To pass over the mistakes of others.
To accept insults and injuries.
To accept being slighted, forgotten and disliked.
To be kind and gentle even under provocation.
Never to stand on one's dignity.
To choose always the hardest.”
― Mother Teresa
“Self-respect is the root of discipline: The sense of dignity grows
with the ability to say no to oneself.”
― Abraham Joshua Heschel
“When people want to win they will go to desperate extremes. However, anyone that has already won in life has come to the conclusion that there is no game. There is nothing but learning in this life and it is the only thing we take with us to the grave—knowledge. If you only understood that concept then your heart wouldn’t break so bad. Jealousy or revenge wouldn’t be your ambition. Stepping on others to raise yourself up wouldn’t be a goal. Competition would be left on the playing field, and your freedom from what other people think about you would light the pathway out of hell.”
― Shannon L. Alder
HOPE
“Those who make us believe that anything’s possible and fire our imagination over the long haul, are often the ones who have survived the bleakest of circumstances. The men and women who have every reason to despair, but don’t, may have the most to teach us, not only about how to hold true to our beliefs, but about how such a life can bring about seemingly impossible social change. ”
― Paul Rogat Loeb, The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen's Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear
“Strange as it may seem, I still hope for the best, even though the best, like an interesting piece of mail, so rarely arrives, and even when it does it can be lost so easily.”
― Lemony Snicket
“Hope is such a beautiful word, but it often seems very fragile. Life is still being needlessly hurt and destroyed.”
― Michael Jackson
“Whether we wound or are wounded, the blood that flows is red.”
― Eiichiro Oda
Pss.42:11 “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.”
Job 8:13 “So are the paths of all that forget God; and the hypocrite's hope shall perish:”
