Don't trust in your own strength. None of us is strong in him or herself. It's the Lord who upholds us.

The more she tried to live a perfect life for God, the more she recognized her failings.

God chooses the foolish and weak things of the world to shame the wise and the strong, to show his power and our weakness without him. God's power is perfect in our weakness

Desperation is God's hammer: It demolishes the stronghold of fear and shatters the chains of our excuses. When desperation exceeds our fears, progress begins.

I never thought it would be easy to serve God, she said. I just didn't think it would be this hard.

To use raw power is to make yourself infinitely vulnerable to greater powers.

Aceasta e aberaÈ›ia puterii: în ultim? instan?? este eficace numai într-un Univers absolut, limitat. Dar lecÈ›ia de c?p?tâi a Universului nostru relativist este c? lucrurile se schimb?. Orice putere trebuie s? înfrunte întotdeauna o putere mai mare.

We try to copy these patterns in our lives and our society, seeking the rhythms, the dances, the forms that comfort. Yet, it is possible to see peril in the finding of ultimate perfection. It is clear that the ultimate pattern contains its own fixity. In such perfection, all things move toward death.

One of the most beautiful ways for spiritual formation to take place is to let your insecurity lead you closer to the Lord. Natural hypersensitivity can become an asset; it makes you aware of your need to be with people and it allows you to be more willing to look at their needs.

Some people feel guilty about their anxieties and regard them as a defect of faith but they are afflictions, not sins. Like all afflictions, they are, if we can so take them, our share in the passion of Christ.

In the infinity of life where I am, All is perfect, whole and complete, I no longer choose to believe in old limitations and lack, I now choose to begin to see myself As the Universe sees me --- perfect, whole, and complete.

God can take what Satan meant for shame and use it for His glory. Just when we think we've messed up so badly that our lives are nothing but heaps of ashes, God pours His living water over us and mixes the ashes into clay. He then takes this clay and molds it into a vessel of beauty. After He fills us with His overflowing love, He can use us to pour His love into the hurting lives of others.