Quotes about Struggle
Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult, and not tried.
— GK Chesterton
If there is one thing young engaged couples need to hear, it's that a good marriage is not something you find; it's something you work for. It takes struggle. You must crucify your selfishness. You must at times confront and at other times confess. The practice of forgiveness is essential. This is undeniably hard work. But eventually it pays off. Eventually, it creates a relationship of beauty, trust, and mutual support.
— Gary Thomas
There are certain people who drain us, demean us, and distract us from other healthy relationships. Long after they're gone, we're still fighting with them in our minds and trying to get them out of our hearts. They keep us awake. They steal our joy. They demolish our peace. They make us (if we're honest with ourselves) weaker spiritually. They even invade times of worship and pervert them into seasons of fretting.
— Gary Thomas
Everyone who enters the marriage relationship will come to a point where the marriage starts to rub somewhat adversely. It is for these times that the promise is made. Anticipating struggle, God has ordained a remedy, holding us to our word of commitment. In this struggle we become nobler people.
— Gary Thomas
If we take our faith seriously and make our way through a difficult marriage in pursuit of witnessing God's reconciling love for a sinful world, then a difficult marriage becomes part of our exercise to prepare us for heaven.
— Gary Thomas
I would not consider any spirituality worthwhile that wants to walk in sweetness and ease and run from the imitation of Christ.
— Gary Thomas
The desire for ease, comfort, and stress-free living is an indirect desire to remain an "unseasoned," immature Christian. Struggle makes us stronger; it builds us up and deepens our faith.
— Gary Thomas
We must never be naïve enough to think of marriage as a safe harbor from the fall... The deepest struggles of life will occur in the most primary relationship affected by the fall: marriage."
— Gary Thomas
A heavyweight boxing champion who dodges all serious contenders to consistently fight marshmallows is derided and ridiculed—and rightly so. Christians who dodge all serious struggle and consciously seek to put themselves in whatever situations and relationships are easiest are doing the same thing—they are coasting, and eventually that coasting will define them and—even worse—shape them.
— Gary Thomas
This is the reality of the human heart, the inevitability of two sinful people pledging to live together, with all their faults, for the rest of their lives.
— Gary Thomas
Everytime I try to fly, I fall Without my wings, I feel so small; I guess I need you baby And Everytime I see you in my dreams, I'll see your face, It's haunting me, I guess I need you baby
— Britney Spears
The good jihad. It sounds like an oxymoron, until you look in your Bible at 2 Timothy 4:7. Paul says, "I have fought the good fight." In the Arabic translation those last three words are rendered "the good jihad." We
— Brother Andrew