Quotes about Acceptance
The fundamental fact about baptism will always be its involvement with the death of Christ ... The prevenient aspect of the grace of God lies not in the temporal priority of the acts of God in baptism in comparison with the conscious acceptance of the divine promise, but in the temporal priority of the cross of Christ with respect to the baptized person, whether child or adult.
— GC Berkouwer
The authority of God's Word is not an arbitrary, external authority. It is a wooing and conquering authority. Scripture's authority does not demand blind obedience, rather a subjection that spells redemption, a subjection to Christ whereby he is never out of view in which acceptance occurs with joy and willingness.
— GC Berkouwer
It is possible to speak concretely about God's providnce only on the basis of the blood of the cross ... He who sees things this way will never succumb to the temptation to identify prosperity with blessing and adversity with curse. In faith ... one can accept prosperity as the gift of God and adversity as God's hand graciously leading him to faith.
— GC Berkouwer
it may feel as if they just want you to stop being you.
— Gary Thomas
You don't marry a position. You marry a person.
— Gary Thomas
View marriage as an entryway into sanctification — as a relationship that will reveal your sinful behaviors and attitudes and give you the opportunity to address them before the Lord. But here's the challenge: Don't give in to the temptation to resent your partner as your own weaknesses are revealed. Don't run from what you are hearing about yourself, or push your spouse away because of it — accept it and use it to grow.
— Gary Thomas
No husband comes in a perfect package. No husband can do it all. Your job as a wife is to fight to stay sensitive to your husband's strengths. Resist the temptation to compare his weaknesses to another husband's strengths, while forgetting your husband's strengths and that other husband's weaknesses.
— Gary Thomas
If you're trying to find your primary refuge in your husband, if you've centered your hope on him, if your security depends on his approval, and if you will do almost anything to gain his acceptance, then you've just given to a man what rightfully belongs to God alone. And that means you've turned marriage into idol worship.
— Gary Thomas
No man can be everything. A successful long-distance cyclist can't be a bodybuilder. Though there are exceptions, dedicating one's time to becoming exceptional at one thing usually means not being exceptional at a whole lot of other things. Since no man can be everything, one of the best gifts to give is acceptance-'You don't have to be anything other than what you are.
— Gary Thomas
If you're trying to find your primary refuge in your husband, if you've centered your hope on him, if your security depends on his approval, and if you will do almost anything to gain his acceptance, then you've just given to a man what rightfully belongs to God alone.
— Gary Thomas
If we learned to float in sorrow rather than thrash about like a drowning emotional victim, We might find that it can be used to set us free.
— Gary Thomas
None of us can live up to the law; all of us will break it. Marriage teaches us — indeed, it practically forces us — to learn to live by extending grace and forgiveness to people who have sinned against us. If I can learn to forgive and accept my imperfect spouse, I'll be well equipped to offer forgiveness outside my marriage. Forgiveness, I'm convinced, is so unnatural an act that it takes practice to perfect it.
— Gary Thomas