Real Love

"A person who feels loved, lives with relief that they do not have to perform. They live with joy to know they are acceptable as they are. They live with hope because they are not alone."
~Sally Clarkson

Quote from Bernard of Clairvaux

"What we love we shall grow to resemble."

~Bernard of Clairvaux

Love At Home

"If I live in a house of spotless beauty with everything in its place,
but have not love, I am a housekeeper–not a homemaker.
If I have time for waxing, polishing, and decorative achievements,
but have not love, my children learn cleanliness–not godliness.

Love leaves the dust in search of a child’s laugh.
Love smiles at the tiny fingerprints on a newly cleaned window.
Love wipes away the tears before it wipes up the spilled milk.
Love picks up the child before it picks up the toys.

Love is present through the trials.
Love reprimands, reproves, and is responsive.
Love crawls with the baby, walks with the toddler, runs with the child,
then stands aside to let the youth walk into adulthood.
Love is the key that opens salvation’s message to a child’s heart.

Before I became a mother I took glory in my house of perfection.
Now I glory in God’s perfection of my child.
As a mother, there is much I must teach my child,
but the greatest of all is love."

~Author Unknown

Quote from Augustine

"There can only be two basic loves, the love of God unto the forgetfulness of self, or the love of self unto the forgetfulness and denial of God."

                          ~Augustine

Paradoxical Commandments

 "People are unreasonable, illogical and self-centered.

Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish motives.

Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.

Be honest anyway.

The biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest people with the smallest minds.

Think big anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.

Build anyway.

People really need help but may turn against you if you help them.

Help them anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you may get kicked in the teeth.

Give the world the best you've got anyway."

~The Paradoxical Commandments by Dr. Kent M. Keith, 1968

Quote Barbara Hughes

"In 1810 the soon-to-be wife of Adoniram Judson penned these words: 'If nothing in providence appears to prevent, I must spend my days in a heathen land. I am a creature of God, and he has an undoubted right to do with me as seems good in his sight...He has my heart in his hands...I care not where I perform his work, nor how hard it be. Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.' "

                     ~Taken from Disciplines of a Godly Woman by Barbara Hughes

Quote from Jean Vanier

"Love is to reveal the beauty of another person to themselves."

                             ~ Jean Vanier

Quote from James Allen

"You will always gravitate toward that which you most love."

                            ~James Allen, As A Man Thinketh