The Week In Words

Welcome to The Week In Words, where we share quotes from the last week’s reading. If something you read this past week  inspired you, caused you to laugh, cry, think, dream, or just resonated with you in some way, please share it with us, attributing it to its source, which can be a book, newspaper, blog, Facebook — anything that you read. More information is here.

I had planned to post mostly Thanksgiving-related quotes this week…but I have so many other good ones, I hate to wait to post them. I had assembled some Thanksgiving quotes in previous years here and here if you’d like to read them.

But here is one I have not yet published. I tore it out of a radio station’s newsletter that we had received in the mail years ago, tucked it in the drawer to use some time, and then forgot about it. I keep rediscovering it and forgetting about it again. 🙂 So here it is, finally:

The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of Thanksgiving. ~ H. U. Westermayer

Some might argue with the “No Americans have been more impoverished…” part. I don’t know how to go about measuring that. But the truth remains that these people made a day to give thanks after devastatingly hard times.

From a friend’s Facebook:

“This is true obedience. . . when we look not so much to the letter of the law, as to the mind of the law-maker.” John Trapp

That, I think, would keep us from being legalistic or lax.

From another friend’s Facebook:

A quality life is never achieved by focusing on the elimination of what is wrong. True success requires you to focus your mental, emotional, and spiritual energies on pursuing that which is right and good. Trying to become virtuous merely by excluding vice is as unrealistic as trying to cultivate roses simply by eliminating weeds. – Gary Ryan Blair

That is so good. Amen.

I forgot to note where I saw this one:

Haste has worry, fear, and anger as close associates; it is a deadly enemy of kindness, and hence of love. ~ Dallas Willard

That was convicting to me, because it is when I am pressured and hurried that I most most tempted to be short or unkind of thoughtless of others.

Seen at Challies:

I was but a pen in God’s hand, and what praise is due a pen? —John Bunyan

This came from Cary Schmidt’s post ‘Twas the night before chemo about dealing with a lymphoma diagnosis:

Matthew Henry said it this way: “Happy shall we be, if we learn to receive affliction as laid upon us by the hand of God… While there is life there is hope; and instead of complaining that things are bad, we should encourage ourselves with the hope they will be better. We are sinful men, and what we complain of, is far less than our sins deserve. We should complain to God, and not of him.”

What we complain of, is far less than our sins deserve. That does put things into perspective, doesn’t it?

If you’ve read anything that particularly spoke to you that you’d like to share, please either list it in the comments below or write a post on your blog and then put the link to that post (not your general blog link) in Mr. Linky below. I do ask that only family-friendly quotes be included. I hope you’ll visit some of the other participants as well and glean some great thoughts to ponder.

And please — feel free to comment even if you don’t have quotes to share!