^{A truth that’s told with bad intent
Beats all the lies you can invent.
~ William Blake}

Reflect, Resonate, Reevaluate, Respond

Where your pleasure is, there is your treasure; Where your treasure is, there is your heart; Where your heart is, there is your happiness.
~ Augustine of Hippo

We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.
~ Thornton Wilder, 1897-1975, playwright and novelist

Exodus 19:2–8;20:1–3;24:7–11

For some, faith begins with a hard shell, a rigid set of answers and platitudes that keep them safe but eventually prevent them from growing into who they could be. The system that was initially protecting them now traps them.
~ Luke Norsworthy, Pastor and writer of God over Good

One of the reasons why I think Christians get tired of hearing about the law is because they never hear why they should obey the law.
~ Kevin DeYoung, taken from The Hole in Our Holiness

Receive every day as a resurrection from death, as a new enjoyment of life; meet every rising sun with such sentiments of God’s goodness, as if you had seen it, and all things, new-created upon your account: and under the sense of so great a blessing, let your joyful heart praise and magnify so good and glorious a Creator.
~ William Law, 1686-1761, Clergy within Church of England

We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God.
~ A. W. Tozer, 1897-1963, The Knowledge of the Holy

Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigour … If at my convenience I might break them, what would be their worth?
~ Charlotte Brontë, 1816-1855, author of Jane Eyre

^{Total need requires total help
~ Karl Barth}

Reflect, Resonate, Reevaluate, Respond

A good conversation always involves a certain amount of complaining. I like to bond over mutual hatreds and petty grievances.
~ Lisa Kleypas, 1964- , contemporary & historical romance novelist

Lament is a cry of belief in a good God, a God who has His ear to our hearts, a God who transfigures the ugly into beauty. Complaint is the bitter howl of unbelief in any benevolent God in this moment, a distrust in the love-beat of the Father’s heart.
~ Ann Voskamp, 1973- , Canadian Author, blogger

Exodus 17:1–7

Beloved, have you ever thought that someday you will not have anything to try you, or anyone to vex you again? There will be no opportunity in heaven to learn or to show the spirit of patience, forbearance, and longsuffering. If you are to practice these things, it must be now.
~ A.B. Simpson, 1843-1919, founder of Christian Missionary Alliance

Gentleness is very close to patience. It’s not surprising to find them both included in Paul’s list of the fruit of the Spirit. What’s the similarity and difference? Well, if patience is the ability to endure hostility and criticism without anger, then gentleness is the ability to endure such things without aggression. Gentleness shows itself when I’ve learned that the Christlike way to respond to conflicts and quarrels, rejection, unfairness, or harsh words spoken against me, is not with bluster and self-defense, not with harsh and aggressive words, not with angry gestures and facial expressions, not with prickles and spikes—but rather, with softness, controlling my tongue and my temper.
~ Christopher J. H. Wright, 1947- , Anglican Clergyman & Scholar

The problem is, many of the people in need of saving are in churches, and at least part of what they need saving from is the idea that God sees the world the same way they do.
~ Barbara Brown Taylor, 1951- , writer speaker and spiritual contrarian

Whenever anything disagreeable or displeasing happens to you remember Christ crucified and be silent.
~ John of the Cross, 1542-1591, Spanish Priest, Doctor of the church