Pithy Quotes for 2015

In 2013 and 2014, I offered some pithy phrases, which were aimed at encouraging you to "keep on keeping on." This year, I post some inspirational or humorous quotes to urge you to "go big or go home." I hope 2015 is a bright new year for you and your ministry, full of pith.

"Had any other condition been better for you than the one you are in, Divine Love would have put you there." Charles H. Spurgeon

The Longest Date: Life as a Wife. Book title

"Love pierceth deeper into the truth, and maketh it pierce deeper into us.  As a red-hot iron, though never so blunt, will run farther into an inch board than a cold tool, though never so sharp." Thomas Manton, a Puritan

"Forever is composed of nows." Emily Dickenson

"Inasmuch as in some of the denominations the ladies are silent, except as heard in song, why may not such present their thoughts from time to time in brief essays, to be read by the pastor or some of the brethren in the prayer-meeting? Such a custom in these churches would tend to cultivate the various orders of Christian talent, and give us the benefit of womanly prudence, piety, and wisdom." Lewis O. Thompson, The Prayer-Meeting and Its Improvement, 1878

"Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings." William Arthur Ward

"I am by nature reticent about spending time with people I don't know, and the fact that I would be spending time with these ailing strangers whose homes had been reduced to a small, single shared room was even more daunting. Walking into that place was walking into my discomfort zone." Sue Halpern about visiting a nursing home in Real Simple, February 2015. 

"In God's kingdom, life becomes more secure as we let go, not as we grip tighter." Kelly Kapic on Luke 12: 33,34

"Count the really good blessings twice." Unknown

"Let's charitably put it down again to the ubiquitous weirdness of the Bible." Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, 2008. For an explanation of this unbelief, see Romans 1:21. "For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened."

"Don't try to act young, you could really hurt yourself." Bob Dylan, age 73

"Fitness Tip: Wear workout clothes to the bakery. So when people see you eating a scone, it looks like you earned it." Joe Larson

"Friendships are the bacon bits in the salad bowl of life." As seen outside a pizza restaurant and quoted in a sermon by Edward "Ted" Donnelly.