vision

Before you begin a thing, remind yourself that difficulties and delays quite impossible to foresee are ahead. If you could see them clearly, naturally you could do a great deal to get rid of them but you can't. You can only see one thing clearly and that is your goal. Form a mental vision of that and cling to it through thick and thin.
Kathleen Norris

altered

For grace to be grace, it must give us things we didn't know we needed and take us places where we didn't know we didn't want to go. As we stumble through the crazily altered landscape of our lives, we find that God is enjoying our attention as never before.
Kathleen Norris (Acedia & Me: A Marriage, Monks, and a Writer's Life)

ordinary

The Christian religion asks us to put our trust not in ideas, and certainly not in ideologies, but in a God Who was vulnerable enough to become human and die, and Who desires to be present to us in our ordinary circumstances.
Kathleen Norris

made-to-order

If grace is so wonderful, why do we have such difficulty recognizing and accepting it? Maybe it's because grace is not gentle or made-to-order. It often comes disguised as loss, or failure, or unwelcome change.
Kathleen Norris

changed

Prayer is not asking for what you think you want, but asking to be changed in ways you can't imagine.
Kathleen Norris

rewritten

As gentle as feathers
The snow piles high
Our world gets rewritten and retraced every time
Like fresh plates and clean slates
Our future is white
New Years resolutions are reset tonight


Lyrics by Sleeping At Last - Snow

trust

When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don't throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer.

Corrie ten Boom

dust

Hope is springing up from this old ground
Out of chaos life is being found in You

You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of us

Lyrics by Gungor - from You Make Beautiful Things

poignant

If you're listening, if you're awake to the poignant beauty of the world, your heart breaks regularly. In fact, your heart is made to break, it's purpose is to burst open again and again so that it can hold evermore wonder.
Andrew Harvey

free-form

There is something beautiful about a billion stars held steady by a God who knows what He is doing. (They hang there, the stars, like notes on a page of music, free-form verse, silent mysteries swirling in the blue like jazz.)
Donald Miller

ghosts

The branches have traded
Their leaves for white sleeves
All warm blooded creatures make ghosts as they breathe
Scarves are wrapped tightly like gifts under trees

Lyrics by Sleeping At Last - Snow

counts

It is not my ability, but my response to God’s ability, that counts.
Corrie Ten Boom

whirling

Worry is a cycle of inefficient thoughts whirling around a center of fear.
Corrie Ten Boom

temperature

Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart.
Corrie Ten Boom

nothing

My deepest awareness of myself is that I am deeply loved by Jesus Christ and I have done nothing to earn it or deserve it.
Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel

heed

Two types of voices command your attention today. Negative ones fill your mind with doubt, bitterness, and fear. Positive ones purvey hope and strength. Which one will you choose to heed?
Max Lucado

assembly-line

You weren't an accident. You weren't mass produced. You aren't an assembly-line product. You were deliberately planned, specifically gifted, and lovingly positioned on the Earth by the Master Craftsman.
Max Lucado

lightly

Hold everything in your hands lightly, otherwise it hurts when God pries your fingers open.
Corrie ten Boom

prisoner

Forgiveness is unlocking the door to set someone free realizing you were a prisoner.
Max Lucado

gifts

Envy comes from people's ignorance of, or lack of belief in, their own gifts.
Jean Vanier

winter: a slideshow

I recommend playing the Sleeping At Last song, Snow, while watching this slideshow.

special

Remember, you are special because I made you. And I don't make mistakes.
Max Lucado