But our hearts are more elastic than we think, and the work of forgiveness and transformation and growth can do things you can't even imagine from where you're standing now. Shauna Niequist More Quotes by Shauna Niequist More Quotes From Shauna Niequist When we do the hard, intimate work of friendship, we bring a little more of the divine into daily life. Shauna Niequist daily-life intimate littles We have, each one of us, been entrusted with one life, made up of days and hours and minutes. We're spending them according to our values, whether or not we admit it. Shauna Niequist hours minutes made When things fall apart, the broken pieces allow all sorts of things to enter, and one of them is the presence of God. Shauna Niequist pieces broken fall Grace isn't about having a second chance; grace is having so many chances that you could use them through all eternity and never come up empty. It's when you finally realize that the other shoe isn't going to drop, ever. Shauna Niequist second-chance shoes grace I've spent most of my life and most of my friendships holding my breath and hoping that when people get close enough they won't leave, and fearing that it's a matter of time before they figure me out and go. Shauna Niequist anxiety worry people I believe still today what I have always believed: that God is good, that the world He made is extraordinary, and that His comfort is like nothing else on earth. Shauna Niequist comfort believe world The grandest seduction of all is the myth that DOING EVERYTHING BETTER gets us where we want to be. It gets us somewhere, certainly, but not anywhere worth being Shauna Niequist powerful want writing It's not hard to decide what you want your life to be about. What's hard, she said, is figuring out what you're willing to give up in order to do the things you really care about. Shauna Niequist sacrifice giving-up order I think preparing food and feeding people brings nourishment not only to our bodies but to our spirits. Feeding people is a way of loving them, in the same way that feeding ourselves is a way of honoring our own createdness and fragility. Shauna Niequist food people thinking That's why it's hard, I think, to rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn. I love that line from the Bible, but it's so incredibly difficult sometimes, because when you've got reason to rejoice, you forget what it's like to mourn, even if you swear you never will. And because when you're mourning, the fact that someone close to you is rejoicing seems like a personal affront. Shauna Niequist mourning facts thinking We sometimes choose the most locked up, dark versions of the story, but what a good friend does is turn on the lights, open the window, and remind us that there are a whole lot of ways to tell the same story. Shauna Niequist good-friend light dark In many cases, change is not a function of life's cruelty but instead a function of God's graciousness. Shauna Niequist graciousness function cases I have also long held the belief that one's tears are a guide, that when something makes you cry, it means something. If we pay attention to our tears, they'll show us something about ourselves Shauna Niequist tears long mean Use what you have, use what the world gives you. Use the first day of fall: bright flame before winter's deadness; harvest; orange, gold, amber; cool nights and the smell of fire. Our tree-lined streets are set ablaze, our kitchens filled with the smells of nostalgia: apples bubbling into sauce, roasting squash, cinnamon, nutmeg, cider, warmth itself. The leaves as they spark into wild color just before they die are the world's oldest performance art, and everything we see is celebrating one last violently hued hurrah before the black and white silence of winter. Shauna Niequist winter art fall If we pay attention to our tears, they'll show us something about ourselves. Shauna Niequist tears pay attention Many of the most deeply spiritual moments of my life haven't happened just in my mind or in my soul. They happened while holding my son in the middle of the night, or watching the water break along the shore, or around my table, watching the people I love feel nourished in all sorts of ways. Shauna Niequist spiritual night son Sometimes the happiest ending isn't the one you keep longing for, but something you absolutely cannot see from where you are Shauna Niequist longing where-you-are sometimes My life is a story about who God is and what He does in a human heart. Shauna Niequist stories doe heart When you eat, I want you to think of God, of the holiness of hands that feed us, of the provision we are given every time we eat. When you eat bread and you drink wine, I want you to think about the body and the blood every time, not just when the bread and wine show up in church, but when they show up anywhere- on a picnic table or a hardwood floor or a beach. Shauna Niequist wine beach thinking When you're (traveling) with someone else, you share each discovery, but when you are alone, you have to carry each experience with you like a secret, something you have to write on your heart, because there's no other way to preserve it. Shauna Niequist heart writing discovery
