Prayers and Thoughts

for Reflection

Lenton Devotional

2007

March 26

The Lord replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

Exodus 33:14

You were born an original.  Don't die a copy. 

John Mason

Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.

Ephesians 4:2

If you cannot be a poet, be the poem. 

David Carradine

You must have control of the authorship of your own destiny.  The pen that writes your life story must be held in your own hand. 

Irene C. Kassorla

Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.
1 John 3:17-18

Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else. 

Judy Garland

He who walks with the wise grows wise.
Proverbs 13:20

It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are. 

e.e. cummings

Do not repay evil with evil, or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing for whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech.  He must turn from evil and do good, he must seek peace and pursue it.

1 Peter 3:9 – 11

Never be bullied into silence.  Never allow yourself to be made a victim. 

Accept no one's definition of your life; define yourself. 

Harvey Fierstein

In your anger do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry.

Ephesians 4:26

Learn to... be what you are, and learn to resign with a good grace all that you are not. 

Henri Frederic Amiel

There is just one life for each of us:  our own. 

Euripides

Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.
Romans 12:10

Is your love patient and kind?  Is it able to suffer long, to endure every strain placed upon it in human relations, and still love?  Is your love as steadfast in pointing to God’s love as is the needle of the compass in pointing to the north?  Is your love undiscouraged even by repeated ingratitude and recurrent failures on the part of others?  Patience and kindness are the fruits of having Christ live in you.  Are you nourishing your life upon His life by prayer and worship and studying His word? If so, the fruit of patient and kind love will grow and will be available for the healing of other lives. We cannot give like God, but surely we may forgive like him.  To love is to place our happiness in the happiness of another.

Author Unknown

I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you.

I love you not only for what you have made of yourself, but for what you are making of me.

I love you because you have done more than any creed could have done to make me good, and more than any fate could have done to make me happy.

You have done it by being yourself.  Perhaps that is what being a friend means, after all.

Author Unknown

Whoever loves his brother, lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. 

I John 2:10

There are many who want me to tell them of secret ways of becoming perfect and I can only tell them that the sole secret is a hearty love of God, and the only way of attaining that love is by loving.  You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working; and just so you learn to love God and man by loving.  Begin as a mere apprentice and the very own of love will lead you on to become a master of the art.

St. Francis De Sales

Heavenly Father, remind me each day that you are at work within me and around me. Open my eyes to see your divine touch in all things.  Please add love to my heart and action to my faith.  Amen.