Sterling Terrell

smart ideas from books

This Is Where People Grow

This Is Where People Grow

Do you know where people grow?

They grow where they are loved.

Shauna Niequist echoed this in her book Bread And Wine.

It’s common sense, if you think about it.

Understand: People want to feel at home.

To the extent that we can foster this warmth in our homes and churches and places of work, I believe, people will gladly stay.

People don’t grow where they’re planted; they grow where they’re loved. Knowing things about the Bible is terrific. But I’d trade in a dozen Bible studies for a bucket full of acceptance—and truth be told, so would everyone around us.

-Bob Goff, Everybody Always

Love And Grace, Undeserved

Love And Grace, Undeserved

Love and grace feel like two sides of the same coin.

For grace appears to be a primary characteristic of love itself. To that: How can one even exist without the other? This answer is not easily pointed to.

Think of the parental relationship:

Love is an unadulterated component of life itself. “You are mine, and therefore I love you.” While grace is an outflow of that primary love.

Thank God, you can not earn your way into it or out of it.

This is not only the story of our parents and our children, but it is also the story of our lives.

And thank goodness for that.

The promise of love and grace in our lives is this: Our worst day isn’t bad enough, and our best day isn’t good enough. We’re invited because we’re loved, not because we earned it.

-Bob Goff, Everybody Always