01UndatedMy mom used to say that faith and fear can't exist simultaneously in the mind any more than light and dark can exist simultaneously in the same room.Richard Paul Evans / quote ↗
03UndatedThe truest grace is not to forgive, but to have never found fault.Richard Paul Evans / quote ↗
06UndatedTo forgive is to unlock the cage of another's folly to set ourselves free.Richard Paul Evans / quote ↗
07UndatedI don't think it is as much a human foible as it is a human curse that we cannot understand the beauty of a thing until it is gone.Richard Paul Evans / quote ↗
09UndatedI think the secret to a hoppy life is a selective memory. Remember what you are most grateful for and quickly forget what your not.Richard Paul Evans / quote ↗
10UndatedThe human life cycle no less than evolves around the box; from the open-topped box called a bassinet, to the pine box we call a coffin, the box is our past and, just as assuredly, our future. It should not surprise us then that the lowly box plays such a significant role in the first Christmas story. For Christmas began in a humble, hay-filled box of splintered wood. The Magi, wise men who had traveled far to see the infant king, laid treasure-filled boxes at the feet of that holy child. And in the end, when He had ransomed our sins with His blood, the Lord of Christmas was laid down in a box of stone. How fitting that each Christmas season brightly wrapped boxes skirt the pine boughs of Christmas trees around the world.Richard Paul Evans / quote ↗
11UndatedSo I've been thinking. Do you believe there's a hell?""Sure. Doesn't everybody?""Well, what if this is hell, but we just don't know it?""That's crazy. Hell is like lakes of fire, and there are devils with horns and pitchforks. here's none of those around here.""But what if hell's not really like that?" Grace asked. "Everyone says it's that way," I said. "I don't think Jesus every talked about fire and brimstone.""Then why do they teach us that at church?""To scare us.""Why would they want to scare us?""I don't know. I just don't think God wants us to do good things because we're scared. I think he wants us to do good things because we're good.Richard Paul Evans / quote ↗
12UndatedI don't want to go to Peru."How do you know? You've never been there."I've never been to hell either and I'm pretty sure I don't want to go there.Richard Paul Evans / quote ↗
13UndatedThe study showed that chronic loneliness impacts out bodies as negatively as smoking two packs of cigarettes a day. Not the same way, of course, just the life risk part. And there's more bad news. The article went on to say that lonely people had worse reactions to flu shots that non-lonelies (I think I just made up that word; my computer put a red squiggly line under it) and that loneliness depresses the immune system. On other words, if you're lonely, not even your body wants to be around you, so it tries to off itself.Richard Paul Evans / quote ↗
15UndatedThe thing is, the only real sign of life is growth. And growth requires pain. So to choose life is to accept pain. Some people go to such lengths to avoid pain that they give up on life. They bury their hearts, or they drug or drink themselves numb until they don’t’ feel anything anymore. The irony is, in the end their escape becomes more painful than what they’re avoiding.Richard Paul Evans / quote ↗
16UndatedSuffering ceases to be suffering when we form a clear picture of it.Richard Paul Evans / quote ↗
17UndatedYou are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn't at all. You can be discouraged by failure-or you can learn from it. So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because, remember, that's where you will find success.Richard Paul Evans / quote ↗
18UndatedI am facing the most difficult thing of my life, my own greatest failure.Richard Paul Evans / quote ↗
19UndatedMy Dear Son,I am so very proud of you. Now, as you embark on a new journey, I'd like to share this one piece of advice. Always, always remember that - adversity is not a detour. It is part of the path.You will encounter obstacles. You will make mistakes. Be grateful for both. Your obstacles and mistakes will be your greatest teachers. And the only way to not make mistakes in this life is to do nothing, which is the biggest mistake of all. Your challenges, if you let them, will become your greatest allies. Mountains can crush or raise you, depending on which side of the mountain you choose to stand on. All history bears out that the great, those who have changed the world, have all suffered great challenges. And, more times than not it's precisely those challenges that, in God's time, lead to triumph.Abhor victimhood. Denounce entitlement. Neither are gifts, rather cages to damn the soul. Everyone who has walked this earth is a victim of injustice. Everyone.Most of all, do not be too quick to denounce your sufferings. The difficult road you are called to walk may, in fact be your only path to success.Richard Paul Evans / quote ↗
21UndatedFor most of my life I have thought of grace as a hope of a bright tomorrow in spite of the darkness of today--and this is true. In this way we are all like Pamela, walking a road to grace--hoping for mercy. What we fail to realize is that grace is more than our destination, it is the journey itself, manifested in each breath and with each step we take. Grace surrounds us, whirls about us like the wind, falls on us like rain. Grace sustains us on our journeys, no matter how perilous they may be and, make no mistake, they are all perilous. We need not hope for grace, we merely need to open our eyes to its abundance. Grace is all around us, not just in the hopeful future but in the miracle of now.Richard Paul Evans / quote ↗
22UndatedFate is an excuse for people who are too stupid or too weak to make their own future," he said.Richard Paul Evans / quote ↗
24UndatedWhy is it that good always has to fight an uphill battle?"I thought for a moment, then said, "I don't know. Maybe that's the point. Good things are higher up.Richard Paul Evans / quote ↗
