Mary E. DeMuth

“When the world careens out of control, we can rest in the fact that God spun this world with a simple word. Matter from emptiness. Beauty from void. Community from chaos.”

“We enslave in the manner we talk to ourselves. But the truth is, God already set us free. He secured our release. To constantly hurt ourselves, resting in our inadequacy, is to call Him a LIAR.”

“Jesus often calls us to risk. He asks us to be vulnerable, to be authentic, so others can see Him in and through us.”

“I understand true life doesn't happen when I constantly gaze backwards, mulling over all the injustices others have done or I have done to others.”

“We don’t like death. We’d rather produce seeds another way. But death to ourselves, our agendas, our expectations, our hopes is necessary to find deep joy that comes when we fully relinquish ourselves to the gospel.”

“My stubborn, self-savvy heart will not reach for the sky if my earth becomes everything I need. If people fill me up then where is my need for the transcendent? If everything is glory and beauty and sweetness and light, will I be the type of soul that reaches to Jesus?”

“The more we love, the more it hurts, and the more we have to let go.”

“When Jesus isn’t our everything, our enough, we pursue every other thing that fills.”

“With an all-or-nothing mind-set, you tend to judge yourself relentlessly…Eeyore becomes your best friend.”

“We’d avoid a lot of insecurity, if we fully, wholly believed in God’s wild affection for us.”

“Our task shouldn't be punishing the villains in our lives, but enlarging the God who heals us from all wounds.”

“To become more like Jesus we must understand that the only growth we can be in charge of is our own.”

“Worry is a weighty monster with poisoned tentacles. It clutches at us, grabs at our minds, steals our breath, our will. It lurks. It pounces. It colors how we perceive the world.”

“Jesus wastes none of our stories, even our tales of woe. He transforms them into epic adventures where we dare to face our past for the sake of our present.”

“Because the culture we breathe and work in rushes against rest. It equates our worth with production and wealth and fame. The more we work toward those goals, the more society assigns us worth.”

“We grow when the walls press in. We grow when life steals our control. We grow in darkness.”

“Dare to be brave today, and trust that when you extend your wings, you will fly.”

“The roadblocks to growth and joy come when we forget the bigness of God & instead make people bigger than He is.”

“To abandon all is to take our hearts, place them before the One who created them, and dare to believe He can live life powerfully through our surrendered lives.”

“Growth comes in the aftermath of failure, not wild success.”