Jan Denise Quotes

When I’m tempted to do something that feels like giving up, I won’t … because love doesn’t give up (I Corinthians, 13). But, lest I push love aside, I will make sure that what I’m holding on to can coexist with love.

When I’m not afraid to fail, I wont. When I’m not afraid to fall down, falling down won’t feel like failure. I have fallen down enough to get more comfortable with it, to know how productive it can be, how necessary it is to growth. Still, when I sense the ground beneath me giving way, I have to remind myself that it’s OK if I falter. I have to remind myself that it’s more than OK!

I still find myself walking away from the water’s edge before I have what I need. I turn around and walk back toward the water …sometimes two or three times, as if I can’t decide whether to stay or leave. I will sit down more often and yield to the giver …and when I return to my desk, I will have what I want to give.

As I was snuggling back into my bed after getting up to use the bathroom, I breathed a little, “This must be like heaven.” I love my bed. I love the “ahh” that comes with getting warm and smelling fresh sheets. I also love how it feels to get clean when I’m dirty and eat when I’m hungry. So, I’m thinking that maybe we still get cold, and dirty, and hungry in heaven. And, that’s going to help me enjoy getting cold, and dirty, and hungry in earth (or in this body) just a little bit more.

I want to come from love. And I want to do it all the time. I can’t expect it to always look the same, though. I remember a friend saying that God loved his daughter enough to say no – something he had a hard time with. Sometimes love says, “No, this doesn’t work for me.” Sometimes love walks away … because staying would conflict with loving and being true to who we are. And, staying would make it very difficult to come from love.

It is OK for me to hold out for what I want. It is OK for me to find a way to make it happen. As long as I am following my truth, as long as I am not invested in how or when it happens or who helps, it is more than OK. Trusting the outcome, trusting the laws of the universe, is different from being invested in the outcome.

Life’s not about staying on your feet. It’s about getting up when you fall. Thank God!

I’ve been getting rid of some clutter – anything that doesn’t serve a positive purpose in my life – and making room for things that feel happy to me. Because I get to make my life whatever I want it to be. I get to make the room feel however I want it to feel. I get to make the closet as full or as spacious as I want it. And, if I have more clutter to get rid of after Christmas, I’m not going to wait a year, or two or three to do it.

I cried, and cried some more. I told God that I was weary of trying. And, God told me to quit trying. It doesn’t sound like a revelation, but it feels like a revelation. Because I got it on a deeper level. I’m going to quit trying. When I forget, I’m going to remind myself. I’m going to do what I want to do; and I’m going to quit trying to do the rest. It’s not the doing that’s exhausting; it’s the trying. The doing is exhilarating!

Anytime I am looking to somebody else as my source, I’m coming from scarcity. I am no longer trusting God, or the Universe, for my harvest. It’s reasonable for me to have expectations based on what somebody I trust has committed to. And it’s natural for me to feel disappointed when that somebody doesn’t come through. But when I feel more than disappointment, when I also feel anger, it’s because I deviated from my truth. It’s because I compromised my truth to get what somebody else promised. Because when I’m really following my truth, I will be at peace with the consequences – whatever they are. I can accept somebody else’s truth, but I must live my own truth. And sometimes that means walking away from a relationship.

I am learning to trust my instincts, rather than struggle too hard with reason … because reason can get buried in misinformation, or too much information; and it can lack the miracle of love.