By now you may have noticed that I LOVE lists. Today I’m going to share my five favorite quotes. I have journals full of memorable and inspiring quotes for all occasions and it was very hard to choose only five, but there are the five I’ve chosen to share with you today.

1. Decide right now if this situation is going to make you BETTER or BITTER and then live like it.   I first heard those words from a good friend of mine when I found out that my husband had cheated on me and left. Of course, no one intends to set out to become a bitter old person, so I chose to become better. This was not an easy choice to stick with every day. There were many ups and downs and many days were just like hell on earth, but whenever I was totally overwhelmed, I remind myself that I was not going to let this ruin me and I chose “better”…..joy, peace, happiness, forgiveness, and determination.

2. Fear not for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will help you; I will hold onto you with my righteous right hand. –God, Isaiah 41:10 CSB.  I am not ashamed to admit that I am a Christ-follower so the Bible is a great source of encouragement, motivation, challenge, and correction for me.  I have experienced so many situations in which God has truly protected me and intervened on my behalf. In the previously mentioned divorce, when I was too discouraged, too hopeless, and too weak to press on, I experienced the strength of God to continue on and felt His presence holding me up while I plodded ahead with life.

3. If it ain’t good, God ain’t done. –Perry Noble, Pastor of NewSpring Church.  I heard Pastor Perry say this many, many, many times in his sermons and fell in love with the southern, country-folk way of saying it!  This is another quote that actually based on the Bible. Romans 8:28 says, “We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to His purpose.”   This isn’t a promise that things will turn out the way YOU want them, it’s a promise that when the situation is resolved you will have peace and joy and be better and stronger for it!  In the case of my divorce, God didn’t miraculously make my ex-husband come back to me with a huge apology and act like the perfect Christian man again. What God did do was to give me strength, provide for me in many ways, encourage me, help me to grow closer to Him to become a much stronger Christian, and give me a peace that I never could have attained on my own. On top of that, several years later God blessed me with a second chance at marriage.

4. Pray as if everything depended on God and work as if everything depended on you. –Saint Ignatius Loyola.  Prayer is NOT a crutch, a magic potion, or an easy way to get things done. Prayer is letting your needs be made known to God. When I began looking for my first teaching job, I sure did pray and ask God to provide me a job. I did not, however, sit on my sofa waiting for the phone to ring with an offer. I filled out applications. I went to interviews. I scoured the newspapers (yes…this was “back in the day” before websites compiled a list of jobs for you) and even made dozens of phone calls.  In short, I believed God would provide me with a job, but I worked hard at finding it!

5. If you have a choice between being right and being kind, choose kind. –Dr. Wayne M. Dyer (made popular in the book entitled Wonder.)  I love this one, but this one can be a little difficult at times. My ex-husband’s mother was one of the most hateful women that I ever met. I won’t go into detail, but it was obvious that she did not choose joy, kindness or gratitude. She chose to be bitter, mean and entitled. On numerous occasions I could hear her through the phone, talking to her son and saying terrible things about me sprinkled through with profanities. I wanted to yell at her, tell her she was an awful human and punch her in the face, but instead, I chose kindness. I kept my mouth shut, prayed a lot, and now have no regrets. Treat people kindly, even when they aren’t practicing kindness. They will never expect it. 

So, friends, those are five of my favorite quotes. I hope you will find some encouragement in this list! Grab a pen and notebook and start recording your own favorites or share them in the comments below!

Listfully yours,

Vicki