Morning Briefings

You may be exhausted with work, you may even kill yourself but unless your work is interwoven with love, it is useless. To work without love is slavery.

– Mother Teresa
Everything Starts from Prayer: Mother Teresa’s Meditations on Spiritual Life for People of All Faiths

December’s gifts–custom, ceremony, celebration, consecration–come to us wrapped up, not in tissue and ribbons, but in cherished memories. This is the month of miracles. The oil that burns for eight days, the royal son born in a stable, the inexplicable return of Light on the longest, darkest day of the year. Where there is love, there are always miracles.

– Sarah Ban Breathnach
Simple Abundance

Lord, please bring peace where there’s been strife. Bring healing where there’s been hurt. Bring forgiveness where there’s been bitterness. May your love flow in our hearts.

– Kim Cash Tate
Hope Springs

God let me know He wasn’t looking for me to recycle old history, but to be part of the new history. He would unfold here. I don’t know what God has planned for us, but I can tell you I had my first sermon prepared a week ago, and late last night God changed it. He led me to Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, where we’re told to walk worthy of our calling, with humility, gentleness, patience and love, ‘being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.’

– Kim Cash Tate
Hope Springs

Christ learned about his mission while he was cutting wood and making chairs, beds and cabinets. He came as a carpenter to show us that–no matter what we do–everything can lead us to the experience of God’s love.

– Paulo Coelho
By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

If you asked 20 good men today what they thought is the highest of virtues, 19 would reply, Unselfishness. But if you had asked almost any of the great Christians of old, he would have replied, Love. The negative idea of Unselfishness carries with it the suggestion not primarily of securing good things for others, but of going without ourselves, as if our abstinence and not their happiness was the most important point.

– C.S. Lewis
The Weight of Glory

Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, it is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

– 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Christ learned about his mission while he was cutting wood and making chairs, beds and cabinets. He came as a carpenter to show us that–no matter what we do–everything can lead us to the experience of God’s love.

– Paulo Coelho
By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

Couples often ignore each other’s emotional needs out of mindlessness, not malice

– John M. Gottman, PhD
The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work

As a teenager, I felt immeasurable wiser and savvier than my dad. But as I grew older, I saw my dad as more of a man because he let me share in some of his fears and regrets. Because of that courage in showing me that he was just another guy, I saw him even more as godlike and supremely lovable.

– Vincent Staniforth
Questions for My Father: Finding the Man Behind Your Dad