it will come as NO surprise to you that i LOVE LOVE LOVE quotes. love to read them. love to re-quote them. love to post them around my house, carry them in my purse, and find them everywhere in life. therefore i love my quotes of the day that appear in my inbox. one from christian quote of the day. one from the foundation for a better life. and one from real simple magazine. here are a couple that showed up in my inbox in the last week. these are ones that i moved to my “quotes” folder on my mailbox. they will most likely show up on the Scripture note cards that i make to go into my kids’ lunch boxes at some point. i will use a Scripture that has spoken to me lately, add a little explanation and a great quote. and then it is ready to go into each lunchbox or bag with a candy taped to the back. i am not above bribery. and as i tell the kids... i want the Scripture to always have a sweet taste to it when they read it i want them to emotionally link it to sweetness on their tongue. so it is always great to have a nice folder of quotes to choose from...
“I would be the most content if my children grew up
to be the kind of people who think decorating
consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.”
{anna quindlen}
Does it not fill our hearts with a thrilling excitement
to think that the costly disciplines and lonely agonies
that make up our earthly discipleship
may at any moment, and without any warning,
be transformed into everlasting splendors
the like of which we can scarcely conceive, let alone understand?
{james phillips}
“If a man does not know what port he is steering for,
no wind is favorable to him.”
{seneca (4-65); philosopher}
and then of course my favorite quotes come from that two-edged sword that i like to keep by my side at all times...
A word fitly spoken is like
apples of gold
in a setting of silver.
proverbs 25:11
i love that proverb because it is about quotes and words and those kinds of things that i love... but i like it even better now that i have done a little word study on it...
the word “fitly” in the text translates a hebrew word found only once in the entire Bible which conveys the sense of “in season”. the word “fitly” can also literally mean “as a wheel rolls”. which means “quickly, moving along, able to transport meaning in the fastest way possible”. what a great word, “fitly” indeed. then apples of gold, something that is good for us (fruit) displayed in the most beautiful way possible actually meaning “to shimmer”. and golden apples are supposed to be the “sweetest” apples. a word spoken quickly and at the exact right time is helpful for moving us and yet is also sweet going down. and not only is that apple shimmering and beautiful, it is in a setting that is pleasing to the eye and is valuable, in a setting of silver. presented in a showpiece (sometimes translated basket).
i think that “words of affirmation” is becoming my top love language (adam will be glad to hear that gifts is taking a back seat, much cheaper that way). but don’t words cost us something too? time. energy. humility. observation. getting out of our selfishness to notice someone else. i have been trying to make it my goal to always say something nice (and true) about everyone that i come in contact with everyday. some days i meet that goal (mostly those days i am home and don’t see anyone)... some days i fall far short.
i love words fitly spoken. maybe i cherish them because i come so far short of that standard of “fitly spoken, apples of gold in pictures of silver” EVERY time i open my mouth. or every time keep it closed when i could have spoken a word fitly.
rosie and her cousins are on the same soccer team. i also love nepotism...