#eli

He does have surprising, secret purposes. I open a Bible, and His plans, startling, lie there barefaced. It’s hard to believe it, when I read it, and I have to come back to it many times, feel long across those words, make sure they are real. His love letter forever silences any doubts: “His secret purpose framed from the very beginning [is] to bring us to our full glory” (1 Corinthians 2:7 NEB). ↗

— Ann Voskamp

#bible #plans #purpose #secret #love

I suppose it doesn't matter what form love takes, maybe you just need to take it when it comes. ↗

— Albert Borris

#believe #love #take-chances #love

Love unconditionally, but rely only on yourself. ↗

— Marty Rubin

#self-reliance #love

I know the odds are all against me and I know you might not feel this way too but I know I would rather die trying to know if I could mean something to you ↗

— David Levithan

#love-songs-for-elizabeth #the-realm-of-possibility #love

If you desire to find the true spirit of Christmas and partake of the sweetness of it, let me make this suggestion to you. During the hurry of the festive occasion of this Christmas season, find time to turn your heart to God. Perhaps in the quiet hours, and in a quiet place, and on your knees—alone or with loved ones—give thanks for the good things that have come to you, and ask that His Spirit might dwell in you as you earnestly strive to serve Him and keep His commandments. He will take you by the hand and His promises will be kept. ↗

— Howard W. Hunter

#religion #love

You were gullible," he said. And then, "When you were really little, you hated carrots. You wouldn't eat them. But then I told you that if you ate carrots, you'd get X-ray vision. And you believed me. You believed everything I said." I did. I really did. I believed him when he said that carrots could give me X-ray vision. I believed him when he told me that he'd never cared about me. And then, later that night, when he tried to take it back, I guess I believed him again. Now I didn't know what to believe. I just knew I didn't believe in him anymore. ↗

— Jenny Han

#lies #love #love

Each step is more difficult than the last; the heaviness fills me and turns my limbs to stone. You must hurt or be hurt. ↗

— Lauren Oliver

#hurt #love #romance #love

I am the way into the city of woe, I am the way into eternal pain, I am the way to go among the lost. Justice caused my high architect to move, Divine omnipotence created me, The highest wisdom, and the primal love. Before me there were no created things But those that last forever—as do I. Abandon all hope you who enter here. ↗

— Dante Alighieri

#love

A religion, even if it calls itself a religion of love, must be hard and unloving to those who do not belong to it. ↗

— Sigmund Freud

#sigmund-freud #love

Okay, if this is what falling in love feels like, someone please kill me now. (Not literally, overzealous readers.) But it was all too much—too much emotion, too much happiness, too much longing, perhaps too much ice cream… ↗

— James Patterson

#feelings #happiness #happy #ice-cream #ice-cream-is-love