Words can never adequately convey the incredible impact of our attitudes toward life. The longer I live the more convinced I become that life is 10 percent what happens to us and 90 percent how we respond to it.
Grace has to be the loveliest word in the English language. It embodies almost every attractive quality we hope to find in others. Grace is a gift of the humble to the humiliated. Grace acknowledges the ugliness of sin by choosing to see beyond it. Grace accepts a person as someone worthy of kindness despite whatever grime or hard-shell casing keeps him or her separated from the rest of the world. Grace is a gift of tender mercy when it makes the least sense.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Grace represents the kindness and understanding we can offer others, even in their imperfections.
This quote reflects the profound nature of grace as a quality that encompasses kindness, forgiveness, and acceptance. It suggests that grace is a noble gift bestowed by the humble onto those who may feel unworthy, emphasizing the importance of seeing beyond a person's flaws to acknowledge their inherent dignity and humanity. In a world often marred by judgment, grace serves as a reminder of the beauty in tenderness and mercy, especially towards those who feel isolated or shamed.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of kindness, you might quote Swindoll to emphasize how crucial grace is in our interactions.
More from Charles R. Swindoll
All quotes →We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.
There is only one you. God wanted you to be you. Don't you dare change just because you're outnumbered!
We cannot change our past. We can not change the fact that people act in a certain way. We can not change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude.
Every one of us can blame somebody for something that has happened in our lives. But don't waste your time. What we need most is a steady stream of love flowing among us. Love that quickly forgives, willingly overlooks, and refuses to take offense.
Envy is one of the great enemies of active spirituality. It keeps us from loving our neighbours, from functioning with others in community, and from affirming people's unique worth. It also steals contentment from the heart. Is there anything or anyone you are envious of?
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I think love is the most unbelievable, and critical, thing in civilization. Everything else is very mechanical and predictable, but love, you can't catch it.
I’ve not learned the acceptable way of saying you fascinate me...I’ve not even learned how to say I like you without frightening people away-
I regard as a mortal sin not only the lying of the senses in matters of love, but also the illusion which the senses seek to create where love is only partial. I say, I believe, that one must love with all of one's being, or else live, come what may, a life of complete chastity.
Love is the answer, and you know that for sure; Love is a flower, you've got to let it grow.
Your ordinary acts of love and hope point to the extraordinary promise that every human life is of inestimable value.
But say what you will, 'tis better to be left than never to have been loved. To pass our youth in dull indifference, to refuse the sweets of life because they once must leave us, is as preposterous as to wish to have been born old, because we one day must be old.