Friday Florilegium

DSC_0378

After the benediction comes the battle. The time of testing that marks and mightily enriches a soul’s spiritual career is not an ordinary one, but a a period when all hell seems let loose, a period when we realize our souls are brought into a net, when we know that God is permitting us to be in the devil’s hand. But it is a period which always ends in certain triumph for those who have committed the keeping of their souls to Him, a period of marvelous “nonetheless afterward” of abundant usefulness, the sixty-fold that surely follows. –Aphra White

You meant to do me harm, but God meant it for good…–Genesis 50:20

For the Accuser of our brothers and sisters,
who accuses them before our God day and night,
has been hurled down.
They triumphed over him
by the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony; –Revelation 12:10-11

The call to commitment is a call not to add something more to your already busy schedule, but to let go of some things that prevent you from experiencing the joy of the Lord in service. –Stewardship

The closer you get to achieving your goal, the stronger the forces pulling you away become, the louder your brain protests, and the more urgently you want to revert to old patterns. –Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline

The real work in raising the bar is to stop doing the same old thing you’ve done, to try out new strategies, to ignore false alarms, to resist the urge to quit, and to refuse to fall back into the familiar terrain.–Barbara Stanny, Secrets of Six-Figure Women

Insanity is doing the same thing, the same way, over and over, and expecting different results. –anon.

And for another Friday literary bouquet, join Kimberlee Conway Ireton at her blog.