Quotes by Counselors - Page 5

To be free to roam our own consciousness and be responsible for ourselves, a letting go process is required. We have to let go of how others define us; what damaging messages remain from childhood; how others define our relationship with the creator; and what expectations they may have for us.
David W. Earle
Controlling others is the cornerstone of dysfunctional families.
David W. Earle
I pray that I am never so foolishly naive or roguishly pompous to think that I can be the captain of my own ship, for if God is not at the helm my ship will soon be at the bottom.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
If the truth gets in the way, I will remove it. But truth be told, removing the truth never removes the truth.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
I paved the path to the very place I don’t want to be. But passing the blame off to someone else doesn’t put me any place else.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
We need to remember how what Christ has already done transforms who we are right now -- not later, once we get it together but right now in all the messes we've made.
Elyse M. Fitzpatrick
You cannot force people to walk with God. You cannot force them to repent. All you can do is live with integrity and invite them to do so as well. Take things a step at a time. Give them consequences when they refuse to deal with serious issues, and pray. Pray like the dickens. Pray every step of the way.
John Eldredge
The years have simply reconciled us to the fact that we are all here for the transformation.
John Eldredge
I thought parenting was going to reveal my strengths, never realizing that God had ordained it to reveal my weaknesses.
Elyse M. Fitzpatrick
God never encourages self-reliance.
Elyse M. Fitzpatrick
We opt to be seen as ‘right’ in the eyes of everyone else, rather than doing what’s ‘right’ in light of the situation.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
God is after the bigger picture of your life. He is writing your story. I'm about to say something that may seem antithetical to this book, but need you to hear this: your story has far more to do with finding God's unique calling and purpose for your life than it does with finding the love of your life.
Debra Fileta
I recently heard a talk about identity in which the speaker said it's almost as though we are born into a world in which we are constantly being labeled by others -- our parents, our friends, our family, and people we don't even know. Each person, from the outside looking in, comes up with a label to slap onto us without our permission. Some labels are kind and some are truthful, but many of them are lies. And sometimes we leave the negative labels on so long that we believe what they say; we allow those labels to define us.
Debra Fileta
Because I had no awareness of who I was or what I needed, I found myself settling for a mediocre relationship rather than holding out for what was best.
Debra Fileta
In God’s vocabulary, ‘lost’ is an unnecessary adjective that is easily erased by the adjective ‘found’ if we would simply be brave enough to hand Him the eraser.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
What I do know is that there are two kinds of pain in this life: risk and regret. I'd rather live with the first than the second.
Holley Gerth
The very places that we presume God not to be are the very places that are filled with His footprints and littered with His fingerprints.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
The only performance that matters is what Jesus Christ did at the Cross - From the Book: Removing Your Shame Label.
Eddie Capparucci
To incessantly blame others for my shortcomings is cowardice borne of fear, fed by fear, and haunted by fear. To be steadfastly accountable for my shortcomings is bravery borne of God, fed by God, and blessed by God.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
I sometimes react to making a mistake as if I have betrayed myself. My fear of making a mistake seems to be based on the hidden assumption that I am potentially perfect and that if I can just be very careful I will not fall from heaven. But a 'mistake' is a declaration of the way I am, a jolt to the way I intend, a reminder I am not dealing with the facts. When I have listened to my mistakes I have grown.
Hugh Prather
The service of self terminates at our own death.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
Being our best involves walking away from every situation with less than what we had when we encountered it because we left something behind in the exchange.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
Yet, there is a sense of some deep sort that runs entirely contrary to human nature, that in putting ourselves first, we must by necessity put others first.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
Love knows nothing of short hauls because it has committed itself for the long haul.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
Real accomplishments do virtually nothing to serve me and they do everything to serve others. Anything less is nothing more than a meaningless task dressed in the deceptive finery of accomplishments.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
I am thankful that to be attuned to the needs of another attunes us to the world, and that if I stay attuned only to my needs I will always be a stranger to the world.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
I am thankful that sacrifice is non-negotiable, and that counting the cost in giving to another is foolishly assuming that we can put a price on sacrifice.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
To put others in front of ourselves is to put God in front of everything.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
Good tells us that our agenda is the agenda of the person next to us.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
There’s something tightly woven throughout the fabric of our humanity that runs entirely opposite to the baser instinct of looking out for our own good.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
Contrary to popular opinion, we are all a vast brotherhood of human beings whose very survival hinges not on what we keep, but on what we give. And it is in the giving that we not only survive to live another day, but we thrive to celebrate another day.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
To fill the fathomless caverns of my thirsty soul I must work entirely contrary to impulses of my own humanity, for it is in emptying myself at the very point where I am most empty that I fill myself.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
If I give with the motive to get, regardless of the degree to which that motive besets me, I will walk away impoverished and I will leave those to whom I have given just as impoverished as I have now found myself.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
I cannot calculate nor attempt to manage sacrifice, for to do so is to attempt to sacrifice comfortably. And it is in the attempt to sacrifice comfortably that I begin to realize that the desire for comfort is in reality the demand that I put myself first, and there is nothing of sacrifice in that.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
I am thankful that in the giving we receive, and what we receive is the satisfaction of knowing that whatever we give is always bigger once we’ve given it away.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
If I have forfeited the ability to wonder so as not to offend the tenets of the culture, and if I have sacrificed warm dreams on the cold altar of conformity, it is likely because I have somewhere traded the marvel of the infinite for the malaise of the finite.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
Rhetoric can be easily recognized for it is delightfully sweet sounding but it is utterly void of sacrifice, which means it is utterly void of substance. Christmas is irrefutable evidence that God never engages in rhetoric.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
Sacrifice is a noun in my vocabulary that should be a verb in my life.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
To calculate sacrifice is to attempt to sacrifice safely, and safe sacrifice is one of the most outrageous oxymoron’s I can think of.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
The only things I truly keep are those things that I give away.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
If I’m asking what kind of ‘return’ I should be expecting on the sacrifices I’m making, I have in that question revealed the need to ‘return’ that question to wherever I found it and have the word ‘return’ edited out of it.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
If I am not touching a life, I am not touching life.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
I have forged many things that I believe to be things of great beauty. Yet if God is not a part of them, they are entirely counterfeit and I have been robbed blind by the work of my own hands.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
Faith revels in the liberating fact that only a terribly miniscule part of life lies within the constricted confines of my reach, and that I am graciously invited out to live in a place beyond my grasp.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
As utterly irrational as it might seem, the greed within me has the most limited vision I can possibly imagine as it has eyes only for the few things it doesn’t have, and it is completely blind to all the many remarkable things that it does.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
Often we don’t see the majesty of God’s design because we’re caught up in the mediocrity of our own designs.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
The problem that I think I have with God is often not a problem at all. Rather, it is most frequently a tired misperception where I have made God what I need Him to be in order to justify my rejection of Him.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
The contrast between earthly and spiritual is not a contrast between the tangible and the intangible; it is between the transitory and the eternal. Earthly is temporary, spiritual is everlasting. [Ed Welch, Running Scared, 127]
Edward T. Welch
When you wake up to kingdom realities, you find that you are tracing the steps of both the Israelites and Jesus himself into the wilderness. . . . The wilderness is the place where God meets his people, Satan attacks, and kingdom allegiances are revealed. [Ed Welch, Running Scared, 118]
Edward T. Welch
I admit that at times my prayer for my children is nothing more than vocalized unbelief aimed at God.
Elyse M. Fitzpatrick
If I can trust the word of a friend, why do I question the word of the God of the universe? Go figure. Sin is truly bizarre." [Running Scared, p. 111]
Edward T. Welch
I did my best parenting by prayer. I began to speak less to the kids and more to God. It was actually quite relaxing.
Elyse M. Fitzpatrick
Scripture assumes that we will be afraid and anxious sometimes. What is important is where we turn, or to whom we turn when we are afraid. The God who calls you to trust in Him when you are afraid will spend a great deal of time showing you that you can trust Him.
Edward T. Welch
People-pleasers feel they must constantly be performing acts of service to others to gain acceptance. That requires a lot of work, effort, and energy. From the book: Removing Your Shame Label.
Eddie Capparucci
What starts out as an intrusive thought can turn into an overwhelming concept if we "feed" it with more negative thinking. From the book: Removing Your Shame Label.
Eddie Capparucci
The image of God infused in us never sees the light of day in the service of self, but it becomes the light of day in the service of others.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
Egos clash. That's the nature of egos.Treat these outbursts as sneezing fits.
Hugh Prather
The burdens I carry on my back are in direct correlation to the weight of my ego.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
Love in the service of self is greed in disguise.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
Sacrifice” and “self” both begin with the same letter, but the spelling is way different after that.
Craig D. Lounsbrough