God loves you

Your growth in Christ will go no further than you settledness, way down deep in your heart, that God loves you. That he has pulled you in to his own deepest heart. His affection for his own never wanes, never sours, never cools. Half-hearted is not who he is. That thing about you that makes you wince most only strengthens his delight in embracing you. At your point of deepest shame and regret, that's where Christ loves you the most. The old Puritan Thomas Goodwin wrote that "Christ is love covered over with flesh." It's who he is. 

Divine love is not calculating and cautious, like ours. The God of the Bible is unrestrained. If we are united to Jesus Christ, our sins do not cause his love to take a hit. Through our sins will make us more miserable, they cause his love to surge forward all the more.  

Dane C. Ortlund

Deeper: Real Change for Real Sinners by Dane C. Ortlund. Crossway. 2021. p.75

have regretted my omission

As a small boy … , I remember my grandmother … cooking our delicious meals on a hot woodstove. When the wood box next to the stove became empty, Grandmother would silently … go out to refill it from the pile of cedar wood outside, and bring the heavily laden box back into the house. I was so insensitive … [that] I sat there and let my beloved grandmother refill [that] box.... I feel ashamed of myself and have regretted my omission for all of my life. I hope someday to ask for her forgiveness.


James E. Faust, “The Weightier Matters of the Law: Judgment, Mercy, and Faith,” Ensign, Nov. 1997, 59. As quoted in "Because of Your Faith" by Jeffrey R. Holland, General Conference October 2010

how to handle your anger

1. Consciously acknowledge to yourself that you are angry. Say it out loud: “I’m angry about this! Now what am I going to do?” Such a statement makes you aware of your own anger and also helps you recognize both your anger and the action you are going to take. You have set the stage for applying reason to your anger.

2. Restrain your immediate response. Avoid the common but destructive responses of verbal or physical venting or their opposite, withdrawal and silence. Refuse to take the action that you typically take when feeling angry. Waiting can help you avoid both saying and doing things you may not mean and later will regret.

3. Locate the focus of your anger. What words or actions by the other person have made you angry? If the person has truly wronged you, identify the person’s sin. How has she wronged you? Then determine how serious the offense is. Some wrongs are minor and some are major. Knowing its seriousness should affect your response.

4. Analyze your options. Ask yourself: Does the action I am considering have any potential for dealing with the wrong and helping the relationship? And is it best for the person at whom I am angry? The two most constructive options are either to confront the person in a helpful way, or to consciously decide to overlook the matter.

5. Take constructive action. If you choose to “let the offense go,” then, in prayer, confess your anger and your willingness to turn the person over to God. Then release your anger to Him. If you choose to confront the person who has wronged you, do so gently. Listen to any explanation; it can give you a different perspective on the person’s actions and intentions. If the person admits that what he or she did was wrong and asks you to forgive, do so.


Anger: Handling a Powerful Emotion in a Healthy Way by Gary D. Chapman, 2007.

did not do the things we wanted to do

That night at the mess I sat next to the priest and he was disappointed and suddenly hurt that I had not gone to the Abruzzi. He had written to his father that I was coming and they had made preparations. I myself felt as badly as he did and could not understand why I had not gone. It was what I had wanted to do and I tried to explain how one thing had led to another and finally he saw it and understood that I had really wanted to go and it was almost all right. I had drunk much wine and afterward coffee and Strega and I explained, winefully, how we did not do the things we wanted to do; we never did such things.


A Farewell to Arms By Ernest Hemingway. Scribner, 1929. p. 13

dead man's will

Give this stone to my brother
Cuz we found it playing in the barnyard
Many years ago

Give this bone to my father
He'll remember hunting in the hills
When I was 10 years old

May my love reach you all
I locked it in myself and buried it too long
Now that I come to fall
Please say it's not too late
Now that I'm dead and gone

Give this string to my mother
It pulled the baby teeth she keeps inside the drawer
Give this ring to my lover
I was scared and stupid not to ask
For her hand long before

May my love reach you all
I locked it in myself and buried it too long
Now that I come to fall
Please say it's not too late
Now that I'm dead and gone


Dead Man's Will by Iron and Wine/Calexico