Mary E. DeMuth Quotes

Pain can either thrust me into the arms of Jesus or make me turn my back on Him. Either way, it's a choice.

When the world careens out of control, we can rest in the fact that God spun this world with a simple word.

Dare to be brave today, and trust that when you extend your wings, you will fly.

The roadblocks to growth and joy come when we forget the bigness of God & instead make people bigger than He is.

Jesus often calls us to risk. He asks us to be vulnerable, to be authentic, so others can see Him in and through us.

I understand true life doesn't happen when I constantly gaze backwards, mulling over all the injustices others have done or I have done to others.

Jesus wastes none of our stories, even our tales of woe. He transforms them into epic adventures where we dare to face our past for the sake of our present.

Remember the nature of knowing insider information. It's like a drug. It makes you feel both superior and special. But what if those rumors are false? And even if they are true, you didn't experience them firsthand, and there is most likely a slant to the story you know nothing about.

To become more like Jesus we must understand that the only growth we can be in charge of is our own.

Sometimes dramatic people try to draw you into someone else's drama, and that never ends well. Interfering is like pulling on a dangerous dog's ears. Do it at your own peril.

We are to be agents of His great upside down Kindgom, where the outcasts are listened to, the broken are given dignity, and those suffering under the weight of sexual exploitation are rescued and healed.

The church is the hands and feet of Jesus, and it is our duty to continue the mandate to protect the innocent, while turning perpetrators in to the proper authorities.

He created us for adventure, not ease.

As I look back over my mountains of growth and compare them to the molehills where I stagnated, community often made the difference.

When I became a Christian as a teenager, I gathered a false belief to myself that my Christian friends would be my forever friends. Surely, since we both loved Jesus and followed Him, we would always be in each other's lives. No one would hurt the other -- because Jesus! It didn't take long for that theory of mine to be tested by reality.

So much growth can come in discord. The pain we walk through can become a catalyst to push us toward God.

That's where spiritual warfare begins - leaving our own methods of filling our gaping holes at the well and allowing Jesus to fill every thirsty, needy place with His Living Water.

Nothing significant in the kingdom of God happens unless death occurs.

To abandon all is to take our hearts, place them before the One who created them, and dare to believe He can live life powerfully through our surrendered lives.

I want to live today in anticipation of what you will do next instead of constantly complaining about what isn't pristine in my life.

A perpetrator may have hurt someone for a few minutes of his/her life and may even regret it, but the survivor lives with the pain, triggers, shame and fear for a lifetime.

It's never easy letting go. But if we don't learn the art of relinquishment, we'll never move forward to embrace the new relationships God has for us.

I'm just a broken girl who's learned I can't walk the crooked path of this life.

We don't like death. We'd rather produce seeds another way. But death to ourselves, our agendas, our expectations, our hopes is necessary to find deep joy that comes when we fully relinquish ourselves to the gospel.

My stubborn, self-savvy heart will not reach for the sky if my earth becomes everything I need. If people fill me up then where is my need for the transcendent? If everything is glory and beauty and sweetness and light, will I be the type of soul that reaches to Jesus?

We enslave in the manner we talk to ourselves. But the truth is, God already set us free. He secured our release. To constantly hurt ourselves, resting in our inadequacy, is to call Him a LIAR.

A broken person understands she needs rescue, and she depends on God to resurrect and deliver. And she also understands that even if God chooses not to deliver, His ways are higher and more amazing then what we can fathom.

When I've been in my dramatic states, friends who look beyond my spiraling downward are quick (and kind) to remind me of what is good in my life. They tell me the truth. This world is not all about me, nor am I just about to slip off the precipice of sadness. They help me see the blessings in the mess, the beauty underlying the mayhem. And when I have a dramatic friend, I can also offer this same perspective.

The church is not a place for perfection. It is, and should be, a haven of protection.

That's the crux of my prayer for you as you walk through difficult relationship -- that you would begin to see God's storytelling in your life even in the midst of pain and bewilderment.

Because the culture we breathe and work in rushes against rest. It equates our worth with production and wealth and fame. The more we work toward those goals, the more society assigns us worth.

When Jesus isn't our everything, our enough, we pursue every other thing that fills.

This same Jesus, though, didn't say we had to be in relationship with everyone. We are not to 'throw [our] pearls to pigs.' (See Matthew 7:6.) He didn't deeply entrust his heart to Pharisees. You see him slipping through the throng of people bent on killing him. Often he withdrew from crowds in order to be with his Father. His is a story of connection with others, yes, but it's also a reminder that relationships don't come with an easy-to-understand blueprint.

Money is a cheap but powerful substitute for Jesus, and wielding money is intoxicating, but it won't usher in the kingdom of God, nor will it ensure eternal treasures.

God's heart ... is not that we escape our lot, but that we learn to thrive in the midst of it.

Why must we cling to those who walk away instead of granting freedom? We must give the same liberty God gives to prodigals-an ability to let them go-or we'll be perennially bound to others for our happiness and effective service.

We cannot let the haters of this world define us. Or frighten us into no longer being ourselves.

We'd avoid a lot of insecurity, if we fully, wholly believed in God's wild affection for us.

The Gospel isn't a life management program. It shouldn't merely be the crutch we fall on when life gets ugly. It should be the legs we walk on, the air we breathe.

When we think of other people as our center and fulfillment, we live frustrated lives.

A hopeful book that moms will relish, Blue Like Playdough is an honest, peel-back-the-covers look at the creative way God shapes us through childhood and parenthood. Tricia Goyer explores her own weaknesses along the journey, revealing her desire to serve the God who forms strength and joy and perseverance within her. A compelling, fresh read.