Melissa at Breath of Life has been hosting a weekly carnival called The Week In Words,which involves sharing something from your reading that inspires you, causes you to laugh, cry, or dream, or just resonates with you in some way.

However, she is going to have to discontinue hosting due to personal issues. I am thinking of taking on the hosting of this, if someone else has not already volunteered. I love quotes: I keep a file for them on my computer and underline them in books with a sticky tab at the top of the page. Sometimes it’s due to the succinctness and depth of truth in them, sometimes just the way it is worded causes me to think differently or more deeply about something.

The free WordPress blogs do not support Mr. Linky or McLinky for people to link up their own posts, so that is a drawback. But I suppose people could leave their links in their comments, or I could update the post with them throughout the day. I will think about it and let you know next week: let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Meanwhile, I think I will probably keep sharing quotes sporadically whether the meme itself continues or not.

Here are just a few short ones that speak for themselves:

“Some people drink from the fountain of knowledge; others just gargle.”~ Dr. Robert Anthony, seen at Quoth She.

“Many men owe the grandeur of their lives to their tremendous difficulties.” ~ Charles H. Spurgeon, seen at Strength For Today.

“The strength of patience hangs on our capacity to believe that God is up to something good for us in all our delays and detours.”  ~ John Piper, seen at Wrestling With An Angel.

This comes from the May 1 reading of Our Daily Walk by F. B. Meyer:

“Have Faith in God” really means reckon on God’s faithfulness to you. Do not look at your faith. He who is ever considering his health will become an invalid; he who always looks down at his faith will cut the very roots from which faith grows, will shut out the beam by which faith lives. Look away to the character of God–the faithful God, who keepeth covenant and mercy for ever.

This final one comes from a work of fiction, The Telling by Beverly Lewis. One character Grace, is asking another, Heather, if she’d like a lady that she had previously talked with, a lady who had recovered from the same illness she has, to come and see her. Heather replies, “Only if she’s not too busy…” Grace answers:

I doubt that she’s ever that busy. Where’s Sally’s concerned, the best thing ’bout life is people and makin’ time for them. People and time, that’s her motto.

I have to confess that though I would agree with the priorities in theory, in real life I often chafe against interruptions or requests on my time. I’ve been convicted often about not being hospitable enough, and I am convinced that true hospitality begins in the heart, that openness to lay aside what I am doing when someone else needs attention. I do like to be with people and do for people — when I have them scheduled in. 🙂 When I am doing something else and then someone wants my attention right now — then I don’t feel hospitable. But while I am asking the Lord to help me with that, I also take heart in reading accounts of others who have felt the same way: they may resent being interrupted at first, but they do the right thing and God changes their heart in the process. More on that later. 🙂