Welcome to The Week In Words, where we share quotes from the last week’s reading. If something you read this past week  inspired you, caused you to laugh, cry, think, dream, or just resonated with you in some way, please share it with us, attributing it to its source, which can be a book, newspaper, blog, Facebook — anything that you read. More information is here.

I just have a few this week, but they packed a pretty big punch for me.

Seen on Adam Blumer‘s Facebook status:

“Take care that you do not waste your sorrows; that you do not let the precious gifts of disappointment, pain, loss, loneliness, or similar afflictions … mar you instead of mending you…. There is no failure of life so terrible as to have the pain without the lesson, the sorrow without the softening.” (Hugh Black, early 20th-century pastor)

There is so much there: that our troubles can mar instead of mend us if we let them, that we can endure them without getting what we’re supposed to out of them and thereby “waste” them.

And seen on David McGuire‘s Facebook:

“Winning is great, sure, but if you are really going to do something in life, the secret is learning how to lose. Nobody goes undefeated all the time. If you can pick up after a crushing defeat, and go on to win again, you are going to be a champion someday.” — Wilma Rudolph

One of the most heartening and enlightening sermons I ever heard was in college on the topic of how to deal with failure. I wasn’t failing classes, but I was doing worse than I ever had academically, and that was a serious blow that felt like failure.

Finally, this sobering thought from the June 22 reading of The Invitation by Derick Bingham:

The message that proclaims life to those who believe it is the same message which proclaims judgment to those who disobey it. At the end of the day it is what you do with the Saviour’s word that matters.

If you’ve read anything that particularly spoke to you that you’d like to share, please either list it in the comments below or write a post on your blog and then put the link to that post (not your general blog link) in Mr. Linky below. I do ask that only family-friendly quotes be included.

I hope you’ll visit some of the other participants as well and glean some great thoughts to ponder. And don’t forget to leave a comment here, even if you don’t have any quotes to share!