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.

Here are a few quotes gleaned from last week’s reading:

From Diane‘s Facebook:

“Our divine Lord spent six times as long working at the carpenter’s bench as He did in His world-shaking ministry. He did not shrink from the hidden years of preparation.” ~ J. Oswald Sanders

It’s easy to balk at the “hidden years” while eager to serve, but it seems many, if not all, of the people God used most had some time hidden away — Moses in the desert before being called to Egypt, Paul between his conversion and first missionary journey, Joseph in prison, David with his sheep. Who knows why, in the mysteries of God, it’s that way, but we can trust Him even when “hidden” that He is preparing us and using us for His glory.

Seen at Mama Bear’s:

“Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.” ~ Robert A. Heinlein

Real love is essentially others-focused, not self-focused.

Janet penned this here:

Sometimes it’s our most deeply held ideals that seem to emerge most falteringly in our lives. (Why is that?) We need authors who breathe life into them by going before us and putting them into words more eloquent than any we could come up with ourselves, and taking them farther than we can currently see.

I’ve read good authors who have done just that for me.

You can share your family-friendly quotes 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 hope you’ll visit the other participants as well and glean some great thoughts to ponder. And I hope you’ll leave a comment here, even if you don’t have any quotes to share.