Quotes from Erin Davis

It's easy to assume that because what we are doing is familiar, we are the least valuable part of the church. But God doesn't see it that way. And we need to remember the sacredness of what we are doing as we mother.

If you're going to get connected, you're going to have to make peace with messy relationships. You're going to have to be okay with letting others in when you are at your worst and your life is a total train wreck. You also must be willing to turn the tables. When other people's lives are messy, you can't turn a blind eye or offer cheap words of comfort. You must willingly walk into the mess, even if they're hiding, and bear the bad stuff together.

I want to be seen, to be understood deeply and to not be so very lonely."1

want relationships to work like an ATM. I give to others, and they spit out exactly what I request. Instead, it's more like a slot machine. I never know what I'm going to get in return, and sometimes I get nothing but X's across the board.

The secret to feeling less alone is not to simply wish for others to come into your world to meet your needs. Instead it is to go into their world and meet theirs.

What does knowing there's a God have to do with our pride problem? Only God is perfect. If pride is an effort to maintain the illusion of perfection, it's also an indication that we want to sit on the throne. We prefer the worship of others instead of connection to them. We'd rather be adored than be known. Humility is required to love and be loved as your authentic self. Pride fights for fake relationships built on hollow praise.

When we let busyness crowd out the sacred, we get lonely. When we let our schedules crowd out God, we are left feeling desperately depleted.

It's paradoxical that spending time alone can ease our loneliness, but God's way rarely jibes with the way we want to get things done. If we want to be less lonely, we must make time to be alone. It is extra critical that we make time to be alone with God.

Loneliness can be the spark that pushes us to nurture our existing relationships and to make an effort toward new ones. It can also motivate us to reach out to our Maker with renewed passion and energy.

Valuing people means adopting an overt willingness to be inconvenienced. It means doing things that cannot be measured. #connected