Quotes from Stephen Arterburn

you can't embrace— you can't empower—the person you want to be in your future until you've thoroughly embraced the person you've been in your past.

The only way to love and give is to do both out of the fullness of God.

And admitting that you can't fix yourself—that only God can—is the first step to staying fixed.

Refusing to acknowledge and embrace your sinful past is choosing your love for yourself over your love of God.

Regret-free living isn't found by continuing to do flawed things, then simply "working through" the regret they cause and moving on.

It's the close emotional bond we have with our children that makes them want to live lives we, their parents, can respect.

As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.

17Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.

Before you can stand up straight before another person, you have to fall on your knees before God.

we all tend to criticize in others what we are most insecure about in ourselves.

An enemy can cause you plenty of pain, but no one can hurt you like a friend who has become your enemy.

God's truth is not weak or questionable; it is not a theory waiting to be proven false. God's truth, instead, is certain and can be counted on.

But we must remember that, in a way, claiming all or too much responsibility is just another form of ego gratification.

Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone. (2 Peter 1:5b–7)

Knowing God yields wonderful results, under the guidance and control of the Holy Spirit.

When we have an out-of-control appetite for food, it signals that we have put that appetite above its rightful place as a necessary and God-given function.

Letting go is recognizing when your need to control is controlling you and choosing to release control.

Upsizing empathy is essential, as is doing all we can to love this person as they are, as Christ would. The definition of empathy is the feeling that you understand and share another person's experiences and emotions: the ability to share someone else's feelings. 1 But keeping good boundaries so that you are not as affected by their behavior is just as biblical as love. We want to be responsive, not reactive, and that is where empathy can help.

6But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.

Fixing a broken relationship is all about loving and giving from a heart filled with God's compassionate presence.

There are as many great reasons to regularly pray to God as there are to live and breathe and stay alive.

Because God is love, it's a pretty safe bet that whatever way God loves people is the way that we should try to love them also.

true peace is found in the heart that carefully remains in God's daily provision and love.

I believed this book could transform more marriages more deeply than nearly any marriage book I could think of.