Quotes from Jan Karon

He remembered the gravestone of a woman parishioner in the churchyard of St. John's in the Grove. DEMURE AT LAST, it read. He thought that the single most definitive and amusing epitaph he'd ever come across.

Faith by its very nature must be tried... what God does with our faith must be something like workouts. He sees it to that our faith gets mushed and pulled, stretched and pounded, taken to it's limits so its limits can expand... If it doesn't get exercised, it becomes like a weak muscle that fails us when we need it.

Bodily fatigue, which nearly always accompanies this hateful malady, can wear down the spirit. And how can the Holy Spirit work with a vessel that's leaking as fast as he can fill it?" "If I know you," the bishop continued, kindly, "you are not resting. You are not recreating.

Many things I have tried to grasp, and have lost. That which I have placed in God's hands I still have. - Martin Luther

but I tell you now that it's not too late---no matter how deep the wound. (Regarding forgiveness)

Your goodness to me has been overwhelming. How tender you are, though I am often as tough as gristle. How patiently you have loved me since you made up your mind to love me always.

He was praying the Psalms, as he'd done in times past, with the enemies of King David translated into his own enemies of fear and remorse and self-loathing, which, in their legions, had become as armies of darkness.

We don't have to do great things to make a difference. We can make a great difference by doing small things graciously.

The waters hold all heaven within their heart.

I have never seen so many ugly dresses. I cannot find this dress, which was woven out of daydreams and naiveté.

Be thankful for the smallest blessing," Thomas à Kempis had written, "and you will deserve to receive greater. Value the least gifts no less than the greatest, and simple graces as especial favors. If you remember the dignity of the Giver, no gift will seem small or mean, for nothing can be valueless that is given by the most high God." Father

Make it a rule never to give a child a book you would not read yourself.—George Bernard Shaw

Knitting, he thought, was a comfort to the soul.

She thought that one of the hardest parts of marriage was being loving when both partners were exhausted or wounded at the same time. When you had the least strength, that's when you had to dig beyond your limits and grab whatever could be found and give it away.

He liked familiar things, things that had been worn in by good people, people he could trust.

We are not necessarily doubting," said C. S. Lewis, "that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be." He

One must begin somewhere, sometime, to let go of the bitterness, or be eaten alive and the marrow sucked out.

I've forgiven him. Again and again. Once done, of course, back comes the Enemy to persecute and prosecute, and I must ante up to God and forgive yet again.

Merry Christmas!' someone shouted. He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. 'Merry Christmas!' 'Merry Christmas!' 'C-cookies for ever'body!' Sammy hollered. And looking both ways, they all fled across to the light, and the warmth, and the books, and the mystery.

for fog was merely a cloud that wasn't too smitten with itself to visit terra firma.

My work is awfully labored just now. Sometimes it has the most wondrous life of its own, it fairly pulls me along—rather like wind surfing! At other times, it drags and mopes, so that I despair of ever writing another word or drawing another picture. I've found that if one keeps pushing along during the mopes, out will flash the most exhilarating thought or idea—a way of doing something that I had never seen before—and then, one is off again, and hold on to your hat!

There'll be times when you wonder how you can possibly thank Him for something that turns your life upside down; certainly there will be such times for me. Let us, then, at times like these, give thanks on faith alone… obedient, trusting, hoping, believing.

Miss Louella says, 'Love whoever God sets down in front of you. Even the mean ones, 'cause they can sho use it.

When I speak of God's will, it helps to know that he wants the best for us. If you can't believe he's there, pray anyway. If you feel he's cheap and withholding, thank him anyway. There will come a time when you'll thank him even for the hard places.