Quotes from Jen Hatmaker

kids are absolutely capable of spiritual depth. Let's teach them to serve and care about the world beyond their Xboxes. And we have to lead with our lives, not just our lips, because kids can smell a fake.

This culture is rabid to tell women how much oxygen they can use, space they can take, tables they can join, opinions they are allowed. Code words abound to signal when a woman has stepped too far: hysterical, bitchy, bossy, aggressive. (The man versions of these words are: energetic, strong, decisive, assertive, because "bossy men" are just called "leaders.") Women have always struggled for a credible place at the table.

Because no one told me not to, I had a baby every two years, and it was truly the Mother Load.

academia has its place but can atrophy a real life. I need to see and smell and travel and put my arms around human beings. I cannot write a good story if I am not living one. Doctors put in the work to be good doctors. Teachers

We must waive the lecture and embrace listening. What are they actually saying? What is confusing to them? What do they think? Where is the rub? Let's hear them, then engage them... Kids want to be mentored, not ruled.

Learning to discern what is eternal and what is simply a product of our own context is actually harder work than accepting any interpretation on its face.

God never turns away a seeker and neither should we.

History treats kindly the courage of Jesus, Abraham Lincoln, Ghandi, Medgar Evers, Martin Luther King, Jr., Harvey Milk, and, to a general degree, the millions of women who contested the patriarchy, but their own communities and contemporaries killed them for it.

I want to live gratefully, humbly, hopefully.

Our kids need spiritual mentors, and if a new language and posture will lead them, then we better hit our knees, pray for humility, and beg God to help us raise disciples that love Him beyond our homes. We prioritize transformation over methodology, because our rules have a shelf life but loyalty to Jesus does not. Let's keep the baby and change the bathwater.

Why does so much Christianity smack of power and aggression when Jesus was humble and subversive?

you. Calling is virtually never big or famous work; that is rarely the way the kingdom comes. It shows up quietly, subversively, almost invisibly. Half the time, it is unplanned—just the stuff of life in which a precious human steps in, the good news personified.

Women are giving a ton of reluctant yeses, and they are mad and getting madder. "Most women have a difficult time saying no, especially if they think someone's feelings may be at stake or if they think they'll not be liked," wrote Dr. Kathryn Lively.

Marriage is no place to be inordinately sensitive. We cannot prickle over every little thing. Learn to hold the biting remark, the wounded reaction, the irritated retort. Married tongues should be shredded with the amount of ugly words bitten back. Everything cannot be a big deal, because when the big deals actually happen, we're too worn-out to handle them.

What does this season require of you? Unsure? Ask God. He is a wonderful advisor who always, always knows the Best Thing. He will help you sort it out. When you can't trust your own discernment, you can certainly trust His. God has no agenda other than your highest good in His kingdom. There is no better leader through this minefield.

I don't know your feelings about church, but what if you freed up your pastors to be ordinary men and women, your church to be a simple family, and your life to be for loving God and people?

When people fail you - and they will - Jesus is ever faithful. When circumstances tank - and they will - Jesus will hold you fast. He is the most trustworthy, dependable Savior, and you will never be alone. This gives me such comfort, because as imperfect parents who failed often, we are terrified to send you out knowing we didn't do enough. But Jesus is enough for all of us. He is enough for you. No one is safer. No one loves you more. No one will lead you better.

If you learn to be true in childhood, you will bypass the devastating 'undoing' so many endure later. You won't have to reinvent, reimagine, or rediscover who you are in your twenties, when you are making the most important decisions of your life (a terrible time for an identity crisis).

If we could believe we are deeply connected in the fragile places, we could drop the games. When you tell me the truth about yourself, I no longer hide from you. You become safe for me. So guess what? You are now a recipient of my truth too. I am drawn to you. Your vulnerability makes a path for my own. Your truth-telling says to me, 'I will not despise, judge, or abandon you.' Ironically, it gives me the courage to be afraid, the strength to be weak.

Claiborne wrote, "There is a movement bubbling up that goes beyond cynicism and celebrates a new way of living, a generation that stops complaining about the church it sees and becomes the church it dreams of."[85]

Popularity is a terrible goal, because you have to lose yourself to find it.

I pray for your kindness more than your success, because the latter without the former is a tragedy.

Dear Lord, keep my name out of the therapist's office.

Learning to deal with struggle and to develop responsibility is crucial. A good parent prepares the child for the path, not the path for the child. We can still demonstrate gentle and attached parenting without raising children who melt on a warm day.