Quotes About Empathy

If it isn't also true for a poor single Christian mom in Haiti, it isn't true.

I seek only friends who bleed and sweat and laugh and cry. Don't fear your humanity; it is your best offering.

You'd be surprised how powerful kindness actually is. I am not being dramatic: you can save hearts and lives with grace. Do

Our children are humans and deserve to be treated respectfully. Discipline doesn't include raging, screaming, abusing, neglecting, humiliating, or shaming our kids. God never treats us like that. That sort of discipline never "produces a harvest of righteousness and peace.

We can have our junk together in a thousand areas, but if we don't have love, we are totally bankrupt.

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

A good parent prepares the child for the path, not the path for the child.

Loved people love people. Forgiven people forgive people. Adored people adore people. Freed people free people. But when we are still locked in our own prisons, it is impossible to crave the liberation of others. Misery prefers company.

Be kind. Be you. Love Jesus.

For Jesus, who lived so lightly on this earth, He didn't even have a place to lay His head. I want so deeply to be like You.

Jesus always colored outside of the lines here, extending grace and healing to those well beyond His people group. He often healed people first; they believed second.

We "love" people the way we "love" ourselves, and if we are not good enough, then no one is.

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.

nothing hurts worse or steals more joy than broken relationships. We can heal and hurt each other, and we do.

Henri Nouwen wrote: "Forgiveness is the name of love practiced among people who love poorly. The hard truth is that all people love poorly. We need to forgive and be forgiven every day, every hour increasingly. That is the great work of love among the fellowship of the weak that is the human family.

If we all raised others up instead of raising ourselves a little higher, there would be few needs left on earth.

Love refuses to deny or dismantle another's perspective simply because I don't share it.

We can heal and hurt each other, and we do. I'm hoping to help lead a tribe that does more healing and less hurting. I consider that my job.

We can't deliver folks from their pits, but we can sure get in there with them until God does. Live long enough and it becomes clear that stuff is not the stuff of life. People are. We need each other, so we probably ought to practice radical grace, because our well-flaunted opinions are cold companions when real life hits.

It's so weird to live in this world. What a bizarre tension to care deeply about the refugee crisis in Syria and also about Gilmore Girls. It is so disorienting to fret over aged-out foster kids while saving money for a beach vacation. Is it even okay to have fun when there is so much suffering in our communities and churches and world? What does it say about us when we love things like sports, food, travel, and fashion in a world plagued with hunger and human trafficking?

It is not our responsibility to fix every mess. If someone steps onto the scary ledge of truth, it is enough to acknowledge her courage and make this promise: I am here with you as your friend...

We judge people in areas where we're vulnerable to shame, especially picking folks who are doing worse than we're doing. If I feel good about my parenting, I have no interest in judging other people's choices. If I feel good about my body, I don't go around making fun of other people's weight or appearance. We're hard on each other because we're using each other as a launching pad out of our own perceived shaming deficiency.

Treat other women like your sisters instead of rivals.

May we show love in big and small ways, and may that love reach people accustomed to being shamed or ignored.