One cannot change another person, though the temptation to try is always there. Change must come from within the self, for one’s own reasons. Differentiation in the other may be stimulated by one’s own efforts to differentiate a self, but the other cannot be encouraged, prodded, or advised in this respect. The impetus must come solely from within the self.
When you feel the need to apologize or explain who you are, it means the voice in your head is telling you the wrong story. Wipe the slate clean. And rewrite it.
When we get lazy and stop investigating the facts behind our opinions, we’re prone to taking on the views of whoever we like reading or listening to at the time.
Happiness comes from being who you actually are instead of who you think you are supposed to be.
We are often pursuing the renewal of our circumstances, but God is pursuing the renewal of our entire identity.
Transformation always takes time, but time does not always bring transformation. Transformation into something greater takes a pilgrimage.
I don’t think I’m really listening unless I’m willing to be changed by the other person.
Unless we get to know our neighbors beyond their labels, we cannot make the most of our spiritual conversations with them.
Questions are your pickaxes. Good questions are what open people up, open new doors, and create opportunities.
When our personalities are on autopilot they lull us into a half-sleeping state in which we find ourselves trapped in the same habitual, repetitious patterns of mindless reactivity we’ve been caught up in since childhood.