Visionary Monday: Of womanhood, submission, home, and silence!

I have had some gems collecting in my quotations folder, eagerly waiting to be shared! I am always coming across tidbits of wisdom throughout the week. They keep me inspired!

Every woman, whether rich or poor, married or single, has a circle of influence within which, according to her character, she is exerting a certain amount of power for good or harm. Every woman by her virtue or her vice, by her wisdom or her folly, by her dignity or her levity is adding something to our national elevation or degradation. ~ John Angell James

We hear much about women's liberation today. I want you to be liberated. Here is the path of genuine liberation for a woman: submission. Submission allows her to run on the track; it allows her to make beautiful music in her home. When you do what God intended a woman to do, when you are what God intended a woman to be, that is when you will be most free. ~ Jay E. Adams

Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do...but how much love we put in that action. ~ Mother Teresa

Love begins by taking care of the closest ones - the ones at home. ~ Mother Teresa

We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature - trees, flowers, grass - grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence...We need silence to be able to touch souls. ~ Mother Teresa

Given

I found these powerful and moving quotations by Mother Teresa the other day. They are reminding me how much the Lord wants our hearts. To be given. To be spent. And to be invested in Him.
Sometimes, I don't always know what that looks like. Other times, I'm not always willing to walk that path. And, on other days, I don't know how to be given to the needs obviously at hand when I feel so incapable.
To lose one's life for His namesake. The greatest and most dangerous venture of all. But as Paul wrote, exhorting the Hebrews, we must seek to not be sluggish, but imitate those who through patience and faith inherit the promises (Heb 6:12). And, also, to the Galatians he encouraged to not grow weary in doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up (Gal 6:9).

The more you have, the more you are occupied, the less you give. But the less you have the more free you are. Poverty for us is freedom....it is joyful freedom. There is no television here, no this, not that. But we are perfectly happy.

I pray that you will understand the words of Jesus, "Love one another as I have loved you." Ask yourself, "How has he loved me? Do I really love others in the same way?" Unless this love is among us, we can kill ourselves with work and it will only be work, not love. Work without love is slavery.

Speak tenderly to them. Let there be kindness in your face, in your eyes, in your smile, in the warmth of your greeting. Always have a cheerful smile. Don't only give your care, but give your heart as well.

Little things are indeed little, but to be faithful in little things is a great thing.

A sacrifice to be real must cost, must hurt, must empty ourselves. The fruit of silence is prayer, the fruit of prayer is faith, the fruit of faith is love, the fruit of love is service, the fruit of service is peace.