Emily P. Freeman

“To accept the lively, the messy, and the unexpected things in our days, knowing that God sees them and has an eternal perspective, is to say with confidence I receive your timing.”

“I choose to believe God rather than my feelings. I choose to believe I am acceptable even though I feel unacceptable.”

“Even though I may feel unsafe and unacceptable, I am accepted in Christ.”

“He (God) never promises that our families will be safe. Not in the way we think. He does promise his presence, though.”

“But understand that the reason it is so difficult to extend forgiveness to those who have failed us is because we are unable to receive forgiveness for our own failures.”

“Life is so much further from my control than even I know.”

“Because I care so much about what you think, my hiding has everything to do with you. I desperately want to manage your opinion of me. Nearly anything I do is to convince you I am good.”

“The number one reason we don't believe things that are true is because they don't always feel true.”

“God gives us the courage to face those fears and then invites us to move toward him in the midst of them.”

“Knowing what you have makes all the difference.”

“These hiding places may have been helping you cope, but they are not who you are. These good girl voices challenge your identity.”

“When we listen to the voice of the Dreamer and hide behind our somedays, we miss out on the gifts of today.”

“The voice of the Dreamer often pushes us to escape. When we listen to her voice, our dreams are held captive. We dream things shaped by heaven but twisted by the world, things of escape and vacation and eternal lounging.”

“... the voice of the Dreamer convinced me that 'later' would always be better than 'now', that 'someday' is where life will really happen and high school is just something we have to get through before we can live our real lives.”

“You miss the living because you are waiting for perfect, and so you let goodness and blessings pass you right on by.”

“Just because it doesn't make sense 'to me' doesn't mean it doesn't make sense 'at all'.”

“We have an enemy who would do anything to keep us distracted from Jesus.”

“...for those of us who never do these things at all, there can be a great sense of shame that washes over us for not being a good enough Christian.”

“God does not ask us to carry burdens. He does not ask us to save the world. He does not ask us to come up with a plan. He simply asks us to 'come'.”

“God is already carrying your load. Why do you insist on carrying it too?”

“There is no activity that is somehow more Christian than another. God looks at the heart, and that is the good part that Mary knew. he simply asks us to come as we are and to be willing, open to receive whatever he might have for us this day. That is what it means to live a graceful life.”

“That's what service does. It points us to Jesus, not to ourselves.”

“It isn't about what we are supposed to 'do'; it is about what we choose to 'believe'.”

“It's bold, rash, and embarrassing, Martha talking to God this way. But her honesty paved the way for Jesus to speak to her.”

“If what you are called to feels less than extraordinary, there is a tendency to think, 'Well, the Lord has big plans for me later.' And you wait patiently until he decides to reveal that master plan. But what if his plan for you is right where you are? Are you missing it because you are looking for something 'more' extraordinary?”

“Even if we aren't having sex with out boyfriends, it's still easy to find our identify in them in an unhealthy way.”

“I don't remember anything about that summer because I existed in a lonely fog of memories, longing, and rejection.”

“I looked to my boyfriend to satisfy my Godbreathed longing for acceptance. I had my first glimpse of what it might feel like to be loved in a romantic way. It didn't take long for me to become addicted to that feeling.”

“...being a good girl is more about what you believe on the inside that how you behave on the outside. That means whether you've messed up big or you've messed up little, we all mess up.”

“...you think to yourself that if anyone knew who you really were, what you've really done, they would never accept you.”

“But I didn't understand the middle-of-a-Tuesday Jesus. I only knew him as a when-I-get-to-heaven Jesus. He was my ticket and not much else.”

“When we open our hands and take that which is offered to us, we are not only receiving the thing offered, but we are receiving the person.”

“We all believe somewhere deep inside that we should be better, be doing more, be someone other than who we currently are. ...we feel as if we aren't good enough.”

“It's no wonder we are so messed up when it comes to walking with God. In nearly every aspect of our existence, good performance equals good reward. Except not with him. A good thing turns bad when we perform to earn God's acceptance rather than simply receive it like a gift.”

“Many people acknowledge they can never be perfect. They say, "I'm not perfect, so what's the point? I'm not even gonna try.”

“Discontentment shows up when we focus on what we can't have rather than what we do have.”

“I want to encourage you today: needy is a beautiful place to be. When we recognize our need, we will finally look around for something (or someone) to fill it.”

“Either way, the result is you depending on yourself to do life right. Either way, God isn't even in the room.”

“When I was in sixth grade, I wanted to be tough and untouchable, but really I was squishy and sensitive.”

“I didn't want to be such a good girl anymore. I wanted people to fear messing with me. ... I wanted to be intimidating. At least that's how I acted. The truth is, what I really wanted more than anything was to be liked. As much as I talked bad about those girls, I would have given anything for them to like me.”

“The question I constantly asked myself was this: What am I supposed to do?”

“Maybe you're wondering what it actually means to live a graceful life. We've got many chapters ahead to figure out what that might look like for you. ...”

“Some girls look to fill the emptiness with their rebellious ways and get into trouble. Other girls try hard to fill the emptiness with good things and get praise. But both girls are reaching for something we'll never find outside of God.”

“This is also a book abut God, about what it means--and what it doesn't mean--to believe.”

“You have a longing to be understood, but still feel the need to protect yourself.”

“These outward identities we build for ourselves are not all that we are. A person is made of so many layers. Skin is just the top layer. It's the part you can see, so when you walk into a room, others won't run into you. It's the brown-hair, brown-eyes layer; the you-look-good-in-green layer. Your outside is important because God made that part. He made you on purpose, uniquely beautiful. But you can't stop there, because that's your body, your skin, your outside. Dead people have all that stuff too.”

“Rather than admitting you don't know what to do next, you fake it in public and feel lost when you're alone.”

“The story of redemtion and healing is that Jesus came to exchange my not-good-enough with his better-than-I-could-ever-imagine. He came to trade my life for His, my weak for His strong, my ashes for His beauty. He longs for each of us to recieve the gift of Himself.”

“You are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her" (Luke 10:41-42)Choosing to please God sounds right at first, but it so often leads to a performing life, a girl trying to become good, a lean-on-myself theology. If I am trying to please God, it is difficult trust God. But when I trust God, pleasing him is automatic.Anything we do to get life and identity outside of Christ is an idol, even service to Christ. He doesn't want my service. He wants me. And from that life-giving relationship, "streams of living water will flow from within" (John 7:38 NIV)”

“The best part of hiding is being found.”