Karen Kingsbury

“He called it The Bridge because that was how felt about books. They connected the past and the present, the present and the future. Books brought people together and gave them a path to worlds they would not otherwise experience.”

“Life is too short to be anything but real with the cast of characters God has placed in the story of your life. Love well, laugh often, and find your life in Christ. Don't hide away or be a follower. Be the wonderful unique person God made you to be, and know that your purpose will always be best when defined by your faith in him”

“As long as he was breathing, God's greatest task for him was not yet finished. His highest purpose in life was still unfulfilled. ... God still had plans for him.”

“Forgiveness makes you feel better. As soon as you forgive, you're free.”

“More tears rushed from the depths of her tortured soul. ... The losses piled up.”

“It's never too late with truth. It stands outside time.”

“The devastation of his actions, his meanness, felt like bags of rancid trash heaped around him.”

“Nothing could be gained by worrying and dreading the future, borrowing tomorrow's pain for today.”

“God stays awake all the time. In case we need to talk to Him about something.”

“Because love was a light that wouldn't allow darkness to reign in his soul.”

“I need you, Bailey. Only you.”

“It takes two to make a marriage work and two to make it fall apart.”

“This last year... I learned something about family. Like it's not about blood alone. It's being connected... it's growing up together and loving each other. It's believing in the same God and knowing you'd do anything for the person across from you at dinner.”

“My parents used to say faith wasn't something you could pretend about. It wasn't real unless it looked like faith and acted like faith.”

“Perfect love drives out fear”

“New steps. That's what it amounted to. The two of them were learning the steps that would bring them together, a dance that would take them into forever. A dance that could be nothing less than God's plan for their lives.”

“The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice.”

“You can't base your decisions on anyone's opinion but yours and God's.”

“A verse came to mind, one that has comforted Kari before. It was the shortest verse in the Bible: Jesus wept. If he cried over Jerusalem, if he cried over the death of Lazarus, surely he was crying now over the death of her dreams, the death of her marriage.”

“The truth was this: Love is a decision.”

“The next time that boy pursues you, he better do it like a dying man looking for water in a desert. When it's the right guy, you'll know, because he'll cherish you.”

“Pray on all occasions." Unlocked page 38.”

“Three years? That's a thousand tomorrows, ma'am.”

“Love happens when people forgive.”

“I tell of hearts and souls and dances...Butterflies and second chances;Desperate ones and dreamers bound,Seeking life from barren ground,Who suffer on in earthly fateThe bitter pain of agony hate,Might but they stop and here forgiveWould break the bonds to breathe and liveAnd find that God in goodness bringsA chance for change, the hope of wingsTo rest in Him, and self to dieAnd so become a butterfly.”

“sunshine is just beyond the clouds" Carl Joesph Gunner”

“Never be passive. Victories happen when you take charge of a game. You can't win by playing not to lose".”

“The Flanigan family had a love that could laugh through anything, a love that knew no color barriers or resentment.”

“Her eyes held an endless kind of love for him.”

“He wished he had feelings for Andi, wanted to be interested in her...But there were 10 quick reasons why he wasn't interested. The biggest: Bailey Flanigan. He could hear her laugh from across the room. He sighed, and it felt like it came from the basement of his soul.”

“They'd had fun, for sure. They laughed and enjoyed being together. But if she was painfully honest with herself, something was missing. Something in the way Tim looked at her. She remembered her mom's word. "I saw the way he looked at you...he adores you." Maybe that was it. Tim looked at her on a surface level. He smiled and seemed happy to see her. But When Cody looked at her, there were no layers left, nothing her didn't reveal, nothing he couldn't see. He didn't really look at her so much as he looked into her. To the deepest, most real places in her heart and soul.”

“Wow." Lisa motioned for Keith to stop for a moment. "Look at this place. It's like the perfect family house. The porch and the windows, even from here, it feels like the walls have seen a lifetime of love.”

“But the Beast was a good person...the Prince looked on the outside the way the Beast was on the inside. Sometimes people couldn't see the inside of the person unless they like the outside of a person. Because they hadn't learned to hear the music yet.”

“Real love never fails.”