The Week in Words

One of my favorite bloggers, Barbara of Stray Thoughts, has taken over the job of hosting the weekly meme The Week in Words. In this meme, bloggers share meaningful quotations they've read during the previous week along with how and why it touched them. I've been following Barbara's posts on Mondays and enjoyed her contributions, and now that she's hosting the meme, I want to join in and support her.

I've always enjoyed inspirational quotes. I have quite a few that I've saved to a folder in Word, and I also have a small notebook where I've written down a few through the years, but I've never been consistent about writing them down. Many times, I read something that resonates with me, but I don't mark it or write it down and I forget where it was. I'm hoping that participating in this meme will make me even more aware of great quotes and give me the motivation to at least mark them when I'm reading.

I have just discovered ebooks, books you can download to a reader program and either read online, on a reading device like Kindle (which I drool over!), or even to a smart phone. I played around with my phone last week and discovered that I could download an e-reader and tons of free books to my phone! Yesterday I downloaded the book Personal Friendships of Jesus by J.R. Miller. I adore reading old books because they have so much "meat" in them, and this one is not disappointing me! The first friend of Jesus that Mr. Miller discusses is Jesus' mother, Mary. In the course of that chapter, he makes this statement:

When God would give the world a great man, a man of rare spirit and transcendant power, a man with a lofty mission, he first prepares a woman to be his mother.

 With yesterday having been Mother's Day, this statement totally spoke to my heart! God sees motherhood as the first and most important influence on a person's life! That was an encouragement to me as I watch my children grow into young adults and see them begin the work God has called them to do, and it humbles me to think that God prepared me to be their mother. It wasn't chance; it was God's plan! Now that's a confidence booster!

I'll stop with that this week, but I'll be looking all week for more quotes to share. If you'd like to read others' thoughts on the things they read last week, hop over to Barbara's, and maybe share something inspirational you've read this week!