What I've Read in 2016

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Here's the list of books I've finished this year. They're all a great read and I would definitely recommend them. :D

• Harry Potter and the Cursed Child -J.K Rowling ♥ 
• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them -J.K Rowling  
• After You - Jojo Moyes
• Me Before You - Jojo Moyes 
• The Supreme Gift - Paulo Coelho ♥ 
• The Warrior of Light - Paulo Coelho
• Life to the Max - Max Lucado
• In the Grip of Grace -Max Lucado ♥ 
• The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint Exupery
• My Life on The Rock - Jeff Cavins
• The Rosary: It Beats the Rhythm of Human Life - Jeff Cavins 
• The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto - Mitch Albom ♥ 
• Reflections of a Man - Amari Soul
• Talent is Never Enough - John Maxwell
• God's Way is Still the Best Way - Zig Ziglar
• Life Lifters - Zig Ziglar 
• The Greatest Thing in the World and Other Addresses - Henry Drummond ♥ 
• Joyce Meyer's Quotes In 365 Days - Joyce Meyer

Current: Just Like Jesus - Max Lucado


Prioritize your life according to your passion. Realign your work and your personal life
so you spend time doing what you're passionate about and you can't help but make giant strides forwards. -John Maxwell

Excerpts: After You (Jojo Moyes)

Photo Credit: www.goodreads.com

-So here is the thing about being involved in a catastrophic, life-changing event. 

You think it's just the catastrophic life-changing event that you're going to have to deal with: 

the flashbacks, the sleepless night, the endless running over events in your head, 

asking yourself if you had done the right thing, said the things you should have said, 

whether you could have changed things, had you done it even a degree differently. 

-...enough times will actually make it okay. -Lou

-Allow yourself moments of happiness. -Lou

-I saw what I had really done. I saw that I could be somebody's centre, their reason of staying.
I saw that I could be enough. -Lou

-We don't know what will happen. Which is why we have to take chances while we can.
And ...I think this might be yours. -Sam

-...it's okay to feel sad. Or lost. Or angry. It's okay to feel a whole host of things that other people might not understand,
and often for a long time. Everyone has his or her own journey. We don't judge." -Marc

-I hope if you're looking down, and you can see me, you're glad. That I exist.
Because me being here sort of means you're still here. -Lily

-I let mine go. -Lou

Excerpts: Me Before You -Jojo Moyes

Photo Credit: Amazon

‘Hey, Clark,’ he said. ‘Tell me something good.’

I stared out of the window at the bright-blue

Swiss sky and I told him a story of two people.

Two people who shouldn’t have met, and who

didn’t like each other much when they did, but

who found they were the only two people in the

world who could possibly have understood each

other. And I told him of the adventures they had,

the places they had gone, and the things I had

seen that I had never expected to. I conjured for

him electric skies and iridescent seas and evenings

full of laughter and silly jokes. I drew a

world for him, a world far from a Swiss industrial

estate, a world in which he was still somehow

the person he had wanted to be. I drew the world

he had created for me, full of wonder and possibility.

I let him know a hurt had been mended in a

way that he couldn’t have known, and for that

alone there would always be a piece of me indebted

to him. 

Excerpts: The Greatest Thing In The World and Other Addresses (Henry Drummond)

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"The people who influence you are people who believe in you."

"Nothing that happens in the world happens by chance. God is a God of order. Everything is arranged upon definite principles, and never at random."

"We say we exchange words when we meet; what we exchange is souls."

"There are some men and some women in whose company we are always at our best."

"Yesterday you thought mostly about yourself. Today the poor will meet you, and you will feed them. The helpless, the tempted, the sad, will throng about you, and each you will befriend. Where were all these people yesterday? Where they are today, you did not see them. It is in reflected light that the poor are seen. But your soul today is not at the ordinary angle."

"In looking at the mirror one does not see the mirror, or think of it, but only of what it reflects. For a mirror never calls the attention of itself—except when there are flaws in it."

"Begin with His Words. Words can scarcely ever be long impersonal. Christ himself was a Word, a word made Flesh. Make His words flesh; do them, live them, and you must live Christ."

"There are fifty other arguments for miracles, but none so good as that you have seen them. Perhaps you are one yourself."

"Make Christ your most constant companion.. Be more under His influence than under any other influence."

Excerpts: Life to the Max (Max Lucado)

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"Jesus understands. When you tell God that you'ved reach your limit, He knows what you mean. When you shake your head at impossible deadlines, He shakes His too. When your plans are interrupted by people who have other plans, He nods in empathy.
He has been there. He knows how you feel."

"Oh Lord, what an amazing opportunity You have spread out before me—a chance to make a difference for You in a desperately hurting world. Help me to see the needs You want me to see, to react in a way that honors You, and to bless others by serving them gladly with practical expressions of Your love."

"The fear-filled cannot love deeply."

"Life makes sense when we accept our place. The gift of pleasures, the purpose of problems—all for Him. The God-centered life works. And it rescues us from a life that doesn't."

"When God gives an assignment, He also gives the skill. Study your skills, then, to reveal your assignment."

"God endows us gifts so we can make Him known. Period."

"Behold, the most surprising ingredient of a great day: self-denial." 

The Spectrum of Love

Excerpted from Henry Drummond's The Greatest Thing
In The World & Other Addresses

1. Patience. This is the normal attitude of love; Love passive, Love waiting to begin; not in a hurry; calm; ready to do it's work when the summons comes, but meantime wearing the ornament of meek and quiet spirit. Love suffers long; beareth all things; believeth all things; hopeth all things. For love understands, and therefore waits.

2. Kindness. Love active. Have you ever noticed how much of Christ's life was spent in doing kind things? Run over it with that in view, and you will find that He spent a great proportion of His time simply in making people happy, in doing good turns to people.

3. Generosity. Whenever you attempt a good work you will find other men doing the same kind of work, and probably doing it better. Envy them not.

4. Humility — to put a seal upon your lips and forget what you have done. After you have been kind, after Love has stolen forth into the world and done its beautiful work, go back into the shade again and say nothing about it. Love hides even from itself. Love waives even self satisfaction.

5. Courtesy. Love cannot behave itself unseemly. You can put the most untutored persons into the highest society, and if they have a reservior of Love in their heart they will not behave themselves unseemly.

6. Unselfishness. Because there is no greatness in things. Things cannot be great. The only greatness is unselfish love.
The most obvious lesson in Christ's teaching is that there is no happiness in having and getting anything, but only in giving.

7. Good temper
We must go to the source, and change the inmost nature, and the angry humors will die away of themselves.
Souls are made sweet not by taking the acid fluids out, but by putting something in —a great Love, a new Spirit, the Spirit od Christ.

8. Guilelessness
Love "thinketh no evil," imputes no motive, sees the bright side, puts the best construction on every action.

9. Sincerity
...for he who loves will love Truth not less than men.
He will accept only what is real; he will strive to get at facts; he will search for Truth with a humble and unbiased mind, and cherish whatever he finds at any sacrifice.

"Because He loved us, we love, we love everybody. Our heart is slowly changed."

Happy Valentines day! Be blessed! 

Excerpt: The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto

Photo Credit: harpercollins.com

"Everyone joins a band in this life.

You are born into your first one. Your mother plays the lead. She shares the stage with your father and siblings. Or perhaps your father is absent, an empty stool under a spotlight. But he is still a founding member, and if he surfaces one day, you will have to make room for him.

As life goes on, you will join other bands, some through friendship, some through romance, some through neighborhoods, school, an army. Maybe you will all dress the same, or laugh at your own private vocabulary. Maybe you will flop on couches backstage, or share a boardroom table, or crowd around a galley inside a ship. But in each band you join, you will play a distinct part, and it will affect you as much as you affect it."

God is For You

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Excerpted from In the Grip of Grace

God is for you. Had He a calendar, your birthday would be circled. 

If He drove a car, your name would be in His bumper. 

If there's a tree in heaven, He's carved your name in the bark. 

We know He has a tattoo, and we know what is says. "I have written your name on My hand," He declares.

"...I will not forget you," God pledges (Isa. 49:15).