Love as a Way of Life Quotes

“The late Fred Rogers, beloved host of the Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood television show, wrote many beautiful songs for children that hold great truths for adults as well. In “I Like to Be Told,” he writes of every child’s desire to be told “if it’s going to hurt,” if a parent is going away, or if something will be new or difficult, because “I will trust you more and more” each time these things come true.

We never outgrow our desire to be told the truth. A fellow writer told me the story of waking up one morning when she was a child and being told she wouldn’t be going to kindergarten that day but tot the hospital for eye surgery. Her suitcase was already packed. She was old enough to understand that this meant her parents had withheld information from her. The memory of being betrayed is more painful than the memory of the surgery itself.

Compare this with a young boy who recently faced heart surgery. He asked his grandfather if it was going to hurt. His grandfather answered with honest that engendered hope: “Yes, for a while. But every day the pain should get less and less, and it means you’ll be getting better and stronger.”
― Gary Chapman, Love as a Way of Life: Seven Keys to Transforming Every Aspect of Your Life

“Love is not only realistic, but our only hope of survival.”
― Gary Chapman, Love as a Way of Life: Seven Keys to Transforming Every Aspect of Your Life

“Marriage can also help you grow as a loving person in a way you might not have otherwise.”
― Gary Chapman, Love as a Way of Life: Seven Keys to Transforming Every Aspect of Your Life

“ON BEING COMPLETELY PRESENT

Mark Von Doren said once:

“There is one thing we can do, and the happiest people are those who do it to the limit of their ability.

…We can be completely present. We can be all there. We can control the tendency of our minds to wander from the situation we are in, toward yesterday, toward tomorrow, toward something we have forgotten, toward some other place we are going next. It is hard to do this, but it is harder to understand afterward wherein it was we fell so short. It was where and when we ceased to give our entire attention to the person, the opportunity before us.

…Those who have fewest regrets are those who take each moment as it comes for all that it is worth. It will never come again, for worse or better. It is ours alone; we can make it what we will.”
― Gary Chapman, Love as a Way of Life: Seven Keys to Transforming Every Aspect of Your Life

“THE MAGIC OF LOVE

The magic of personal love works miracles as this true story testifies:

Even one person’s intimate love can deeply heal another. For example,Tom, a simple person without training in psychotherapy, worked as an orderly in a mental hospital. One of the sickest patients in the hospital, a deeply psychotic woman, had been there for eighteen years. She never spoke to anyone, or even looked in another’s eyes. She sat alone all day in a rocking chair, rocking back and forth. One day during his dinner break, Tom found another rocking chair, pulled it over, and rocked along beside her as he ate his dinner. He returned the next day, and the next. Tom worked only five days per week, but he asked for special permission to come in on his days off so he could rock with the psychotic woman. Tom did this every day for six months. Then one evening as he got up to leave, the woman said, “Good night.”
It was the first time she had spoken in eighteen years. After that, she began to get well. Tom still came to rock with her every day, and eventually she was healed of her psychosis.*

*Healing the Eight Stages of Life. M. Linn, S. Fabricant, D. Linn. Paulist Press. 1988.”
― Gary Chapman, Love as a Way of Life: Seven Keys to Transforming Every Aspect of Your Life

“With all these things in mind, why is truth telling so important? Because even though we are inclined to distort the truth, deep within every one of us is an awareness of a difference between the truth and falsehood. I remember the five-year-old boy who answered the phone and said his mother wasn’t there. Then he paused and said, “Actually, she is here, but she’s in the bathtub.” We constantly struggle with our false self, yet something inside us wants us to be known as people who speak truth. We lose respect for the person who chooses falsehood continuously, and likewise we respect the person who speaks honestly. No matter what our behavior is right now, something in us knows that falsehood destroys and love builds.”
― gary chapman, Love as a Way of Life: Seven Keys to Transforming Every Aspect of Your Life

“The person who holds a PhD in aerodynamics may know little about human relationships. The person lettered in psychology may know almost nothing about physics. While we may develop a great deal of knowledge about one small facet of the universe, we remain ignorant beside the immense ocean of knowledge. In the light of our great ignorance, where is the rationale for pride?”
― Gary Chapman, Love as a Way of Life: Seven Keys to Transforming Every Aspect of Your Life

“Many people say the first step in acquiring humility is to realize that we are proud. When we acknowledge the desire to be bigger and better than others, we are liberated to understand the people we were meant to be.”
― gary chapman, Love as a Way of Life: Seven Keys to Transforming Every Aspect of Your Life

“My own definition of success is “leaving your corner of the world better than you found it.” Your “corner” may be focused on a single town or a neighborhood within a city, or it may carry you to dozens of countries. Whatever your sphere of influence, when you are seeking to enrich the lives of others through relationships, you will find the most satisfying form of success.”
― Gary Chapman, Love as a Way of Life: Seven Keys to Transforming Every Aspect of Your Life

“If we think of love as a feeling, we shall be frustrated when we can’t always work up that feeling. When we realize love is primarily an action, we are ready to use the tools we have to love better.”
― Gary Chapman, Love as a Way of Life: Seven Keys to Transforming Every Aspect of Your Life

“I believe that not only does love stand a chance in this world, but in fact it is our only chance.”
― Gary Chapman, Love as a Way of Life: Seven Keys to Transforming Every Aspect of Your Life

“We all have the opportunity to overcome our self-centered natures and learn to live for the benefit of others. That means forgiving those who offend us. It does not mean ignoring wrongs done to us. Our sense of justice will not allow us to overlook unloving actions. If it did, evil would prevail in the world. But in the tension between justice and love, love can be the more powerful reality. Forgiveness is the choice to love rather than demand justice. When we are living out of our true selves, even greater than our desire to get even is our desire for reconciliation.”
― Gary Chapman, Love as a Way of Life: Seven Keys to Transforming Every Aspect of Your Life

“Will Durant once said, “To speak ill of others is a dishonest way of praising ourselves.”
― Gary Chapman, Love as a Way of Life: Seven Keys to Transforming Every Aspect of Your Life

“Life is a slow journey of becoming the people we choose to be.”
― Gary Chapman, Love as a Way of Life: Seven Keys to Transforming Every Aspect of Your Life