The Next Right Thing Quotes

“Just because things change doesn't mean you chose wrong in the first place. Just because you're good at something doesn't mean you have to do it forever.”
― Emily P. Freeman, The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions

“Sometimes it looks like you're going nowhere or that you're headed in the wrong direction. I'm learning that the decision itself is rarely the point. The point is becoming more fully ourselves in the presence of God, connecting with Him and with each other, and living our lives as though we believe He is good and beautiful. The point is being honest about where you are and what you need and then looking around in your own community for people to walk with you and with whom you can walk. I spent years wishing people would support me only to later realize I was waiting around for something to come to me when I was perfectly capable of going out and getting it. I'm convinced God is less interested in where we end up then He is in who we are becoming. Whether we're employed or unemployed, encouraged or discouraged, filled with vision or fumbling in the fog. More than anything, our Father just wants to be with us. The most common way He shows His "withness" to us is in the actual, physical presence of other people.”
― Emily P. Freeman, The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions

“Making a living is nothing if you're not also making a life.”
― Emily P. Freeman, The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions

“Desire often lives next door to grief inside the soul. Access the grief, and you wake up the longing as well.”
― Emily P. Freeman, The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions

“There is power in naming the unnamed things. This is an important part of our decision-making practice and key to taking our next right step in love. Remember today is a plot point. See it honestly for what it is, but don't confuse the moment for the whole story.”
― Emily P. Freeman, The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions

“New beginnings are usually welcome. But being a beginner? Not so much. We want our circumstances to change, to start again, to be brand-new. But when they change, we often don’t give ourselves permission to be new within them. Instead, we want to rush ahead to mastery. We think we ought to know how to navigate the newness, especially if it’s something we wanted, something we prayed for, waited for, asked for, or planned.”
― Emily P. Freeman, The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions

“Our Western minds are trained to go down the path of explaining. We think if we can understand it, then we can control it...We are conditioned to believe the only reason we should do things is if we know why, where we are headed, and for what purpose. No wonder we have trouble making decisions. If we don't have clear answers or sure things, then taking a big step feels like a risk at best and a wasteful mistake at worst.”
― Emily P. Freeman, The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions

“A No Mentor is there to help you feel confident about saying no to the things you really don’t want to do anyway or to help you finally discover your strong, brave yes in the midst of fear.”
― Emily P. Freeman, The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions

“Ease my fatigue with your presence and my hesitation with your peace.”
― Emily P. Freeman, The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions

“Maybe a reason why a particular decision you are carrying today feels difficult is because there are things beneath the surface that remain unnamed within you, things you either haven't acknowledged or would rather ignore. Sometimes indecision is the result of a busy schedule or a hesitant personality. Other times it's because something within us remains unnamed, and we simply don't have enough information or self-knowledge to move forward.”
― Emily P. Freeman, The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions

“No matter what room we find ourselves in, help us to remember that because of Christ: We are free to holler with the world changers. We are free to ponder with the contemplatives. We are free to campaign with the activists and be still with the liturgists. We are free to be quiet and free to be loud. We are free to live in the center, on the side, or in the back. We are free to go. We are free to stay home. We are free to linger and to leave early. We are free to dream big and free to dream small. We are free to draw boundaries and free to change our minds. There’s room at the table for all of us. We are free. We are free. We are free. May this change how we walk into rooms.”
― Emily P. Freeman, The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions

“I’m learning that the decision itself is rarely the point. The point is becoming more fully ourselves in the presence of God, connecting with him and with each other, and living our lives as though we believe he is good and beautiful.”
― Emily P. Freeman, The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions

“Fear works both ways, keeping you from doing things you might want to do and convincing you that you have to do things you don’t want to do.”
― Emily P. Freeman, The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions

“Two, knowing what you want is a gift to the people you love. It means in those areas where you have a choice, you won’t waste your time playing a game you don’t really care to win.”
― Emily P. Freeman, The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions

“All beginnings, no matter what they are, hold elements of both joy and heartbreak. When we enter a new beginning, we have generally also experienced some kind of ending that comes with layered emotions and experiences of grief, transition, and letting go. Don’t be afraid to be a beginner. Be relentlessly kind to yourself. What if this is your next right thing?”
― Emily P. Freeman, The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions

“O God, I am open. The decisions I’m facing have become too much. Ease my fatigue with your presence and my hesitation with your peace. Here is an issue that has me tied up in knots. Will you begin to untangle me? What do you want me to know today? O God, I am open.”
― Emily P. Freeman, The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions

“We can’t prevent storms from coming, but we can decide not to invent our own.”
― Emily P. Freeman, The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions

“Sometimes the circumstances at hand force us to be braver than we actually are, and so we knock on doors and ask for assistance. Sometimes not having any idea where we’re going works out better than we could possibly have imagined. Ann Patchett, What Now?”
― Emily P. Freeman, The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions

“The process of determing what you want more is actually a gift to your self. It means you've taken time to give your inner voice a place at the table.”
― Emily P. Freeman, The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions

“You may continue to show up at a job not beacuse you necessarily wanted to be there but because your deepest desireis to provide for your family and that is truly what you want.”
― Emily P. Freeman, The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions

“What now? is not just a panic-stricken question tossed out into a dark unknown. What now? can also be our joy. It is a declaration of possibility, of promise, of chance. It acknowledges that our future is open, that we may well do more than anyone expected of us, that at every point in our development we are still striving to grow.”
― Emily P. Freeman, The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions

“When is the last time you felt surprised by God?”
― Emily P. Freeman, The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions

“If the person you are trying so hard not to disappoint will be displeased by a no”
― Emily P. Freeman, The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions

“If you are facing down a big decision in your life, perhaps your next right thing is to ask yourself the question, In this decision, am I being pushed by fear or led by love?”
― Emily P. Freeman, The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions

“All beginnings, no matter what they are, hold elements of both joy and heartbreak.”
― Emily P. Freeman, The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions

“We want our circumstances to change, to start again, to be brand-new. But when they change, we often don’t give ourselves permission to be new within them. Instead, we want to rush ahead to mastery.”
― Emily P. Freeman, The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions

“Unnamed narratives will reveal themselves one way or another. If we don’t have the capacity to name them with our words, they will speak through our bodies.”
― Emily P. Freeman, The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions

“Our Western minds are trained to go down the path of explaining. We think if we can understand it, then we can control it.” It’s true, don’t you think? We are conditioned to believe the only reason we should do things is if we know why, where we are headed, and for what purpose. No wonder we have trouble making decisions.”
― Emily P. Freeman, The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions

“Rather than filling these times with sound, or holding on to the soul clutter by rehearsing past conversations or future possibilities, decide instead to let yourself be quiet inside the silence and see if your friend Jesus has anything to say.”
― Emily P. Freeman, The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions

“From an old English parsonage down by the sea There came in the twilight a message to me; Its quaint Saxon legend, deeply engraven, Hath, it seems to me, teaching from heaven; And through the hours the quiet words ring Like a low inspiration: “Do the next thing.” Many a questioning, many a fear, Many a doubt, hath its quieting here. Moment by moment, let down from heaven, Time, opportunity, and guidance are given. Fear not tomorrows, child of the King; Trust them with Jesus: Do the next thing. Oh! He would have thee daily more free, Knowing the might of thy royal degree, Ever in waiting, glad for His call, Tranquil in chastening, trusting through all. Comings and goings no turmoil need bring; His, all the future: do the next thing. Do it immediately, do it with prayer; Do it reliantly, casting all care; Do it with reverence, tracing His hand Who hath placed it before thee with earnest command. Stayed on Omnipotence, safe ’neath His wing, Leave all results, do the next thing. Looking to Jesus, ever serener, Working or suffering, be thy demeanor! In the shade of His presence, the rest of His calm, The light of His countenance live out thy psalm; Strong in His faithfulness, praise Him and sing. Then, as He beckons thee, do the next thing. Mrs. George A. Paull”
― Emily P. Freeman, The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions