Good Enough Quotes

“We all want our troubles to mean something, to have stature and be validated—but we gain nothing by pitting our woes against another’s. Pain should unite us, as fellow sufferers, as fellow humans.”
― Kate Bowler, Good Enough: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection

“When life gives you a monthly subscription to miserable news, it’s really hard to take other people’s problems seriously.”
― Kate Bowler, Good Enough: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection

“A rule that takes on absolute power becomes a blunt instrument-something that loses the purpose for which it was created. Any rule or ideology is only use-ful, helpful, and salutary if it is under the authority of a higher law, the law of Love. And that law has in fact been established from the foundation of the world. God is Love.”
― Kate Bowler, Good Enough: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection

“Whether it is our parents, our teachers, mentors, friends, churches, or neighbors, people have been pouring into us. We are standing on a foundation. It should come as an incredible relief. Our only job is to build on what we've been given, and, even then, even our gifts we can trace back to the creativity, generosity, and foresight of others. Thank God we are a group project.”
― Kate Bowler, Good Enough: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection

“After all, what is idolatry except beautiful things that do not transform us?”
― Kate Bowler, Good Enough: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection

“Blessed am I when I strip away all the extra. When I see the world as it really is—broken, tender, fragile, beautiful. These are the same eyes that see God in everything too.”
― Kate Bowler, Good Enough: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection

“Spiritual hunger, like other forms of desire, is fleeting. Hello! And goodbye! Now it’s gone again. If we want our spiritual appetite to stick around, that will require a bit of attention. Our spiritual selves need encouragement. We need community. We need a hot minute alone. And we need a regula.”
― Kate Bowler, Good Enough: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection

“Not every change is going to be a transformation.”
― Kate Bowler, Good Enough: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection

“comparing a “fixed” versus “growth” mindset. A fixed mindset assumes that whatever we are—a certain composite of personality, intelligence, abilities—is a given. Every new challenge becomes a moment where you simply prove yourself again and again as being that particular person (dumb, smart, winning, losing, etc.). A growth mindset, conversely, imagines that we are not static creatures. We can change, and we do. We flex and grow, fall back, or bounce forward. But we are not simply the aggregate of whatever we have been.”
― Kate Bowler, Good Enough: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection

“they have some very unchristian feelings about people who sit in their pew or take their treadmill at the gym. (Okay, that is everyone.)”
― Kate Bowler, Good Enough: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection

“We become new people, slowly.”
― Kate Bowler, Good Enough: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection

“blessed are we who stop—okay, maybe not stop entirely, who are we kidding—but who slow down. We who discover rest and new life and renewal when we step off the treadmill (or at least turn it down).”
― Kate Bowler, Good Enough: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection

“We measured our worth by how tired we were every morning”
― Kate Bowler, Good Enough: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection

“society deemed it a form of torture to set men to work that had no meaning and allowed no human connection.”
― Kate Bowler, Good Enough: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection

“Those that lack friends to open themselves unto are cannibals of their own hearts. But one thing is most admirable…which is, that this communicating of a man’s self to his friend works two contrary effects; for it redoubleth joys, and cutteth griefs in halves. For there is no man that imparteth his joys to his friend, but he joyeth the more; and no man that imparteth his griefs to his friend, but he grieveth the less.” —Francis Bacon, “Of Friendship”
― Kate Bowler, Good Enough: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection

“When life is hanging upside down, we must try to send all available energy to the roots.”
― Kate Bowler, Good Enough: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection

“And when I screw up or forget or grow weary, bless me with the courage to begin again. Loving and loving again. Being changed by Your love and transforming the world one little act of love at a time. May it be so.”
― Kate Bowler, Good Enough: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection