{"author":"Shauna Niequist","author_id":"Shauna+Niequist","total_quotes":39,"quotes":[{"text":"I know now that I can make it through more than I thought, with less than I thought. I know better than to believe that the changes are over, and I know better than to believe the next ones will be easier, but I've learned the hard way that change is one of God's greatest gifts and one of his most useful tools.","author":"Shauna Niequist","tags":["faith","inspirational-attitude"],"id":1417,"author_id":"Shauna+Niequist"},{"text":"That's the lesson in this for people like me who sometimes get wound up about doing things perfectly: 90 percent of the people in your life won't know the difference between, say, fresh and frozen, or handmade and store-bought, and the 10 percent who do notice are just as stressed-out as you are, and your willingness to choose simplicity just might set them free to do the same.","author":"Shauna Niequist","tags":["hosting","perfection"],"id":7779,"author_id":"Shauna+Niequist"},{"text":"When life is sweet, say thank you and celebrate. And when life is bitter, say thank you and grow.","author":"Shauna Niequist","tags":["growth"],"id":16854,"author_id":"Shauna+Niequist"},{"text":"When we do the hard, intimate work of friendship, we bring a little more of the divine into daily life.","author":"Shauna Niequist","tags":["faith","friendship","relationships"],"id":20614,"author_id":"Shauna+Niequist"},{"text":"Today is your big moment. Moments, really. The life you’ve been waiting for is happening all around you. The scene unfolding right outside your window is worth more than the most beautiful painting, and the crackers and peanut butter that you’re having for lunch on the coffee table are as profound, in their own way, as the Last Supper. This is it. This is life in all its glory, swirling and unfolding around us, disguised as pedantic, pedestrian non-events. But pull of the mask and you will find your life, waiting to be made, chosen, woven, crafted. Your life, right now, today, is exploding with energy and power and detail and dimension, better than the best movie you have ever seen. You and your family and your friends and your house and your dinner table and your garage have all the makings of a life of epic proportions, a story for the ages. Because they all are. Every life is. You have stories worth telling, memories worth remembering, dreams worth working toward, a body worth feeding, a soul worth tending, and beyond that, the God of the universe dwells within you, the true culmination of super and natural. You are more than dust and bones. You are spirit and power and image of God. And you have been given Today.","author":"Shauna Niequist","tags":["be-here-now","drama","living-life-today"],"id":32715,"author_id":"Shauna+Niequist"},{"text":"We decide where the time goes. There's so much freedom in that, and so much responsibility.","author":"Shauna Niequist","tags":["christian-living"],"id":43354,"author_id":"Shauna+Niequist"},{"text":"Many of us who have found ourselves to be useful in Christian service have found ourselves unable, if we're honest, to connect with God in any other way, We do for him, instead of being with him. We become soldiers, instead of brothers and sisters and daughters and sons. This is dangerous, damaging territory, and I've spent to much time there.","author":"Shauna Niequist","tags":["christian-living","service"],"id":53917,"author_id":"Shauna+Niequist"},{"text":"I don't want to wait anymore. I choose to believe that there is nothing more sacred or profound than this day.I choose to believe that there may be a thousand big moments embedded in this day, waiting to be discovered like tiny shards of gold. The big moments are the daily, tiny moments of courage and forgiveness and hope that we grad onto and extend to one another. That's the drama of life, swirling all around us, and generally I don't see it, because I'm too busy waiting to become whatever it is I think I'm about to become. The big moments are in every hour, every conversation, every meal, every meeting.","author":"Shauna Niequist","tags":["big-moments","waiting"],"id":69823,"author_id":"Shauna+Niequist"},{"text":"We don't come to the table to fight or to defend. We don't come to prove or to conquer, to draw lines in the sand or to stir up trouble. We come to the table because our hunger brings us there. We come with a need, with fragility, with an admission of our humanity. The table is the great equalizer, the level playing field many of us have been looking everywhere for. The table is the place where the doing stops, the trying stops, the masks are removed, and we allow ourselves to be nourished, like children. We allow someone else to meet our need. In a world that prides people on not having needs, on going longer and faster, on going without, on powering through, the table is a place of safety and rest and humanity, where we are allowed to be as fragile as we feel.","author":"Shauna Niequist","tags":["communion","community","food","table"],"id":84446,"author_id":"Shauna+Niequist"},{"text":"To those of us who believe that all of life is sacred every crumb of bread and sip of wine is a Eucharist, a remembrance, a call to awareness of holiness right where we are.I want all of the holiness of the Eucharist to spill out beyond church walls, out of the hands of priests and into the regular streets and sidewalks, into the hands of regular, grubby people like you and me, onto our tables, in our kitchens and dining rooms and backyards.","author":"Shauna Niequist","tags":["communion","food","sacred","table","wine"],"id":98422,"author_id":"Shauna+Niequist"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":39,"pages":4,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}