Quotes by Counselors - Page 21

I can be absolutely assured that any endeavor of which God is not a part is most certainly a step backward. And any step backward is at least two steps behind where I’d be if I’d have gone forward in the first place.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
Self-serving biases and self-centered agendas are cotton jammed in the ears of our conscience. Even if truth shouts, we can’t hear it.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
Instead of the weight that sinks us, consequences are often the life preserver that saves us.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
To keep my life free of evil I must of necessity keep my life full of God, for keeping my life full of anything else will give evil everything else.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
My vision of what God can do is nothing more than a fleeting glance of the backside of the ‘possible,’ while God is inviting me to the forefront of the ‘impossible.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
It is enough that I am of value to somebody today.
Hugh Prather
To make a choice not to sacrifice is to decide that I am better off allowing a life to perish than release the resources I possess that might allow it to thrive. And because of choices such as these, the life that I am really allowing to perish is mine.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
If the road behind me is not growing ever longer, then it is likely that the feet underneath me are not moving any longer. And if my feet are not moving, I have somehow, somewhere traded this most glorious journey for lesser endeavors.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
When it comes to worry, our problem is we fear an invisible future that a timeless God has seen. Perhaps you should talk to Him about it.
Eddie Capparucci
Easter is God throwing everything at death so that I can give everything to life.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
Sooner or later I will be faced with the fact that the world is helpless to meet my needs. And at that point, I will be left with two conclusions; that life is cruel or God is real.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
A spiritual hell I lived in … hating the God of love and knowing the god I served … hated me!
David W. Earle
Too often we make it more about what stands before us, and we miss all that stands within us.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
If I have forfeited the ability to wonder so as not to offend the tenets of the culture, and if I have sacrificed warm dreams on the cold altar of conformity, it is likely because I have somewhere traded the marvel of the infinite for the malaise of the finite.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
She is the crescendo, the final, astonishing work of God. Woman. In one last flourish creation comes to a finish with Eve. She is the Master's finishing touch.
John Eldredge
Being stuck in your own head not only cheats you of intimate interactions with others, but it also impacts your relationship with God. - From the Book: Removing Your Shame Label
Eddie Capparucci
Love is a perpetual journey that is extraordinary because it will never find itself terminated by a destination.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
We can hide a lot of stuff until God shows up, for when God shows up nothing is hidden, which includes both our embarrassment and His forgiveness.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
A consequence may be the very thing that saves us because it was the only thing loud enough to get our attention.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
To be alone with myself in the space of silence is horrifying, for I know with the utmost certainty that in that space I will hear the very things that I constantly use the clamor to drown out. And so the question becomes, how long can I keep up all the noise?
Craig D. Lounsbrough
When my vision is numbed by apathy and narrowed by mediocrity, I can stand in the presence of great things and fail to see even the smallest of things.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
Thankfully, the nature of pain reminds us of what the ease of pleasure foolishly allows us to forget.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
Maybe the real miracle in any miracle is our ability to believe that despite our own depravity, in the eyes of God we are worthy of a miracle.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
I am often asked whether physical aggression by women toward men, such as a slap in the face, is abuse. The answer is: “It depends.” Men typically experience women’s shoves or slaps as annoying and infuriating rather than intimidating, so the long-term emotional effects are less damaging. It is rare to find a man who has gradually lost his freedom or self-esteem because of a woman’s aggressiveness.
Lundy Bancroft
Fate’ and ‘coincidence’ are the mythological derivatives authored by those who refuse to see a ‘greater purpose’, because such a conclusion would naturally suggest a ‘Greater Being’.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
However, in many instances we might be very wise to ask what the consequence of removing the consequence might actually be.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
Be absolutely assured that we will die long before our own deaths if we ever allow the fear of adulthood to kill the wonder of childhood.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
Codependency is a learned set of behaviors, thought processes, and habits. When combined together, they fit a very loose definition. All people exhibit these traits to some degree, but some of us allow them to dictate our relationships with others and ourselves.
David W. Earle
We have a choice. We can be jaded by what we’ve lost, or joyous over what that thing had accomplished while we had it.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
This wonderful gray of acceptance resides between the extremes of black and white thinking; looking for serenity, explore the gray. Part of that acceptance is understanding that life is hard and involves life and death. Part of that acceptance is that I am responsible for my actions.
David W. Earle
The step that we are on is only a step to the next place, and no step regardless of how massive is ever a destination.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
If you haven’t figured it out yet, an absolutely certain way to lose something as quickly as possible is to forget the privilege you have to possess it in the first place.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
Outside of my professional life, I have known many couples over the years who had passion and electricity between them and who treated each other well. But unfortunately there is wide acceptance in our society of the unhealthy notion that passion and aggression are interwoven and that cruel verbal exchanges and bomblike explosions are the price you pay for a relationship that is exciting, deep, and sexy. Popular romantic movies and soap operas sometimes reinforce this image.
Lundy Bancroft
We are quick to surrender that which we deem as long dead, when God is quick to restore that which He deems as never really having lived.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
Everything that I hold will eventually be gone. Subsequently, the quality of my life will depend on whether I choose to appreciate those things ‘now’ or wait until ‘then.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
I yearn not for the easy path, but for the right path.  For 'easy' and 'right' are rarely compatible.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
If I’m surprised at where I’m at, it’s probably because I’m not listening to the reality that listening to the voices that I’ve listened to have put me here. So, maybe I should be less surprised and more disappointed.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
Forgiveness allows the burdens that we carry to become the histories that we forget.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
Prayer is knowing that what I ask for is always far bigger than what I could ever articulate, but it is never too big for God to understand nor is it ever too vast for Him to deliver.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
We might do well to take a look at what we’ve crammed into our pockets as it will say much about what we’ve crammed into our hearts.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
If those who cause destruction have come to be ‘newsworthy’, and those who heal the devastation of that destruction have come to be less than ‘noteworthy’, has our thirst to be entertained become the truly destructive thing?
Craig D. Lounsbrough
YOUR ABUSIVE PARTNER DOESN’T HAVE A PROBLEM WITH HIS ANGER; HE HAS A PROBLEM WITH YOUR ANGER.One of the basic human rights he takes away from you is the right to be angry with him. No matter how badly he treats you, he believes that your voice shouldn’t rise and your blood shouldn’t boil. The privilege of rage is reserved for him alone. When your anger does jump out of you—as will happen to any abused woman from time to time—he is likely to try to jam it back down your throat as quickly as he can. Then he uses your anger against you to prove what an irrational person you are. Abuse can make you feel straitjacketed. You may develop physical or emotional reactions to swallowing your anger, such as depression, nightmares, emotional numbing, or eating and sleeping problems, which your partner may use as an excuse to belittle you further or make you feel crazy.
Lundy Bancroft
Loss eventually arrives when something departs. Grief is working through both.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
With improved coping skills forged through my midlife crisis, I now listen first and do not control, and I allow these now adult children to come to their own conclusions about what they want for their lives.
David W. Earle
Failure is a friend if we can see past the face of the foe that we project on it.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
I pretend to give gifts that people pretend to be gifts so that I can pretend that I gave something that actually cost me something. And what pretending or this sort gives me is the gift of a pretend life.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
We are often at odds with our wise and loving Lord because the change he is working on is not the change we have dreamt about. We dream about change in it, while God is working in the midst of it to change us.
Timothy D. Lane
My definition of success is not based on achieving the impossible, but rather surviving the probable. And with a threshold that horribly low, simple survival cannot help but become my highest aspiration.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
A woman in her glory, a woman of beauty, is a woman who is not striving to become beautiful or worthy or enough. She knows in her quiet center where God dwells that he find her beautiful, has deemed her worthy, and in him, she is enough.
John Eldredge
One of the obstacles to recognizing chronic mistreatment in relationships is that most abusive men simply don’t seem like abusers. They have many good qualities, including times of kindness, warmth, and humor, especially in the early period of a relationship. An abuser’s friends may think the world of him. He may have a successful work life and have no problems with drugs or alcohol. He may simply not fit anyone’s image of a cruel or intimidating person. So when a woman feels her relationship spinning out of control, it is unlikely to occur to her that her partner is an abuser.
Lundy Bancroft
At some point I hope to have grown sufficiently in both stature and wisdom to understand that I cannot deliver myself from myself, and that God alone can save me from me.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
Am I a storm-waster? For it is within the fury of the very storms within which I cower that I find resources for my growth that are entirely absent on calmer days.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
Mediocrity is a path cleared by fear, leveled by apathy and paved by comfort.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
Each day hands me a clean sheet of paper upon which to write. Therefore, I would be wise to write without ever having the need to erase.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
God is too great to be glorified only through the lives of His victorious children. He is glorified by our suffering and even by our sin. His sustaining strength is glorified when we walk through the furnace of affliction.
Elyse M. Fitzpatrick
The abusive man’s high entitlement leads him to have unfair and unreasonable expectations, so that the relationship revolves around his demands. His attitude is: “You owe me.” For each ounce he gives, he wants a pound in return. He wants his partner to devote herself fully to catering to him, even if it means that her own needs—or her children’s—get neglected. You can pour all your energy into keeping your partner content, but if he has this mind-set, he’ll never be satisfied for long. And he will keep feeling that you are controlling him, because he doesn’t believe that you should set any limits on his conduct or insist that he meet his responsibilities.
Lundy Bancroft
I don’t know that love is freedom. Rather, I think it’s more a force to preserve freedom.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
My prayer is that God would continue to love me enough to refuse to answer the prayers I'm praying that I shouldn't be praying.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
If in fact it’s not too late to realize that something’s ‘too late’, then there’s a good chance that it’s not.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
Who you are is too vast to be captured by the reflection of a mirror, classified by the state of your attitude, or categorized by the opinions of others. Therefore, if any of these are defining you, you have yet to be defined.
Craig D. Lounsbrough