I've been storing up quotes, songs, poems.... all things beautiful and powerful, since 2003. If I recall, it had something to do with Mrs. Gilbert giving a quote about how all great public speakers have _____ quotes at their command. I am a terrible memorizer. So, I decided I'd keep them at my command, in a little book. It quickly became a book of all that I wanted to be. When I first began writing in it, I determined it would be for my future husband and children. I hoped that it would somehow shape who I'd become, and therefore chart my journey for those who would know me one day. I've since read the contents over and over and over. They say what you behold you become. They are my most delighted in words. In recent years, I have not done such a wonderful time of recording the new things I read and love, but if you were to look through my books (of if you've ever borrowed one, you know), there are "Q.B"s written all throughout. (Braden and Madison thought perhaps that stood for "Question for Braden." Not quite.)

A few from my Quote Book:

To burn brightly our lives must first experience the flame. In other words, we cease to bless others when we cease to bleed."
-LB Cowman, Streams in the Desert

"Both the wisdom and the strength will always be given, in perfect measure, when the time comes, if we take up quietly and faithfully the duties of today. Let us not make the mistake of directing our energies toward what is not today's business. The best preparation for the future is always the conscientious carrying out of what is given us today."
-Elisabeth Elliot, Quest for Love

"When to all this was added, an overpowering sense of her beauty, and an unquestioning conviction that this was a true index to inward loveliness..."
-George MacDonald, Phantastes

"Stories are equipment for living... to live in a fictional reality that illuminates our daily reality."
-Robert McKee (Hollywood screenwriting teacher)

"There are so many things to occupy our minds: so many books, so many examples, so many good teachings that deserve our attention, that say, "here is a truth." But, as I have been serving the Lord these past years, He has led me to seek for two things and two things only: to know the heart of God in Christ and to know my own heart in Christ's light."
-Franic Frangipane, Holiness, Truth & the Presence of God.

"Truth is knowing God's heart as it was revealed in Christ, and it is knowing our own hearts in the light of God's grace."
-Francis Frangipane, Holiness, Truth & the Presence of God


Tonight, I'm adding:

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken:
The crownless again shall be king.

-JRR Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring


I believe stories can build courage in our hearts, and teach us not only to dream, but to fight.