For me, Jesus is my cleft in the rock. He is my safest friend, my safe totally loving accepting big brother.

Grace is having a commitment to- or at least an acceptance of- being ineffective and foolish. That our bottled charm is the main roadblock to drinking that clear cool glass of love.

Grace arrived, like the big, loopy stitches with which a grandmotherly stranger might baste your hem temporarily.

One thing I know for sure about raising children is that every single day a kid needs discipline.... But also every single day a kid needs a break.

My understanding is that you get to choose which of your thoughts to go with.

I find most famous Christians to be full of themselves and of prejudice and self-loathing, masquerading as devout religious belief. I find all fundamentalism to be terrifying and very destructive.

It is unearned love--the love that goes before, that greets us on the way. It's the help you receive when you have no bright ideas left, when you are empty and desperate and have discovered that your best thinking and most charming charm have failed you. Grace is the light or electricity or juice or breeze that takes you from that isolated place and puts you with others who are as startled and embarrassed and eventually grateful as you are to be there.