Loving the Little Years quotes

I didn’t like this book. The attitude was completely different from Sally Clarkson’s and I felt it was a little smug and gave too much advice. There was also too much mention of spanking for my taste. But there are some good quotes I would like to share with you. I am wondering what to do with it… do you keep books you didn’t like very much? Or recycle them?

“But God took me out of that life and threw me into the rock tumbler. Here, it is not so easy to feel godly, because we spend our days crashing into each other and actually getting our problems addressed.” Pg 13

“But our children sin against us, annoy us, and mess up our stuff. We want to hold it against them, complain about them (if only to ourselves), and feel put upon by their sin.” Pg 14

“It is no abstract thing – the state of your heart is the state of your home.” Pg 14

“So think about your language with your children. When they disobey, do you talk about your own hurt? Are you pointing to all the work that you have to do now that they screwed up? Do you want to elaborate at all on how bad, bad, bad that particular thing was?” pg 18

“It is something I love about fruit-bearing trees and bushes – that God tole them to make something, and they do it enthusiastically. They don’t care about what happens to the fruit. They do not measure their efforts or fuss when no one appreciates it.” Pg 31

“The more you throw yourself into heavy branches, the more inviting the fruit, and the more inviting the fruit, the more people it is likely to feed.” P 34

“You cannot know the depth of His plan for your fruit. So throw it out there on the ground when you have no plan for its future. Waste it. Waste homemade pasta (and the mess it makes) on your family. Don’t save cloth napkins for company only – sew a dress your daughter doesn’t really need.” Pg 34

“You will need to see it happening and get the grace for it in advance. You will need to develop some skills for coping with it that do not involve blaming your children.” Pg 48

“I must take a bad attitude with a lot of spin and turn it into a quiet little ball rolling across the floor.” Pg 75