I am a reader and a quote collector. I also hope I’m a giver more than a taker. So instead of taking these quotes and keeping them all to myself, I am sharing them with you here! Some of these I have shared on Instagram or in my emails, but here are many of them all in one place for you to collect and savor these quotes that inspire love and connection as I have.
My only rule in this post is that I share just one quote from each of the books cited below. If I shared all the quotes from each of these books, this post would be forever long. If you’re interested in finding any of these books, you can find them in my Amazon Idea List (I do not receive money from this list). Quotes from sources other than books are linked after the author’s name.
For this post, I’ve separated the quotes into three groups: with God, with ourselves, and with others. Love for others comes more authentically when we believe we are loved ourselves. As Christians, our love for God is first, then loving others. But we’re missing a key ingredient when we skip over loving ourselves the way God loves us.
Love and Connection with God
“The conversations I have with the Lord in my loneliness always lead me to more intimacy with Him and more compassion for others.” —Lysa TerKeurst, Uninvited
“Time and time again, I came broken before a Father who really knows me, and time and time again, He wholeheartedly loved me.” –Jill Dasher, Shallow
“The entire story of Scripture hinges on how Jesus has come to restore our relationships, first with God and second with each other.” –Lisa-Jo Baker, We Saved You a Seat
“The yearning to attach and connect, to love and be loved, is the fiercest longing of the soul. Our need for community with people and the God who made us is to the human spirit what food and air and water are to the human body.”–John Ortberg, Everybody’s Normal Till You Get to Know Them
“Jesus is never tired of me always needing HIm. Instead, He is delighted by how desperately I need His validation and He never, ever withholds it from me. Or from you.” –Lisa-Jo Baker, Never Unfriended
“I am never lonely when I am reading the Bible. Nothing dissolves loneliness like a session with God’s Word.” –Billy Graham
“And the knowledge that God will never leave or forsake us is a kind of buoy as we navigate the waters of loneliness.” –Charlote Donlon, The Great Belonging
“One of my favorite scenes of Jesus has Him sitting on the beach quietly, turning fish over a warm fire, cooking for His beloved friends. He had died and come back to life. Wouldn’t He want to prove His worth by showing Himself to His enemies? Instead, Jesus chose to love His friends. Jesus cooked for them…Come sit down, Jesus invites us. Warm yourself by the fire.” –Bonnie Gray, Sweet Like Jasmine
“Ironically we do not find significance or the cure for our loneliness in relationships with other people but in relationship with God Himself. He alone can sustain the weight of our worship.” –Dustin Willis, Life in Community
Just a reminder: I’ve created an Amazon Idea List with all of these books so you can browse them easily. Click the link here (not an affiliate link).
Love and Connection with Ourselves
“Self-preservation is willfully choosing the pain of isolation over the potential of messy godly connection.” –Andi Andrew, Friendship, It’s Complicated
“Because true belonging only happens when we present our authentic, imperfect selves to the world, our sense of belonging can never be greater than our level of self-acceptance.” –Brene Brown, Daring Greatly
“To audaciously love, we must—to the last atom of our DNA—believe that we are audaciously loved. The fire spreads no other way.” –Beth Moore, Audacious
“Your desire for connection is a godly one. It doesn’t mean you’re needy or broken.” –Jess Connolly, from Instagram
“The world needs you awake and alive.” –Emily P. Freeman, A Million Little Ways
“Looking up from my own failings and hurt to see others longing to be seen gave me purpose.” –Whitney Akin, source
Love and Connection with Others
“But not knowing what to say or the fear of saying or doing the wrong thing debilitates us. The result? No one shows up. Yet awkward is better than alone.” –Alexandra Kuykendall, Loving My Actual Neighbor
“I have been lost and lonely, anxiety-ridden, bored, and needy, and sharing those feelings with a friend has almost always made me feel more human and less crazy. I have been full of joy, on top of the world, and bursting with happiness, and sharing it with someone I love has almost always enhanced the moment. When I try to shut down my feelings—the good and the bad—that’s when I feel isolated. That when I swirl with self-doubt. So I don’t shut down so much anymore. I’ve learned that sharing our stuff is the key to connection and consciousness.” –Laura Tremaine, Share Your Stuff, I’ll Go First
“Showing up in suffering benefits both sides, and it has to be entered in from both sides. Had she pushed me away or continuously not accepted my offers of help, our relationship would not be what it is today.” —Just Show Up, The Dance of Walking through Suffering Together by Kara Tippetts and Jill Lynn Buteyn
“Community isn’t something we find; it’s something we create one person at a time.” –Holley Gerth, The Powerful Purpose of Introverts
“But no one teaches us that community has to be built with our hands and our tender hearts and our precious time. No one breaks it all the way down. No one gives us the tools. From the outside looking in, it can seem like community just happens for the lucky few. It’s easy to assume we’re the ones getting it wrong.” –Shannan Martin, Start with Hello
“Let’s draw the circles wider and wider….until love is known and felt everywhere…” –Brad Montague, source
“Friendship isn’t a luxury; it’s essential. We need people. We need connection. We need to belong. It even affects our life expectancy…We don’t just want it; we need it.” —Amy Weatherly & Jess Johnston, I’ll Be There (But I’ll Be Wearing Sweatpants)
“Are you busy? Great. Bring people along. Invest in relationships as you are going…Invite a teenager or young woman along on your carpool drives. Take her to coffee or for a walk. Lead that study in your house while kids nap or crawl all over you. Take a coworker to lunch. Invite the newlyweds over for dessert. Find the lonely college girl in your town…This is how we change the world.” —Jennie Allen, Find Your People
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