Annie F Downs Quotes

be brave enough to love the people around you, even if it looks like sacrifice and feels like loss.

I love when the darkness ends, don't you? Maybe that's the whole thing. Maybe I find so much breath taking beauty in the sunrise not so much because of what is starting, but more because of what it signals has ended.

To see yourself the way God sees you is the first step in being brave.

I believe in the me God made and in the me God can make. I believe he made me on purpose and didn’t make any mistakes when it came to my creation. I believe he is doing a good work in me, and in you. And that though I am flawed, God is loving me and refining me and reminding me that God in me is where I can place my trust. And that is the place where I find my courage.

Believe in yourself,” this is what I want you to think about. Don’t believe in yourself in such a way that you think you can accomplish anything on your own. You can’t. To believe in yourself means to believe that God made you and there is no one like you, that you have a unique call to courage, and that you can do the thing that is staring you in the face.

Courage doesnt tell you to let go when you know what to grab next. Brave people let go when its time to let go.

... to pause is to win & to rest can actually be part of the victory.

When God tells you to be brave, he will make it work. It won’t be perfect. It won’t be easy. But it will be your story and your best story.

God is perfect (we are not). He sees the big picture (we do not). He knows everything (we do not). So I choose to believe in this — that I am who I am on purpose, that the One who made me has a purpose and has unconditional love for me and those in my life.

I’m so tired of having more faith in the arrows that are being fired at me than the shield that God has given to protect me.

if you will go where you’ve never gone before, you will see God like you’ve never seen him before.

The Bible makes it plain and simple in Matthew 12:34: For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.

Whether you are trying to finish a race or a book or that hard conversation you've been avoiding, the training leading up to that event is what makes it possible to face the fear & walk forward anyway. Quit complaining about discipline & start seeing it as a powerful tool for courageous living.

Courage is doing things even when you’re scared. Being brave isn’t something that happens when you’re not scared anymore. Brave people don’t stop hearing the whispers of fear. They hear the whispers but take action anyway. Being brave is hearing that voice of fear in your head, but saying, “Okay, but the truth is, God made me on purpose and for a purpose.

I don't know how it works, the science and math of it all, but I know that love given is courage gained.

Look for the light. The light at your feet. And follow it. An when you know its right to hold on, hold on. Grip tightly until your hands are sore. But dont let go.

I never felt brave. I never had a moment of extreme courage or belief that this was going to be the best decision I had ever made. I just did the next thing.

Be brave for yourself, be brave for your God, and be brave for the onlookers, the ones who will be inspired by you to inspire others.

Every day is the first day we’ve ever done today, so maybe there just needs to be a little more acknowledgment of the amateur who lives and actually thrives in each of us.

Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.” —Proverbs 12:18

Seeing other people be brave makes me want to be brave too.

He knows we need dreams in pieces because we would be too scared of the whole puzzle.

You have to find purpose in the suffering so you don’t give up. You have to persevere. And when you persevere, your character, your proven faith and tried integrity, grows. And then hope. Hope arrives.

And to say gracious words is brave. To speak life into someone else takes courage. Whether you are correcting in love, standing up for the voiceless, praying for the sick, or praising and loving others, your words are changing the atmosphere. Don't be afraid. Be brave. Say the things that will speak truth and heal. Hold your tongue in anger or fear—those are the times when a coward speaks. But when the moment comes to say the gracious thing that will mark a heart forever? Say it. Speak love, and watch as beautiful things come to life.

It is scary to be who you’re meant to be. It doesn’t feel easy because it’s not. But we were made for this. Like today’s scripture says, we have holy work. Why be brave? Because when we’re brave enough to share the God stories in our lives, it changes the people around us. It changes us to share them.

It seems that Jesus did that for us over and over again. He said yes to uncomfortable things — like being friends with tax collectors and eating in their homes. Like letting a “woman . . . who lived a sinful life” (Luke 7:37) break a bottle of expensive perfume over his feet in an act of love and gratitude. Like considering Judas one of his best friends, even when he knew, he knew, Judas would be the one to turn on him.

We were never meant for a wimpy life.

But I'm not that girl anymore. I'm not the happy-on-the-outside-insecure-for-days-on-the-inside girl. The lies are gone (for the most part), and instead I see the truth of how God made me and who he made me to be. I don't fear failure because it doesn't define me. Neither do my successes. I used to want to hind in the moments that asked me to be brave. Now I want to take a penalty kick.

If we want to see God glorified all over the world, we need to be brave enough to see courage in all its different forms.

You are one of a kind, made on purpose, deeply loved, and called to be courageous.

I think that's what I need most to be brave—a place where I belong.

I think it's really nice when other people remind you that you are loved. It makes you brave. When you know who loves you, you know your safe places. You know where you can rest. You know where you can go when you fail. (I'm sorry if I'm the first to tell you this, but brave or not, you are going to fail.) Knowing who loves you also lets you know who you can trust with your brave ideas and who will hold you accountable to being brave but not being foolish (if you let them.)

You want to change the world? Be brave. Don't try to be someone else or do someone else's brave thing. Don't move to Africa because it is brave. Move because it sounds like the most terrifyingly perfect next step for you. Don't write a song because it takes courage. Write it because you'll puke if you don't—even if you puke when you do. Because it matters. Every moment matters. And you being you? That is brave. It will make me brave. We will all be brave.

Practice makes perfect" is true. "Practice makes confidence" is truer.

You are stronger than you know. You are more generous than you've allowed yourself to be. You are impacting the people around you for more than you realize. Will you now also be brave?

You want to change the world? Be brave. Be you.

Sometimes you set without a view of the destination, trusting the tools you´ve got. And once you get there, you stay. You move forward, not backward. Your burn your ships

Say yes to the open door. Say yes to the situations that stretch you and scare you and ask you to be a btter you than you think you can be. Say yes to the movement that will only come once.

Courage implies action. like you are going somewhere or going to do something. Courage. Maps.Movement

If there are seeds of courage living in all of us, waiting to bloom, words are the sun and the water that cheer on those seeds to their fullness.

A lot of courageous noes make for some beautifully brave yeses. And I guess we never know which ones come first until we are standing at the crossroads, right? It may be easier to determine the yes route, knowing it means saying no. Or maybe it is the no you are sure of, so that tell you where to say yes.

But what the ant knew is that your muscles don’t always determine what you can do.

Bravery and belonging go hand in hand.

We have to say yes. Even when it’s scary or costly or unknown. We don’t screw up by saying yes to the wrong things; we screw up by letting all the floats in the parade pass us by and never jumping on one of them for a ride to the end.

I don’t know how old you are. But I know the lie you hear. You are too young. You are too old. You don’t know enough, or you know too much. The truth is that courage doesn’t have an expiration date. Courage doesn’t have a marker that says, “You must be taller than THIS to ride this ride.

We don’t screw up by saying yes to the wrong things; we screw up by letting all the floats in the parade pass us by and never jumping on one of them for a ride to the end.

I’m a Georgia girl at heart. I slept in a University of Georgia T-shirt for more nights in middle school than I care to admit. I’ve been cheering for the Atlanta Braves since Dale Murphy wore the uniform in the 80s. My parents still live in the same house they built in 1980 on the property my grandparents have occupied since the 1950s. I grew up in Marietta, a cute little Southern town where the same guy has done my parents’ dry cleaning for thirty years and the waitresses from Po Folks Restaurant came to my grandmother’s funeral. You know, Mayberry kind of stuff, but with more cliques and monogrammed purses and high school football games.

Their cool cheeks and warm lips met in the crisp darkness, and, watching the icy moon over his shoulder, Annie knew that she was his surely and, pulling his face down, kissed him again, trembling with emotion.

I didn’t want to be called a “dog mom.” Helen has an actual dog mom who birthed her. I’m just her human. Her Annie.

Yet He loves me to pieces—all my pieces. I cannot earn it, I don’t deserve it, and yet I am drowning in it.

There is so much power when you begin to understand that you are who God says you are, not who other people say you are or who you believe you are.

praying

BE BRAVE: Copy this prayer into your journal (or write one of your own): God, tell me the truth of who I am. I’m listening. I want to be free from the lies—do that for me. Rescue me. Bring truth like a waterfall.

We can be in the wilderness and be fed. Those two realities are not mutually exclusive. Life can be painful and beautiful at the exact same time.

Travel has always been one of the best parts of my job. But about a year ago, I felt God whisper to me, “You’re going to want to be home next fall.” It felt like an invitation from Him, and with time in prayer, for me and my team of employees and managers and agents, we decided that I would spend fall in Nashville.

That’s why we have to start. That’s why we have to go first. That’s why we have to be brave—so that others will be inspired to be brave along with us.

This entire planet is about wilderness, but God is about manna. The journey of life is not a matter of finding our way out of the wilderness but finding the manna inside the wilderness.

watch

Our words always matter.