All the Good Phrases: A Review (Part 2)

Yesterday I shared about why I started the One Good Phrase series and then offered a summary of each phrase from the first five months of the series. Today I offer you the second half…

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Holly Grantham acknowledged that You can’t always get what you want and still pointed to how love is all that any of us ever really need. Andrea Palpant Dilley shared her favorite hymn, Be Thou My Vision, and talked about how the words of the hymns we grew up singing form and shape who we become, who we are becoming.

Anna Broadway thought about God’s kindness and goodness in The Lord is kind to the undeserving. Amy Young considered the propositions in the Apostle Paul’s phrase Grace to you and peace from God. She also talked about zombies.

Jennifer Grant offered practical (and also relieving) advice when it comes to relationships or individuals that have crossed over the healthy boundaries in our lives: God made poop stink for a reason. We are allowed to acknowledge the foul odors in our lives and pursue the good. Ellen Painter Dollar offered one word that allows her to most deeply experience authentic prayer: Sophia, the Greek word for wisdom, a word that represents all she longs for when she prays.

Kristen Howerton shared the phrase she has learned to use in order to both correct and affirm her children at the same time: You’re better than that. Diana Trautwein wrote the words of a hymn she learned in her teenage years that has stayed with her throughout each phase of her life: God has always and still is asking her to live One day at a time. “…today is all we have,” she wrote. “Really it is.” (I cried at that one.)

Marlena Groves shared a beautiful and powerful prayer for her daughter, May you flourish. Cara Meredith wrote about fear and the words she shouted to her husband on the first day of a new job and her baby before his first steps, the phrase she is choosing to believe for herself: You got this.

Rachel Marie Stone wrote a One Good Phrase commemorating September 11th, remembering how her first connection with her husband happened (perhaps inappropriately) on that that horrific day, and how the phrase I love you connotes the power of loving a person, just as she is, faults and all.

My brother, Brooks Boyett, wrote about his work with families and children in poverty and his struggle to hold out hope for the kids who continue in destructive choices. Their stories aren’t written yet was one of the most moving posts of One Good Phrase. (Just my humble opinion.)

Hännah Ettinger told a deeply moving story of losing her marriage and discovering the God who whispers You are held. Zack Hunt reflected on Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s belief that Costly grace is the Incarnation of God. And Roo Ciambriello wrote about childhood pain, rebellion, and the grace that has been offered to over “time and time again.” Brush your shoulders off, she said to herself (in the words of the great Jay-Z).

Laura Turner rounded us out with a phrase about the provision of God in the past and the sweet hope we hold for the future. What better way to bring this series full-circle than to claim, along with Laura, The adventure continues…

What a gift it was to host this ongoing conversation about the power of words in our lives and the hope of a God who holds our metaphors and breathes life into them. Thanks for joining me.