I had planned to use today to take up the quote challenge given to me by Whitney Ibe Blog. In light of events in the UK the best I can offer is a quote from a man of peace. A man who saw the problems of the world and offered the best solution.
He offered a message of love and hope in a world adrift in a sea of hate. He offered a way of peace to conquer the violence. He mirrored Christ when the world wanted to mirror hate. His message is timeless.
I know that I am supposed to nominate someone to take up this 6 day quote challenge. I am going to give this a twist instead. I would like to challenge all of us to post our favorite quotes on kindness, love, conquering hate….basically your favorite quotes on love casting out fear and good conquering evil.
My prayers are with those grieving at this time. My prayers are with those who encourage this violence….may their hearts be opened to love, may their eyes be opened to the truth of life and may their lives be changed by goodness.
Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good.
Romans 12:21
New Living Translation
The Chicken Grandma 
Faye, this was very on point for me today. We lost my brother in law today. Not in Manchester but in Minnesota. 20 days ago he started feeling not well. Today he is gone. So I am adrift but looking forward to celebrating life and I will continue to grab life with both hands and LIVE. Thank you so much for sharing this post today.
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You are so welcome Pamela! I am so sorry for the loss of your brother in law. Life is such a roller coaster of living. I remember someone said we were not made to live on the mountain tops…We were made for the valleys. The mountain tops replenish the valleys. I think that may be true. am not sure if this rambling makes sense or not???
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Yes, it does. We have to endure the valleys to cherish the view from the mountain tops. Thanks so much Faye. Have a blessed day.
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Faye,
Manchester, New York, Nice, Indonesia, Sydney- anywhere in the world where people are dying needlessly, my prayers are with them. As Trump calls them ” Evil losers- evil will lose”.
Susie
A Sanskrit shlok comes to mind:
Lead me from darkness to light. ( Asathoma Sad Gamaya).
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That is a wonderful quote Susie! “Lead me from darkness…”
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“The light shines in the darkness and the darkness comprehendeth it not.”
I think that’s from John?
Be the light, be the change…lovely thoughtful post, thank you 💕💕
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That is a wonderful verse and so very true. Darkness needs eyes opened and at this point those eyes have shutters over them and don’t want to see light. Lots of prayers.
Thank you for that verse! The light can start with us!
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God bless them all…with love.
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And blessings to you George.
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It all begins in the home. This is one of my favorites. “The influence of a mother upon the lives of her children cannot be measured. They know and absorb her example and attitudes when it comes to questions of honesty, temperance, kindness, and industry.” Billy Graham
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That is a great one and so very true! Thank you for sharing!
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My heart goes out to everyone grieving right now and in one pain or the other. I am praying that the peace of the Lord that passeth all human understanding will guard their hearts. I love the way you approached your challenge, it’s very appealing and am sure it will speak to many hearts.
Thank you Ma’am for sharing with us all. Peace can never be overated in an ever changing and wicked world like ours. God bless you.
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It is almost to much to take in all the pain. Thank you so much for sharing the verse about the peace of the Lord. He is the only one who can take that pain away.
Peace to you also and may you be blessed!
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Amen Ma’am and may He bless and keep you and yours. Amen
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Hello Chicken.
As someone from the UK, I thank you for your thoughts and wishes.
I know that I could have chosen from a gazillion quotes by others who would say so eloquently what I’m feeling, but … I wonder if I could share with you a poem which was written in 2013 by poet Tony Walsh, and who was asked to read out his poem yesterday (23rd May 2017), in Manchester, just before a minutes silence was held – not just in Manchester, but in towns and cities all over the UK, as a mark of our respect.
Many, many things about this act of barbarity, of brutality, savagery, wickedness, have made me cry hot, choking tears. But it was this man, reading this poem which brought about the Britishness, the spirit for which we are known, that of not giving in. Not giving those who wish to cause us harm any space in our lives, not just to me but to many people here.
As people stood together, united, less than 24 hours after that bomb blast brought slaughter to our land, the poet Tony Walsh read [not quite all of] his poem (just a verse or two was left out), ‘This is the Place’. His voice cracked many times with emotion, and he had to pause a few of times to compose himself before he managed to finish the reading. And I’d love to share that with you, if that’s ok.
I’ve found the video of this on YouTube, but I know that some folks may have a problem with his accent, so I’ve got the words as well, so that anyone can read the words if they can’t quite hear them clearly enough.
But … if this is too long for your comment section Chicken, feel free to leave this one out of your comments. I really won’t fret or mind or get upset.
Poem:
This is the Place
In the north-west of England. It’s ace, it’s the best
And the songs that we sing from the stands, from our bands
Set the whole planet shaking.
Our inventions are legends. There’s nowt we can’t make, and so we make brilliant music
We make brilliant bands
We make goals that make souls leap from seats in the stands
And we make things from steel
And we make things from cotton
And we make people laugh, take the mick summat rotten
And we make you at home
And we make you feel welcome and we make summat happen
And we can’t seem to help it
And if you’re looking from history, then yeah we’ve a wealth
But the Manchester way is to make it yourself.
And make us a record, a new number one
And make us a brew while you’re up, love, go on
And make us feel proud that you’re winning the league
And make us sing louder and make us believe that this is the place that has helped shape the world
And this is the place where a Manchester girl
named Emmeline Pankhurst from the streets of Moss Side
led a suffragette city with sisterhood pride
And this is the place with appliance of science, we’re on it, atomic, we struck with defiance,
and in the face of a challenge, we always stand tall,
Mancunians, in union, delivered it all
Such as housing and libraries and health, education
and unions and co-ops and first railway stations
So we’re sorry, bear with us, we invented commuters.
But we hope you forgive us, we invented computers.
And this is the place Henry Royce strolled with Rolls,
and we’ve rocked and we’ve rolled with our own northern soul
And so this is the place to do business then dance,
where go-getters and goal-setters know they’ve a chance
And this is the place where we first played as kids.
And me mum, lived and died here, she loved it, she did.
And this is the place where our folks came to work,
where they struggled in puddles, they hurt in the dirt
and they built us a city, they built us these towns
and they coughed on the cobbles to the deafening sound
to the steaming machines and the screaming of slaves,
they were scheming for greatness, they dreamed to their graves.
And they left us a spirit. They left us a vibe.
That Mancunian way to survive and to thrive
and to work and to build, to connect, and create
and Greater Manchester’s greatness is keeping it great.
And so this is the place now with kids of our own.
Some are born here, some drawn here, but they all call it home.
And they’ve covered the cobbles, but they’ll never defeat,
all the dreamers and schemers who still teem through these streets.
Because this is a place that has been through some hard times:
oppressions, recessions, depressions, and dark times.
But we keep fighting back with Greater Manchester spirit.
Northern grit, Northern wit, and Greater Manchester’s lyrics.
And these hard times again, in these streets of our city,
but we won’t take defeat and we don’t want your pity.
Because this is a place where we stand strong together,
with a smile on our face, greater Manchester forever.
And we’ve got this place where a team with a dream
can get funding and something to help with a scheme.
Because this is a place that understands your grand plans.
We don’t do “no can do” we just stress “yes we can”
Forever Manchester’s a charity for people round here,
you can fundraise, donate, you can be a volunteer.
You can live local, give local, we can honestly say,
we do charity different, that Mancunian way.
And we fund local kids, and we fund local teams.
We support local dreamers to work for their dreams.
We support local groups and the great work they do.
So can you help us. help local people like you?
Because this is the place in our hearts, in our homes,
because this is the place that’s a part of our bones.
Because Greater Manchester gives us such strength from the fact
that this is the place, we should give something back.
Always remember, never forget, forever Manchester.
❤ ❤ ❤
I don't know and don't understand what overcomes these people which makes them truly believe that their God wants them to kill as many people as possible, while at the same time killing themselves.
My heart is so full of ache right now for all those who lost someone that night. From the youngest child to the eldest adult. All those people were gathered in one place for a few hours of joy and happy.
What is happening to my beautiful land?
What is happening to the World?
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Every word stays Cobs and I thank you from the bottom of my aching heart for sharing. That poem is so reminiscent of the feeling we, Americans, had after 9/11.
This world is upside down lately. Black has become white, right has become wrong, life is cheap and so many want to stick their head in the sand.
May we be light, may we be strong, may we be courageous, and may we as people of the world stand united in the process of bringing sanity back.
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Thank you for your beautiful post. I am trying to catch up on my reading…I did not see your post two days ago. I am so sorry. This has been an incredibly upsetting and frightening week. Yet…we cannot let evil control the joy that we feel through our faith. I have found myself thinking…”maybe I should just stay home and not be out with the crowds of people”…but that is not me. How can we possibly reach and touch people with our words of kindness if we are not among the people? Jesus was certainly out among the people and did not let fear overcome him. He did not let fear impede him from reaching out. You are right…the world is out of sync right now. We most assuredly need to be the light to the world. “This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine, let it shine, let it shine”.
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Don’t worry about being behind on reading….I am also. I am also behind on writing! But I am taking the week to enjoy the kids and grandkids. Our oldest grandson graduated from pre-school this week and we NEEDED to be there!!! So much hope and fun when you see that age. It put the world back into perspective.
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That is just what you needed…to see those happy little children! Of course, you certainly had to be there for the graduation!! Honestly, I considered going over to my school…just to visit and see the children. I was so upset about the utter disrespect for mankind shown in Manchester. I thought that being at my fun school would also put my world a little back in place. I didn’t go because I started thinking how very busy their week would be! I would have been very upset about the incident no matter what…but, this time it really close to a place that I hold dear. I was writing this to Cobs this morning in response to her post .,,my great-great grandfather grew up in Oldham…just over 7 miles from the concert arena. I still have relatives there. So sad.
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My favorite quote is the Golden Rule…Do unto others as you would want others do unto you…if we live by that we would live in peace and love. My heart goes out to all affected by yet another senseless tragedy! As the great Martin Luther King Jr. said, We Shall Overcome!
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Love the Golden Rule. And we shall overcome…one person at a time. One person impacting one person who then impacts one other person and on and on.
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It so simple, isn’t it? Hmmm…
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I didn’t realize you used a Martin Luther King quote too. Very inspirational message and much needed. ❤️
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Martin Luther King said so many good things…..now if the world would just listen and then put those words into action!
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