Home > Work > The Artisan Soul: Crafting Your Life into a Work of Art
21 " Unfortunately, the people who have the greatest influence in our lives rarely understand the power of their words to shape who we become. They never fully understand that what informs us forms us. Words spoken into a soul are like the hands of a potter pressed against wet clay. "
― Erwin Raphael McManus , The Artisan Soul: Crafting Your Life into a Work of Art
22 " if God refuses to mass-produce but insists on an intimate process that in the end forms each of us into the image of Christ, why would we choose a lesser path for our own lives? The work of the artist begins with the care of his or her own soul. "
23 " Who do we become when we stop allowing all the voices in our head to crowd out the one voice we must hear to come to life? "
24 " Our lives will become our greatest works of art not only when our relationships are a beautiful expression of love, acceptance, and intimacy, but when we have a deep sense of purpose that produces accomplishments that express, for us, success and significance. "
25 " Creativity should be an everyday experience. Creativity should be as common as breathing. We breathe, therefore we create. "
26 " Since part of our creative responsibility is to move from imagination to image, we need to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ and allow our imagination once again to be the playground of God. And once our dreams and visions are the material that has been passed on to us by a divine imagination, then it is time to dream, to risk, and to create. "
27 " We are most human when love is our motive. "
28 " Most people who describe themselves as visionaries are actually saying something quite different. They are abdicating their responsibility for the details. Details matter. The more someone or something matters to us, the more the details relating to them matter to us. "
29 " If we are inherently spiritual creatures, we are by our nature creative beings, yet we live in the fear that if we aspire to be more we will discover ourselves to be less. "
30 " Who we were created to become already exists in the mind of God. It’s placed in our physical DNA and in the longings of our soul. Our lives are supposed to be a manifestation of the imagination of God, and whatever else we leave behind—the life we choose to live and the person we choose to become—is the ultimate expression of the artisan soul. "
31 " Worship is not something we are called to so that God can reinforce his status. It is his way of calling us near. "
32 " The artisan soul is not about rebellion but about resonance. "
33 " In an ideal world, the voices that teach us language teach us self-respect, self-confidence, and self-esteem. Those same voices also form in us humility and gratitude, and as those voices inform our inner voices, they also pass on wisdom. "
34 " The soul is both fragile and resilient...The artisan soul must be both tender and tough. "
35 " What if the creative act is not an act against God but a reflection of His image within us? "
36 " actually "
37 " Genius is a gift we are given; mastery is the stewardship of our gifts. "
38 " reflects who we are. Our soul is the material for all we create. "
39 " ...Discipleship...a process of unleashing the creative potential in each person. "
40 " Imagine a world where love was the rule, where love was the boundary, where it was unthinkable to violate this principle: love your neighbor as yourself. "