Quotes from The Prayer Box

Lisa Wingate ·  400 pages

Rating: (9.2K votes)


“Fear builds walls instead of bridges. I want a life of bridges, not walls.”
― Lisa Wingate, quote from The Prayer Box


“The trouble with drowning in the mess of your own life is that you're not in any shape to save anyone else. You can't be a lighthouse when you're underwater yourself.”
― Lisa Wingate, quote from The Prayer Box


“Prayers are answered in ways we don’t choose. The river of grace bubbles up in unexpected places.”
― Lisa Wingate, quote from The Prayer Box


“Help them to show the world that our greatness is not in things we do for ourselves, but in things we do for others.”
― Lisa Wingate, quote from The Prayer Box


“What does a lighthouse do? I ask myself. It never moves. It cannot hike up its rocky skirt and dash into the ocean to rescue the foundering ship. It cannot calm the waters or clear the shoals. It can only cast light into the darkness. It can only point the way. Yet, through one lighthouse, you guide many ships. Show this old lighthouse the way.”
― Lisa Wingate, quote from The Prayer Box



“...The most important thing, I think. You can't run from your past. You have to take it for what it is and realize that it's part of you.”
― Lisa Wingate, quote from The Prayer Box


“Some of the hardest things you go through will teach you the most.”
― Lisa Wingate, quote from The Prayer Box


“Maybe there came a point in life where you had to quit categorizing whole groups of people by a few bad experiences.”
― Lisa Wingate, quote from The Prayer Box


“...you're going to have to face this. You can't let other people decide your life for you...Other people's judgement doesn't have any power unless you offer yourself up for trial, so don't.”
― Lisa Wingate, quote from The Prayer Box


“Dawn comes after the darkness, and with it the promise that what has been torn by the sea is not lost. All of life is breaking and mending, clipping and stitching, gathering tatters and sewing seams. All of life is quilted from the scraps of what once was and is no more- the places we have been, the memories we have made, the people we have known, that which has been long loved but has grown threadbare over time and can be worn no longer. We keep only pieces. All colors, all shapes, all sizes.
"All waiting to be stitched into the pattern only you can see.
"In the quiet after the storm, I hear you whisper, 'Daughter, do not linger where you are. Take up your needle and your thread, and go see to the mending...”
― Lisa Wingate, quote from The Prayer Box



“Through one lighthouse, you guide many ships. Iola’s words whispered in my mind. Was she thinking of the”
― Lisa Wingate, quote from The Prayer Box


“We do not choose the vessel we’re given, Iola Anne, but we choose what we pour out and what we keep inside,” she say.”
― Lisa Wingate, quote from The Prayer Box


“Like the beach glass, the wood was more beautiful because of its journey, because of the things it had been through.

Inside the perfect shells is dim,
It's through the cracks, the light comes in.”
― Lisa Wingate, quote from The Prayer Box


“My life was like that box. The best things in all the imperfections.”
― Lisa Wingate, quote from The Prayer Box


“Fear builds walls instead of bridges. I want a life of bridges, not walls.”
― Lisa Wingate, quote from The Prayer Box



“Well, you know how a river moves a mountain.” The words surprised me at first, but I knew where they were coming from. “Stone by stone,” she finished.”
― Lisa Wingate, quote from The Prayer Box


“The little box that was given to me was by no means unique. I'd heard of prayer boxes, and I knew what they were for.
...Any scrap of paper will do, anywhere, anytime of the day or night. The important part, in a world of fractured thoughts, hurried moments, and scattershot prayers, is to take the time to think through, to write down, to clarify in your own mind the things you're asking for, the things you're grateful for, the things your're troubled about, the hopes you've been nurturing.
And then?
Put them in the box and...
Let. Them. Go.
That's what trust is. It's letting go of the worry. It's the way of peace and also the way of God. such a hard road to travel for people like me, who are worriers. When I'm writing a story, I control the whole universe. In life...not so much. Actually, not at all. Things happen that I hadn't anticipated and wouldn't choose and can't change. That's the tough part.”
― Lisa Wingate, quote from The Prayer Box


“Other people’s judgment doesn’t have any power unless you offer yourself up for trial, so don’t.”
― Lisa Wingate, quote from The Prayer Box


“All of life is quilted from the scraps of what once was and is no more- the places we have been, the memories we have made, the people we have known, that which has been long loved but has grown threadbare over time and can be worn no longer. We keep only pieces. All colors, all shapes, all sizes.
"All waiting to be stitched into the pattern only you can see.”
― Lisa Wingate, quote from The Prayer Box


“Normal doesn't happen overnight when the world around and between you has always been off-balance.”
― Lisa Wingate, quote from The Prayer Box



“I desire to live my life this way,... Not caged by the walls of fear, but in anticipation of the bridges to magnificence.
Help me find the way.”
― Lisa Wingate, quote from The Prayer Box


“Sisters are created not by blood but by love.”
― Lisa Wingate, quote from The Prayer Box


“I wanted to write it on paper and fold it up in a box to remind myself, the next time I couldn’t see anything but mountains ahead, that where there’s a mountain, there’s always a river flowing nearby. Ultimately the river is the more powerful of the two.”
― Lisa Wingate, quote from The Prayer Box


“The trouble with drowning in the mess of your own life is that you’re not in any shape to save anyone else. You can’t be a lighthouse when you’re underwater yourself.”
― Lisa Wingate, quote from The Prayer Box


“I heard my grandfathers voice. What do they think-- the storms will never come? You build a house on the sand, the sand shifts eventually... Remember that.”
― Lisa Wingate, quote from The Prayer Box



“Other people’s judgment doesn’t have any power unless you offer yourself up for trial, so don’t.” Zoey”
― Lisa Wingate, quote from The Prayer Box


“Help them to show the world that our greatness is not in things we do for ourselves, but in things we do for others. In power that channels itself into kindness, in a hand outstretched in love. Be with”
― Lisa Wingate, quote from The Prayer Box


“Kids are supposed to grow up and cut the apron strings. I just never dreamed those sharp scissors would leave so many wounds.”
― Lisa Wingate, quote from The Prayer Box


“You are a God of winds and tides. Of journeys and storms and navigation by stars and faith.”
― Lisa Wingate, quote from The Prayer Box


“the choral group. I have even begun to master the organ, not so different from Monsieur’s piano. I strained to hear the whisper, as Sister Agnes went on with her thought. “The audiences prefer children who are young, too young to be out working for themselves. It pleases them to feel as though they’re donating to”
― Lisa Wingate, quote from The Prayer Box



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About the author

Lisa Wingate
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Popular quotes

“Ändå lockar livets mörka och förunderliga äventyr. Jag stannar nog kvar, om inte annat så av nyfikenhet, och eftersom det gläder mig att andas och känna mina friska lemmar.”
― quote from A Woman in Berlin: Eight Weeks in the Conquered City: A Diary


“It looked like it could use a drink," his father mumbled. "I gave it some gin." "Spirits”
― Megan Derr, quote from Tournament of Losers


“Mr. Charismo? Surely not Tibor Charismo, the most famous man in all of England.”
― Eoin Colfer, quote from The Reluctant Assassin


“What's that?" he asked.
"A balance sheet," I said. "To keep track of your payments."
He asked whether Pop had written it or me. When I answered truthfully, he handed the paper back like the useless thing it was. "Thank you," he said. "I won't be needing this."
Which took me by surprise and set me stammering how it was proof he was making his payments, and how he should take it because it was the right and proper way to do business.
"The rules aren't the same for me as they are for you," Joseph replied, shaking his head. "Don't you know that, Will?" Which put my nose out of joint so bad that I told him he was being rude, and that I was only trying to do him a favor at no small risk to myself.
Joseph's face went blank as the cloudless sky overhead. He eyed the receipt. Said, "Thank you, Mr. William. But I can't accept." And got back on his bicycle.
"That all you got to say?" I near shouted, frustrated at how easily he'd turned my good intentions into a fool's errand. And the quickest flash of hate you ever did see danced across the dark of his eyes.
I stood there, feeling awkward and a fool. Joseph put one foot on a pedal and said, real quiet, "If you'll excuse me, I've a funeral to attend."
Only then did I notice the band of mourning black around his upper arm.
"Who died?" I asked stupidly.
Joseph's eyes were flat. "Nobody important, Mr. William. Only a Negro boy like me.”
― Jennifer Latham, quote from Dreamland Burning


“The war, however, and the rhetoric that accompanied it created an urgency in the black community to call in the long overdue debt their country owed them. "Men of every creed and every race, wherever they lived in the world" were entitled to "Four Freedoms": freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear, Roosevelt said, addressing the American people in his 1941 State of the Union address.”
― quote from Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race


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