The Best Question Ever
I finished reading this book May 24, 2016. It took a couple days to read, and might be the best book I've read so far. As with most books I've been reading lately, I wish I would have read this book ten years ago, but I'm not sure I would have been wise enough to actually apply it to my circumstances at the time. But God is good, all the time, and this book was very timely, and something I've been applying in my life, and will continue to apply going forward. If you haven't read this book, do yourself a favor and read it. You won't be disappointed.
"We should have known better. In some cases, we did know better, but for some reason we thought we could beat the odds — that we would be the exceptions to the rule."
― Andy Stanley - The Best Question Ever
"Probably some of your greatest regrets started with choices that you convinced yourself were good ones."
― Andy Stanley - The Best Question Ever
"You don't sit around looking for reasons to do the right things; it's the bad decisions that require creative reasoning."
― Andy Stanley - The Best Question Ever
"If you aren't intentionally cautious, you may end up unintentionally corralled by some vice you've always condemned."
― Andy Stanley - The Best Question Ever
"One reason we don't admit certain things to ourselves is that it helps us avoid the guilt that naturally follows from not doing what we know we should."
― Andy Stanley - The Best Question Ever
"Your past experience must be a grid through which you evaluate every decision."
― Andy Stanley - The Best Question Ever
"Life is seasonal. Today's sorrow will be replaced by tomorrow's joy. Today's anger will probably be tempered with tomorrow's perspective. Today's worry will be replaced by tomorrow's concerns. As Jesus taught, each day has its own worries. If we are not careful, we will allow the pressure, fears, and circumstances of today drive us to make decisions we will regret tomorrow."
― Andy Stanley - The Best Question Ever
"When I'm mad, I've learned that the wise thing for me to do is NOTHING. Just wait."
― Andy Stanley - The Best Question Ever
"The future is what brings today's choices into proper focus. Making choices with the end in mind goes a long way toward ensuring a happy ending."
― Andy Stanley - The Best Question Ever
"We only get one shot at every season of life. Whether or not we learned anything becomes evident in the seasons that follow."
― Andy Stanley - The Best Question Ever
"You are a unique blend of past experiences, current circumstances, and future hopes and dreams."
― Andy Stanley - The Best Question Ever
"You can't cram for a better relationship with your kids or your spouse. Speeding up doesn't make up for lost time with your heavenly Father. The important areas of life require small deposits all along the way. And if you miss those opportunities, they are lost forever."
― Andy Stanley - The Best Question Ever
"Wise people surround themselves with wise counsel. Asking for help is not a sign of weakness; it is evidence of wisdom."
― Andy Stanley - The Best Question Ever
"If you seek first His kingdom, if you walk wisely, then all the other things we have a tendency to worry about will be taken care of."
― Andy Stanley - The Best Question Ever
"Nobody has ever felt this way before. No one has had to deal with what I have to deal with. I can handle it. I'm not like everybody else. The statistics don't apply to me. The statistics don't apply to my kids. I know what's best for me. My passion runs deep; love will keep us alive."
― Andy Stanley - The Best Question Ever
"Our greatest moral regrets are always preceded by a series of unwise choices."
― Andy Stanley - The Best Question Ever
"None of us plan — or intend — to get into trouble. The problem is, we don't plan not to."
― Andy Stanley - The Best Question Ever
"Wisdom would dictate that we establish some artificial boundaries a safe distance away from the moral point of no return. Boundaries so far from the brink of disaster that, should you violate one, the consequences would be minimal."
― Andy Stanley - The Best Question Ever
"No, it won't always be easy to do the wise thing. But you've already experienced enough of life to know that it will be worth it."
― Andy Stanley - The Best Question Ever
"Wise people know when they don't know and are not so foolish as to pretend they do know."
― Andy Stanley - The Best Question Ever
"God will provide us with the wisdom we need."
― Andy Stanley - The Best Question Ever
"You are not the only person affected by your choices."
― Andy Stanley - The Best Question Ever
"You will never be all you're capable of being unless you tap the wisdom of the wise people around you."
― Andy Stanley - The Best Question Ever
"One of the primary reasons we don't seek counsel from the wise people around us is that we already know what we are going to hear — and we just don't want to hear it."
― Andy Stanley - The Best Question Ever
"How do you expect to make a masterpiece of your life if you are unwilling to surrender to the Author of life — the One who knows which textures and colors are best blended for the outcome you desire?"
― Andy Stanley - The Best Question Ever
"Wisdom begins with a proper understanding of who God is and who we are not."
― Andy Stanley - The Best Question Ever
"Those who recognize and revere the Father have little choice but to embrace His right to rule all that he has created. That moment of recognition and surrender is the beginning of true wisdom."
― Andy Stanley - The Best Question Ever
"Mutual surrender, or submission if you prefer, is one of the most powerful relational dynamics. When two people pledge to put the other first, that is relationship at its best."
― Andy Stanley - The Best Question Ever
"In the end it all comes down to this. Our willingness to ask and respond to the Best Question Ever depends upon our willingness to make the best decision ever — the decision to fully submit our lives to our heavenly Father. This is where wisdom begins."
― Andy Stanley - The Best Question Ever
"We know all too well what happens when we paint on our own, when we wave God off in order to choose our own colors, strokes, and textures. Each of carries the scars, the memories, and the regrets of those seasons when our will took precedence over His."
― Andy Stanley - The Best Question Ever
"God desires that your life be a masterpiece that reflects His greatness and your uniqueness. But to create a masterpiece with our lives, we must submit ourselves to the hand of the Master. We must allow Him to influence each stroke on the canvas of our lives."
― Andy Stanley - The Best Question Ever
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