That's just what God does--he takes the identity the world has tarnished, polishes it up, and hands back the name he gave us in the beginning~ Diary of a Substitute Countess

Being created in God's image means we bear traces of him. He is our truest identity.

That's what we all were, wasn't it? Created beings who bore traces of their Creator, each with a different piece of his nature augmented in order to show the world who he was.

Many people who go out looking for themselves will become lost, for they look outside themselves or inward, rather than up the the God we reflect. ~Diary of a Substitute Countess

And the maiden found her escape in books, the words created by the pen of some stranger who would creep into her mind and rearrange the furniture.

The weakest version of the real you is stronger than the best imitation of someone else.

I admit I'm an escapist when it comes to books. I become drunk on story, on words, as a buffer against reality.' . . . If books were alcohol, he'd be the worst drunk in history.

How was one to answer these meaningless questions, really? 'A fine day today, is it not, sir? How was your walk? I trust you are in good health this morning.' He should tell them the day was terrible, he had witnessed a murder, and he'd walked to the moon, just to see what they would do.

Sometimes God wipes away man's pride in a burst of stormy power, but usually it's done quietly and gradually.' Like my weeks spent at Lynhurst, slowly evolving and changing me, one challenge and heartache at a time.'He seems to answer prayers the same way, doesn't he? At least, he has with mine. Not in one big powerful move, but gradually so I don't notice until I've turned around and see that I have exactly what I need.

I've learned that a true hero is not an extraordinary man. He may not impress the world, but he so greatly changes hers. That makes him utterly heroic indeed.