Kuoletko sinä?" kysyin, ja äiti nauroi kuin olisin kertonut vitsin, ja se nauru merkitsi minulle enemmän kuin miljoona eitä.

In my family, you can rot to hell on the inside as long as you’re flawless on the outside, which is really sick, but also hard to unlearn.

It would never occur to them to say at home (as pastors' kids) anything they were really thinking, unless it is forced out of them by anger.

Family we cannot always choose, but it sure is fun to try and make them laugh during dinners. Especially when they are trying to eat their soup.

A person’s favorite word is brother, because he or she can relate to it. I love it because we value most in life the things we do not have.

How can it be, after all this concentrated effort and separation, how can it be that I still resemble, so very closely, my own detestable mother?

They had been Vince's brothers in a way, and Race was his son, and you couldn't drive a man's family to the earth and expect to live.

Sometimes we control our family members because we idolize and idealize our perfect plan over the journey that God has laid out for them. (p. 56)

It had to be the hardest thing, even if he’d never known it himself – to accept that the ones you loved would find their own way home.

Since that night I have come to understand that sometimes the best families of all are those we create ourselves, the people we choose to be with.

Being related to a person doesn't necessarily mean you have to be family and being family doesn't necessarily mean you have to be related.

A fridge will keep your steaks fresh, but keeping a live cow in grandmother’s room will keep the meat fresher. Let this be a lesson in love.

Our wives, our families, and our churches need godly men who have discernment--discernment to deal with life and life-issues on a spiritual level.

When we mother well, we teach our children to embrace the moral obligations that build solid relationships, healthy marriages, and secure families.

No more than two to a tricycle, please. When I said family fun, I didn’t mean this is a place to start a family. (Children over 65 eat free.)