A week ago I was treating myself to a morning coffee from Starbucks-a pumpkin spice latte to be more specific- in celebration of cooler weather and my favorite season of Fall. Wrapped around my signature Starbucks cup was a green sleeve with encouragement for the day. I found the quote from Oprah to be thought provoking and one that changes depending on the perspective that the words are viewed from. Oprah’s words speak about choosing how to live your life and the courage that you need to reach this goal.
The only courage you ever need is the courage to live the life you want. Oprah Winfrey
I knew I needed time to process all this quote was trying to portray, so I took a picture to preserve it. As I came back to the words while writing this post, I realized that studying our perspective would provide interpretation as to how we view life.
Let’s dig into the words of Oprah’s quote starting with “live the life you want”.
Questions that you might ask to determine if you are living the life you want would be:
1. Do I follow my passion and/or am I currently involved with my passion?
2. Am I living a life that is just, honorable and true and is this what I seek daily?
3. What is the life I want to live and do I have the courage to seek it out?
4. Am I living for myself, for others, for God-where is my focus and from whom or what do I get the fulfillment that proves I am living the life I want?
Any of those questions dig deep into who we are and who we are trying to be. All of those questions beg to be answered to understand if we have truly reached the life we are striving for. Living our lives requires focus, determination and perseverance. Oprah tells us it takes courage as well. I agree that it takes great courage to reach for the best us we can be. But this brings us to the second part of Oprah’s quote- the part that tells us courage is essential to living the life we want.
Some questions to help us understand courage are:
1. How do you gain courage in the midst of a world full of fear and insecurities?
2. Where does courage come from- a person, a thing, or from within?
3. Is courage attainable by everyone? Can you find courage to live the life you want?
And so, what started out as one quote on the green sleeve of my Starbuck’s cups has left me with more questions than answers. What began as a message of encouragement for those treating themselves to their morning coffee has left me pondering and wanting more answers as to what living life to our fullest is all about.
So in the coming weeks, I hope you’ll join me right back here as I explore 15 little words spoken by Oprah and what it all really means. I would treasure your comments and input below because my thoughts are just that-my thoughts but adding your voice here will add to the answers we can discover together. I have titled this post “Oprah’s Courage or God’s?” because if you know me at all I speak from a perspective that honors God in all. I do know that this conversation needs to include all other views so please share and join in. I look forward to seeing you back here next week. In order to ensure never missing a post, please subscribe via email on the top right.
From your heart to mine-with your voice and your perception – we will bring to light how to live the life we want.
Blessings,
Mary
Blessed to be linking with:
It’s wonderful that you are taking on such a big exploration. 🙂 In a world where people cling to quotes from people with big voices like hers (Starbucks knows that 😉 ) instead of God – and those voices don’t point back to His Truth much of the time – it’s so very much needed by God’s people to dive into these things to find out Truth. Your questions are great!
PS – I do the same thing! Nothing passes by me without much deep reflection. Lol.
Thanks Heather! I love having you pop over here and add your wisdom. I love how God teaches all of us in the ordinary-extraordinary isn’t needed to learn God’s truths and only He can make it extraordinary. Hope to see you over here often. The conversation will continue next week and we will look at passion. Hugs!
🙂 I hope your day is peachy, Mary!
You too! 🙂
Hi Mary! You have brought a lot of life to one line on a coffee cup sleeve. How God is working in you…urging you to think and then share with all of us. Wow. His grace is amazing.
Following any passion is an up and down journey. How do we stay in the right lane, and keep driving when the results don’t come right away? I’ll be interested to hear your thoughts on this wonderful subject.
Blessings!
Ceil
So glad that you popped in for this series. I hope you keep coming back and I look forward to your insight as well. This truly is a series led by God’s hands and I pray that He will guide my words and bless all who stop by! Have a wonderful week!
These are such wonderful questions! Can’t wait to see how the series develops.
Thanks, LeeAnn! I hope you stop back and join in the conversation. Blessings!
What great insight! I’m so looking forward to following you throughout these messages. There so thought provoking. God bless… India
So glad you stopped by today and left several comments. 🙂 I look forward to having you join in the conversation and being here in my humble home. Blessings to you, India!
I’m so glad you added your thoughts to Oprah’s quote because truthfully, Mary, since I feel like she left too many things open to interpretation! I especially love number 4 under your first list. That’s what I want–to be aware of when I’m turning something that should be pointing to God or helping others into something that helps and honors me instead. It’s so subtle when I cross that line and only God’s convicting whisper can open my eyes. I also love the way you’ve unpacked courage, Mary. This is a very thought-provoking post and I look forward to hearing more, my friend!
Thank you Beth! There is so much packed into those 15 little words and I’m praying that God is honored throughout the process. I look forward to hearing more of your insight as the series moves forward. Love and hugs!
Very moving! Thanks for sharing! God is good all the time.
Thank you for stopping by! Hope you will come back again!
Love these questions friend! And especially love your encouragement to question everything we hear and see how it measures up against God’s word. It doesn’t matter who said it if it doesn’t match up with the Word! Thanks for linking up to Testimony Tuesday!
So glad you are here today! I hope you will join me in praying for God’s wisdom throughout this series and for my words to honor Him. I also hope you will continue to join in and add to the conversation. Hugs!
Immediately I want to disagree with the quote. We most often need courage when our life is NOT what we want. Someone we love has cancer, a child is born with birth defects, we stand betrayed, fired, bankrupted etc. That’s when we need courage most desperately and sometimes no amount of that courage will give us back the life we wanted.
However I really like the questions you asked about it and I hope you’ll be able to think carefully and clearly about the abundant life God has to offer!
Amen, Helene! I pray that God will speak through these words to provide encouragement and wisdom to some of these hard questions. So glad you stopped by today! I hope you come back and join in again! Blessings!
I love how you dig beneath the surface and ask the hard questions rather than just accept the quote at face value. Looking forward to learning more about courage with you!
Thank you Asheritah! And I hope that you will join the conversation with your thoughts as I go along. Blessed that you stopped by and I love that we are in this writing community together.
Intriguing, Mary. I look forward to following along and trying to add my thoughts as well. One of these days I need to try that Pumpkin Spice Latte. 🙂 I can be a creature of habit and it’s hard to tear myself away from my Skinny Vanilla Latte.
Much love to you.
xoxo
I would love to hear your thoughts along the way. Maybe someday we can meet for coffee and you can step out and try something new!!! 🙂 Blessed as always that you spend a little time here with me!
Cool! I’ll be following along! Looks to be thought-provoking and challenging, Mary …
:-》
Thanks Linda! I would love to hear your thoughts and answers to some of the questions along the way. You have wonderful insight that would add greatly to the conversation. Blessings my friend!
I look forward to reading your thoughts and words on this subject, Mary! Praying God blesses you as you share from your heart and with wisdom–His wisdom. I’m cheering you on as well!
Thank you for praying for God’s words and wisdom to infuse every post. Each week will be an unfolding of words with God leading-the road map is not completely clear but He will guide my steps. Blessings and I look forward to seeing you here next week!
I think the quote should be: The only courage you ever need is the courage to live the life God wants for you. It’s often easier to live the life WE want, but much harder to live the life GOD wants for us. Look forward to reading more of your thoughts on this quote – lots to dig into with this one!
Love your thoughts! I agree that the quote caused me to pause because it sounds too easy. Perfect for a Starbucks cup but is it perfect for our lives? Thank you for joining me and I’m praying that God leads me through this series and the hard questions that begged to be answered. Blessings!