When I look at a work of art the first thing I notice is the overall picture rather than particular details. When I think back on books I've read, both because I am a big picture sort of person and also because of my hazy memory, I tend to recall an overall impression rather than specific details.
Interestingly though, there is a book that I read maybe ten years ago and from it I often remember one specific sentence. In his autobiography Just as I Am, Christian evangelist Billy Graham quotes his now late wife Ruth as declaring in the early days of their courtship,
"Saturday nights I dedicate to prayer and study, in preparation for the Lord's day."
Billy Graham then writes,
"What kind of a romance could a college man have with a woman who said a thing like that? Dating Ruth Bell had to creative. And I did my best."*
Ruth Bell Graham's declaration that she set aside Saturday evenings to pray and read the Bible in preparation for Sunday sunk into my heart when I read it and it has always stayed with me. It's never raised guilt in me, even though I have only rarely used a Saturday evening like this.
Somehow though it inspires me.
* "Just as I Am" by Billy Graham p. 71
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