The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers: Spiritual Insights from the World's Most Beloved Neighbor
Amy Hollingsworth
Top 10 Best Quotes
“the essence of prayer is relationship,”
“There is one thing that evil cannot stand, and that’s forgiveness.”
“Mister Rogers’ constancy is what stayed with people. (This is a possible explanation for why studies have shown that children from lower-income homes, who often have to deal with inconsistency in their lives, showed a greater positive impact from Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood episodes than their non-poor peers.) But for many people, that realization came only after they were able to look at Neighborhood through the lens of time; in the meantime, Fred had to resist the temptation to be something other than he was.”
“Life is so generous a giver, but we, judging its gifts by their covering, cast them away as ugly or heavy or hard. Remove the covering and you will find beneath it a living splendor, woven of love, by wisdom, with power. Welcome it, grasp it, and you touch the angel’s hand that brings it to you. Everything we call a trial, a sorrow, or a duty, believe me, that angel’s hand is there; the gift is there, and the wonder of an overshadowing presence.”
“If you ever fall into quicksand, the most important thing to remember is this: take your time. Quicksand, unlike water, will not move out of the way to let you pass. Instead, it resists movement. Flailing about will only cause you to sink deeper. But slowly gets you safely to shore. It’s no accident that each episode of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood opens with a shot of a traffic light flashing in yellow caution mode.”
“If parents can remember what it was like to be a child, they are going to be much more empathic with their own children.”
“I said, ‘Dr. Orr, you know in that verse, it says something about—how does it go?—“The prince of darkness grim, we tremble not for him,” and then it goes on, and then at the very end of that verse it says, “One little word shall fell him.”’ “I said, ‘Dr. Orr, what is that one little word that would wipe out the prince of darkness, fell him?’ “He thought for a moment, and said, ‘Forgiveness. Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.’ He said, ‘You know, Fred, there is one thing that evil cannot stand, and that’s forgiveness.”
“Fred didn't advocate a freewheeling acceptance of any emotional outburst but believed that feelings should be expressed, and at the same time, controlled. 'One of the paramount things I feel that the world needs to do is to be able to deal with the anger that so many people feel, and I like to think that the Neighborhood offers a smorgasbord of ways of saying who you are and how you feel. And we've heard from people...that say, 'I started to do something, and I realized that it wasn't right, and I was able to stop, And do you know, I thought of your song, 'It's great to be able to stop, when you've planned a thing that's wrong, and be able to do something else instead, and think this song.”
“An old supply pastor, many years before, had taught him that: What is offered in faith by one person can be translated by the Holy Spirit into what the other person needs to hear and see. The space between them is holy ground, and the Holy Spirit uses that space in ways that not only translate, but transcend.”
“words from an article I had once written on Tolkien’s The Hobbit: “Adventure can be scary and unpredictable, but the more you continue in it, the more you lose that sense of fear and doubt (and the less you care about being late for dinner). You begin to gather up your internal resources with confidence.”
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Book Keywords:
evil, forgiveness
