Top 160 Jen Hatmaker Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “There are only 24 hours in a day. We need to quit trying to be awesome and instead be wise.”

— Jen Hatmaker

2. “Be kind. Be you. Love Jesus.”

— Jen Hatmaker

3. “We have this one life to offer; there is no second chance.”

— Jen Hatmaker

4. “God does not change, but He uses change – to change us. He sends us on journeys that bring us to the end of ourselves. We often feel out of control, yet if we embrace His leading, we may find ourselves on the ride of our lives.”

— Jen Hatmaker

5. “Be patient. Do the best with what you know. When you know more, adjust the trajectory.”

— Jen Hatmaker

6. “Of course, in a hundred years, no one will remember any of us and our story will be lost in obscurity, but for us, for all these years when we were kids and then grown-ups, when you were young parents and then grandparents, this is the only story that ever mattered, and it was such a marvelous one. The best story I ever imagined.”

— Jen Hatmaker

7. “When the jars of clay remember they are jars of clay, the treasure within gets all the glory, which seems somehow more fitting.”

— Jen Hatmaker

8. “People may hate us because of Jesus, but they should never hate Jesus because of us. The way we treat others should lead them to only one conclusion: “If this is how Jesus loves, then I’m in.”

— Jen Hatmaker

9. “Love God, love people. Act justly, love mercy, walk humbly. Treat people as you want to be treated. If you want to be great, be a servant.”

— Jen Hatmaker

10. “G. K. Chesterton wrote: “A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.”2 Change means you’re alive, my friend.”

— Jen Hatmaker

11. “If anyone has made you feel invisible or less-than, write a new narrative on your heart.”

— Jen Hatmaker

12. “You’d be surprised how powerful kindness actually is. I am not being dramatic: you can save hearts and lives with grace. Do.”

— Jen Hatmaker

13. “Loved people love people. Forgiven people forgive people. Adored people adore people. Freed people free people. But when we are still locked in our own prisons, it is impossible to crave the liberation of others. Misery prefers company.”

— Jen Hatmaker

14. “A good parent prepares the child for the path, not the path for the child.”

— Jen Hatmaker

15. “This life is not a race or a contest, there is enough abundance to go around, your seat at the table is secure, and you have incredible gifts to offer. You are not in competition with your peers.”

— Jen Hatmaker

16. “Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children. William Makepeace Thackeray.”

— Jen Hatmaker

17. “Unattended hurt, anger, and bitterness can destroy even the best marriage. Lean honestly into every hard place, each tender spot, because truthfulness hurts for a minute but silence is the kill shot.”

— Jen Hatmaker

18. “You don’t have to be who you first were. That early version of yourself, that season you were in, even the phase you are currently experiencing – it is all good or purposeful or at least useful and created a fuller, nuanced you and contributed to your life’s meaning, but you are not stuck in a category just because you were once branded that way. Just because something was does not mean it will always be.”

— Jen Hatmaker

19. “The love of God and people is the whole substance of life. Nothing is more important. This is sacred work and very much counts.”

— Jen Hatmaker

20. “Good news: most people are surprisingly respectful with boundaries. Folks take a no better than I suspected. When I say, “Thank you for inviting me into this good thing of yours. It is as extraordinary as you are. But any new yes I give means a no to my family and sanity. Please accept my sincere regrets and count on my prayers,” most people are amazing. You can say no, and no one will die.”

— Jen Hatmaker

21. “I see a strategy for fracturing humanity well in play: just keep people separated and let them reinforce invented boundaries in their imaginations. Because when people come together and really listen to each other, doing the hard work of human kindness, virtually every barrier is breached.”

— Jen Hatmaker

22. “When we realize we can stop being Jesus defenders, we can start being Jesus representatives .”

— Jen Hatmaker

23. “We “love” people the way we “love” ourselves, and if we are not good enough, then no one is.”

— Jen Hatmaker

24. “One of the best parts of being human is other humans. It’s true, because life is hard; but people get to show up for one another, as God told us to, and we remember we are loved and seen and God is here and we are not alone. We can’t deliver folks from their pits, but we can sure get in there with them until God does.”

— Jen Hatmaker

25. “The gospel will die in the toxic soil of self.”

— Jen Hatmaker

26. “You are not anyone’s savior; you are a sister.”

— Jen Hatmaker

27. “If we all raised others up instead of raising ourselves a little higher, there would be few needs left on earth.”

— Jen Hatmaker

28. “People will take as much as you will give them, not because they are terrible humans, but because they only want this one slice of you. It doesn’t seem like much to them.”

— Jen Hatmaker

29. “You can care about new things and new people and new beginnings, and until you are dead in the ground, you are not stuck. If you move with the blessing of your people, marvelous. But even if you don’t, this is your one life, and fear, approval, and self-preservation are terrible reasons to stay silent, stay put, stay sidelined.”

— Jen Hatmaker

30. “As Jesus explained, the right things have to die so the right things can live – we die to selfishness, greed, power, accumulation, prestige, and self-preservation, giving life to community, generosity, compassion, mercy, brotherhood, kindness, and love. The gospel will die in the toxic soil of self.”

— Jen Hatmaker

31. “If it isn’t also true for a poor single Christian mom in Haiti, it isn’t true.”

— Jen Hatmaker

32. “I choose you and I would choose you all over again. As Jane Eyre said of her Mr. Rochester, “I know what it is to live entirely for and with what I love best on earth. I hold myself supremely blessed – blessed beyond what language can express; because I am my husband’s life as fully as he is mine.”1.”

— Jen Hatmaker

33. “Henri Nouwen wrote: “Forgiveness is the name of love practiced among people who love poorly. The hard truth is that all people love poorly. We need to forgive and be forgiven every day, every hour increasingly. That is the great work of love among the fellowship of the weak that is the human family.”

— Jen Hatmaker

34. “I won’t defile my blessings by imagining that I deserve them. Until every human receives the dignity I casually enjoy, I pray my heart aches with tension and my belly rumbles for injustice.”

— Jen Hatmaker

35. “As Scott Stratten, author of UnMarketing says: “Don’t try to win over the haters; you’re not the jackass whisperer.”

— Jen Hatmaker

36. “With the resurrection of Jesus and the salvation of humanity, we are no longer identified by nation, race, gender, or any group dynamic. We don’t get to stand behind the shield of church or denomination or political party. There is no “us” and “them” anymore. “Us” is the worldwide assembly of the rescued who have been transformed from hopeless humans to adopted sons and daughters of God through faith in Jesus. The end.”

— Jen Hatmaker

37. “For whatever reason I was born into privilege; I’ve never known hunger, poverty, or despair. I have been blessed, blessed, blessed – relationally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically.”

— Jen Hatmaker

38. “If you want to make good friends, be a good friend. Send kindness out in big, generous waves, send it near and far, send it through texts and e-mails and calls and words and hugs, send it by showing up, send it by proximity, send it in casseroles, send it with a well-timed “me too,” send it with abandon. Put out exactly what you hope to draw in, and expect it back in kind and in equal measure.”

— Jen Hatmaker

39. “Balance. It’s like a unicorn; we’ve heard about it, everyone talks about it and makes airbrushed T-shirts celebrating it, it seems super rad, but we haven’t actually seen one. I’m beginning to.”

— Jen Hatmaker

40. “My people are crumbling and dying and starving, and you’re blessing blessed people and serving the saved.”

— Jen Hatmaker

41. “We judge people in areas where we’re vulnerable to shame, especially picking folks who are doing worse than we’re doing. If I feel good about my parenting, I have no interest in judging other people’s choices. If I feel good about my body, I don’t go around making fun of other people’s weight or appearance. We’re hard on each other because we’re using each other as a launching pad out of our own perceived shaming deficiency.”

— Jen Hatmaker

42. “I suspect God is more glorified in a humble room of earnest worshipers than a massive production designed to sound “relevant” to the listeners but no longer relevant to God. When the worship of God turns into a “worship experience,” we have derailed as the body of Christ.”

— Jen Hatmaker

43. “Thank you, Coffee. For everything. You make life possible. I don’t want to make you feel weird, but you are my soul mate. Well done.”

— Jen Hatmaker

44. “When Jesus said to ‘love your neighbor as yourself,’ I don’t think He meant judgmentally; but that is exactly how we treat our own souls, so it bleeds out to others. Folks who thrive in God’s grace give grace easily, but the self-critical person becomes others-critical. We ‘love’ people the way we ‘love’ ourselves, and if we are not good enough, then no one is.”

— Jen Hatmaker

45. “God measures our entire existence by only two things: how we love Him and how we love people. If you get this right, you can get a million other things wrong.”

— Jen Hatmaker

46. “We are not promised a pain-free life but are given the tools to survive: God and people. It is enough.”

— Jen Hatmaker

47. “Adoption is an answer to a tragedy that has already happened, but may it never be the impetus for one that hasn’t.”

— Jen Hatmaker

48. “Leaving is hard, even when a great adventure awaits you.”

— Jen Hatmaker

49. “Trust me, no one wants a perfect friend who can’t offer a minute of transparency. We can get that on Pinterest. Our souls ache for real people in real homes with real kids and real lives. We may carefully curate online identities with well-chosen pictures and selective information, but doing so leaves us starving for something true. I seek only friends who bleed and sweat and laugh and cry. Don’t fear your humanity; it is your best offering.”

— Jen Hatmaker

50. “But even if we disagree, perhaps even strongly, it is still possible to hold a civil dialogue where ideas find their way out into the open.”

— Jen Hatmaker