Corrie Ten Boom: Earning the Right to Speak

I have been inspired this week by the words and life of Corrie Ten Boom and her family.  Enjoy this brief history of a woman who earned the right, through suffering and sacrifical love, to speak things to which we should listen. 

"Corrie Ten Boom and her family were Christians who were active in social work in their home town of Haarlem, the Netherlands. During the Nazi occupation, they chose to act out their faith through peaceful resistance to the Nazis by active participation in the Dutch underground. They were hiding, feeding and transporting Jews and underground members hunted by the Gestapo out of the country. It is estimated they were able to save the lives of 800 Jews, in addition to protecting underground workers.

On Feb. 28, 1944, they were betrayed and Corrie and several relatives were arrested. The four Jews and two underground workers in the house at the time of the arrest were not located by the Nazis and were extricated by the underground 47 hours after they fled to the tiny hiding place (located in Corrie's room).


The Ten Boom family members were separated and transferred to concentration camps. Corrie was allowed to stay with her precious sister, Betsy. Corrie's father (Casper), two of his children (Wilhelm & Betsy) and one grandchild (Christiaan) perished. Corrie was released in December of 1944.


These acts of heroism and sacrifice became the foundation for Corrie Ten Boom's global writing and speaking career which began after she was released. "  - Quotes and History taken from Good Reads

Many of the following quotes are taken from Boom's book, The Hiding Place.  I actually deleted several, but just could not force myself to delete any more from the list I found.  I hope her words inspire your day as much as they have mine:

"Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength."

"Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God."

"Hold everything in your hands lightly, otherwise it hurts when God pries your fingers open."

"Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart."

"Any concern too small to be turned into a prayer is too small to be made into a burden."

"There is no panic in Heaven! God has no problems, only plans."

"And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world's healing hinges, but on His. When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives along with the command, the love itself."

"Every experience God gives us, every person He puts in our lives is the perfect preparation for the future that only He can see."

(The Hiding Place)

"There are no 'if's' in God's world. And no placess that are safer than other places. The center of His will is our only safety - let us pray that we may always know it!"

"Worrying is carrying tomorrow's load with today's strength- carrying two days at once. It is moving into tomorrow ahead of time. Worrying doesn't empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength."

"The tree on the mountain takes whatever the weather brings. If it has any choice at all, it is in putting down roots as deeply as possible." (Each New Day)

"Child, you have to learn to see things in the right proportions. Learn to see great things great and small things small."

"Mama's love had always been the kind that acted itself out with soup pot and sewing basket. But now that these things were taken away, the love seemed as whole as before. She sat in her chair at the window and loved us. She loved the people she saw in the street-- and beyond: her love took in the city, the land of Holland, the world. And so I learned that love is larger than the walls which shut it in. "

"Worry is a cycle of inefficient thoughts whirling around a center of fear.""

"If God has shown us bad times ahead, it's enough for me that He knows about them. That's why He sometimes shows us things, you know - to tell us that this too is in His hands."

".....joy runs deeper than despair."

"Don't bother to give God instructions; just report for duty."

"Today I know that such memories are the key not to the past, but to the future. I know that the experiences of our lives, when we let God use them, become the mysterious and perfect preparation for the work He will give us to do. "

"You say we could lose our lives for this child. I would consider that the greatest honor that could come to my family."

And one final story of the wisdom of Corrie's father:
"And so seated next to my father in the train compartment, I suddenly asked, "Father, what is sex and sin?"
He turned to look at me, as he always did when answering a question, but to my surprise he said nothing. At last he stood up, lifted his traveling case off the floor and set it on the floor.
"Will you carry it off the train, Corrie?" he said.
I stood up and tugged at it. It was crammed with the watches and spare parts he had purchased that morning.
"It's too heavy," I said.
"Yes," he said, "and it would be a pretty poor father who would ask his little girl to carry such a load. It's the same way, Corrie, with knowledge. Some knowledge is too heavy for children. When you are older and stronger, you can bear it. For now you must trust me to carry it for you.""

Have a favorite? Want to share it? Leave a comment.