Maria Goff - Love Lives Here: Finding What You Need in a World Telling You What You Want

Grace is a contagious force we all crave and Maria contains so much grace it floods you from just a short time with her. May these pages overwhelm you with Gods love, and hope that Maria knows so well.

Jennie Allen , founder of IF: Gathering and author of Nothing to Prove

Ive had the chance to visit many places over the years. Finding the purpose behind the places I go always intrigues me. Ive been to Marias home and I know its purpose. Its simply a place where love lives. Youre going to enjoy reading in these pages about how we can each make the places where we live places where love lives too.

Jeremy Cowart , photographer and founder of the Purpose Hotel

Maria and her words are a gift to everyone searching for love, meaning, and a place to belong. My life is brighter and my heart is bigger because of what I experienced on these pages. I cried. I smiled. I felt loved. Its an absolutely incredible book!

Mike Foster , author of People of the Second Chance: A Guide To Bringing Life-Saving Love to the World

What a gift to read Love Lives Here and find within it a friend who is as authentic and inviting as Maria Goff. Through her earnest telling of the stories of her life, she provides greater meaning to all our lives. We were thrilled to read this book.

Donald Miller , best-selling author of Blue Like Jazz and Scary Close, and Betsy Miller

In a moment in my life when I was desperately looking for direction, God used my friendship with Maria to rekindle in me a long-held vision for hospitality that Id allowed to be obscured by far less important things. This beautiful book will do that same sacred work for so many people. Maria is an example to methe kind of mother I aspire to be, the kind of gatherer of people I aspire to be. Im so very thankful for this lovely book, and the heart and wisdom written on every page.

Shauna Niequist , New York Times best-selling author of Present Over Perfect and Savor

Through every page, I loved discovering the powerful, mighty woman whose gentle voice and warm heart belie her strength. Maria opens the door of her heart to reveal life is found in rubble, in broken dreams, in oozing hot lava, andmost importantlylove is found in the places we least expect it. With every chapter I felt welcomed into her home, invited to pull up a chair and sit and listen to how to love, live, and act toward others. Not only did I walk away wanting a friend like Maria, I wanted to grow up and BE Maria Goff.

Bianca Juarez Olthoff , best-selling author of Play with Fire

This book is the hug you didnt know youve always needed. Marias words of hope, purpose, and vulnerability ring true in the deepest parts of my soul, inspiring me to live and love better.

Ryan ONeal , Sleeping at Last

Maria has cultivated a beautiful heart and home where the Lord dwells richly. Love Lives Here shows us how we can experience amazing joy from the inside out. This book will change you and your family.

Lysa TerKeurst , New York Times best-selling author and president of Proverbs 31 Ministries

Maria Goff is the wise, gracious, and witty mentor you always wanted. With hospitality and vulnerability, she invites you to sit in the coziest chair of her home, warm cup in hand, as she tells you her stories. And in the telling, you hear anew your own stories and Gods stories, too.

Katherine and Jay Wolf, coauthors of Hope Heals: A True Story of Overwhelming Loss and an Overcoming Love and co-founders of Hope Heals

Love Lives Here is every bit as warm and kind as youd expect from an author known to most of the world as Sweet Maria. But its warmth does not diminish the truth it poignantly and consistently delivers. Reading like a memoir and a lesson book, this collection of vignettes does not stop at being a window into Sweet Maria Goffs life, but rather, its an invitation to step right into her life. If you love the feeling of gaining a new best friend, read this book. If youve ever wondered how a life some may consider quiet can incrementally impact the world, read this book.

Shelley Giglio , chief strategist, sixstepsrecords, and co-founder of Passion Conferences/Passion City Church

Copyright 2017 by Maria Goff

All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America

978-1-4336-4891-5

Published by B&H Publishing Group

Nashville, Tennessee

Dewey Decimal Classification: 306.85

Subject Heading: CHRISTIAN LIFE \ FAMILY LIFE \ DOMESTIC RELATIONS

Author is respresented by Alive Literary Agency, 7680 Goddard Street, Suite 200, Colorado Springs, CO 80920, www.aliveliterary.com.

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For my kids kids kids, and all of the generations to come.

Foreword

by Bob Goff

N one of us really fall in love. We just stop making everything about ourselves, and love floods into the space selfishness leaves behind when it leaves the room. Thats what happened to me when I met Maria thirty-two years ago.

I wasnt looking for a wife at the time. That is, until I met Mariathen I was looking for a wife. Here was my problem: She wasnt looking for me. When you find the right person, something changes inside of you. Food doesnt taste the same, movies arent as entertaining as they used to be, and hanging out with your friends doesnt sound as fun anymore. All you want to do is be together with the person youve given your heart away to. I think God wired us from the factory for this kind of love and connection. Love without connection doesnt have much shelf life. Neither does connection without love.

After trying to get Maria to like me back for quite a while, I took a knee and got out a partial, heart-in-the-throat marriage proposal to her. It was only partial, because right after I got out the words Maria, will you... ? I got all choked up and couldnt finish the sentence. You see, Im emotionally incontinentwhich is a real problem if youre a trial lawyer.

Maria leaned down and gently held my face in her hands and said, Marry me? I nodded yes and she nodded yes, too.

None of us complete each other, but we can add a few words to the lives of the people around us to help them understand Gods bigger plan for all of us. This is what Maria has done in this book. Shes offered a few words to help us understand what she has been learning from Jesus while shes been loving her family and the people around her.

Im a lawyer. I memorize things for a living. The things Im still trying to memorize about love and faith and people, Maria just does naturally. Dont get me wrong. Shes not perfect by any means. If you give her a box of Sees candy, shell take one out, bite the bottom off and if she doesnt like it, shell put the part of the candy she didnt eat back in the box. What kind of a person does that and doesnt even feel bad about it? Thats just wrong.

A man named Paul wrote letters to his friends, which make up a great deal of the Bible. In one of those letters he said that God would finish what He started in us. Just like Maria finished my halting proposal, Im banking on the notion that God isnt finished with any of us yet. I bet heaven cant wait to see what sentences Hell complete through each of us. Still, we need to start it, so He can complete it. This book is about starting where love livesin your home, in your neighborhood, and in your life.

Its been more than thirty years since Maria and I said I do, and shes still completing my sentences. Im glad she does, too, because she makes mine better when she does. Authentic love does this for each of us. It whispers the words were missing and is gracious enough to let us think we came up with them ourselves. The words in this book arent just good. Good words are pretty easy to find. Almost anyone can come up with a few of them. These words are true, which is a little less common. They arent just words about hopes either; theyre about what happens when you actually let love invade your heart, your family, and your home. A lot of people want a great life; what Ive watched Maria do is live a great life.