Approached in the right way, marriage can cause us to reevaluate our dependency on other humans for our spiritual nourishment, and direct us to nurture our relationship with God instead. No human being can love us the way we long to be loved; it is just not possible for another human to reach and alleviate the spiritual ache that God has placed in all of us.

The Bible views us as recipients of God's perfect love, already charged with an important life mission (seeking first the kingdom of God), and thus the decision to marry, though crucial, won't define us. Nor will who we marry define us.

Ascetics are "strict" only because they want to reserve a major portion of their lives for their passionate pursuit of God.

We are told to seek first the kingdom of God, not seek first marriage.

Game of the Royal Way. I had discovered that when God supplied money He did it in a kingly manner, not in some groveling way. Three

It is shameful to abandon this divine communion to occupy our minds with trivial matters. We should feed and nourish our souls with high thoughts of God, which yield us great joy in devotion to Him.

Simply present yourself to God as if you were a poor man knocking on the door of a rich man, and fix your attention on His presence.

Brother Lawrence called the practice of the presence of God the easiest and shortest way to attain Christian perfection and to be protected from sin.

Yet grant, if it please You, that after having received them, I may return them just as You gave them to me; for You well know that it is not Your gifts that I seek and desire, but Yourself, and I can be content with nothing less.

Do not be satisfied with God's calling or His gifts in your life. Be satisfied with Jesus Christ Himself.

Delight,--top-gallant delight is to him, who acknowledges no law or lord, but the Lord his God, and is only a patriot to heaven

Make sure of your commitment to Jesus Christ, and seek to follow Him every day. Don't be swayed by the false values and goals of this world, but put Christ and His will first in everything you do.