Do battle with the challenges of your present, and you will unlock the prizes of your future.

Every single day for the rest of your life, somebody is going to push you in the pool. And you'd better decide now how you're going to act when it happens.

I've got to be willing to enter into and do battle with the confusion in order to reach the victory on the other side. It's like, I am here, confusion is in front of me, and just beyond confusion waits the answer or skill I need to take my life in a new and incredible direction.

Adversity is preparation for greatness.

Character, not circumstance, make a man.

But to hit that target, we must come off the mountain, go through the valley, and begin to climb the next slope. It is in the valley that we slog through the lush grass and rich soil, learning and becoming what enables us to summit life's next peak.

You must come to the self-realization that even though you couldn't control any of the crazy things that have happened in your life, your choices in response to those things are what have led you down this path you don't like.

When confronted with a challenge, the committed heart will search for a solution. The undecided heart searches for an escape.

In times of adversity, you don't have a problem to deal with; you have a choice to make.

Circumstances do not push or pull. They are daily lessons to be studied and gleaned for new knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge and wisdom that is applied will bring about a brighter tomorrow. A person who is depressed is spending too much time thinking about the way things are now and not enough time thinking about how he wants things to be.

If the source were simply a few behavioral habits, you would have conquered them already.

So what's the deal with the desert? I don't know. But I do know the time between catching a glimpse of what God wants to do through us and the time when we are led to move out often feels like a desert experience. The desert always feels like a complete waste of time. It is only when we are able to look back that our desert experiences make sense.