A warrior accepts defeat. He does not treat it as a matter of indifference nor does he try to make a victory of it.

What other people label or might try to call failure, I have learned is just God's way of pointing you in a new direction

In all the setbacks of your life as a believer, God is plotting for your joy.

Vex not thy spirit at the course of things; they heed not thy vexation. How ludicrous and outlandish is astonishment at anything that may happen in life.

So many times when we get into emergencies and the situation seems totally hopeless - it's actually a setup. God wants to do something great. He wants to demonstrate his power, so that his name will be praised in a new and greater way. The next generation will hear all about it. After all, their spiritual nurture is far more important than material things.

Charlie says that "God gives us a choice when we face difficult circumstances." We can choose misery or "we can choose to face our trials with God's help, knowing that we'll come out the other side as stronger people for the experience."

A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into this world" (John 16:21).

Naive hope is based on wishful thinking, but a hope formed from suffering, perseverance, and character and rooted in faith in God is something else entirely. It is realistic, motivating, and awesome. It helps us see beyond the misery of the immediate to the possible. It is founded on the certainty of the Lord's love and power.

Failure is a reality; we all fail at times, and it's painful when we do. But it's better to fail while striving for something wonderful, challenging, adventurous, and uncertain than to say, " I don't want to try because I may not succeed completely.

God's purpose for us is not to make us healthy, happy, prosperous, and problem-free. His ultimate purpose is to conform us to the image of His own dear Son, that we might bear much fruit to His glory.12 And sometimes, in fulfilling that purpose, He allows us to be hurt.

Wounding, at best, only temporarily releases pain.

No discipline [wounding or pruning] seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.