He picked up one of Lorna's roses and set it in my lap. Here. I picked it up and smelled it. He poked me in the shoulder. See what I mean? Thorns don't stop you from sniffing. Or putting them in a vase on the kitchen table. You work around them.... Cause the rose is worth it... Think what you'd miss.

You take the bad with the good, Rise up through it. Live in the mist of it. It's the bad that lets you know ho good the good really is. Don't let the bad leave you thinking like there ain't any good. There is, and lots of it, too.

Because of Jesus, we can view life as a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.

When you suffer and lose, that does not mean you are being disobedient to God. In fact, it might mean you're right in the center of His will. The path of obedience is often marked by times of suffering and loss.

Sound advice comes from veterans of pain.

We gain the ability to rejoice under pressure through a carefully monitored training program directed by the Lord Himself.

Life is difficult. That blunt, three-word statement is an accurate ap praisal of our existence on this planet.

Life is 10% what happens to you, and 90% how you react to it.

And God has this funny way of stretching and changing and pushing us toward things we don't want to face. I don't think the past is something we deal with as much as it deals with us.

Good things can come from pain, he said. Not all of it is good, of course, but some of it. And the places it leads are good places, not bad. Never be afraid of the places pain will take you.

Every day was bad news and worse than the one before it, and that was all you could expect from life.

You take heart now. Be encouraged. The bad times are really the good times in disguise. And I'm going to get down on my knees tonight and ask God to break through. God is walking with you