Regardless of your lot in life, build something beautiful on it.

What you get by reaching your destination is not nearly as important as what you will become by reaching your destination.

In those early days, God gave us wonderful experiences to confirm our faith, then sooner or later, He chose a more difficult curriculum for us. Struggles, disappointments, and misunderstandings about the nature of the Christian life threatened our fledgling faith, but the winter season provided the opportunity to go deeper and grow closer to God.

Other people and things can stop you temporarily. You are the only one who can do it permanently.

Getting knocked down in life is a given; getting up and moving forward is a choice.

Could it be that God has been trying to form the quality of patience in us by putting difficulties, obstacles, and obstinate people in our lives? God's curriculum for all of us includes several courses on Patience 101, 201, and 301. Will we try to skip school, or will we be good students and learn our lessons?

Problems—God's method of revealing himself to anyone who is interested.

Life flows swiftly by and sometimes through tragedies, but it keeps flowing on.

She wasn't a cowardIf she were she would have retreated back into her shell years before and pulled back entirely from life. She was a fighter. Life knocked her down, and she coped by getting up and moving on.

God is good, and I love Him. Right now, God is permitting a very hard thing. Why, I don't know, but I still trust Him.

God made the ability to feel pain. He didn't have to, you know. He made the ability to feel pain and He also made it possible to feel joy. Should I hate Him for allowing one and praise Him for allowing the other? God knew what He was doing. I may not always agree, but that is part of what respecting His authority means."

God has made me into a tough, battle-hardened believer. I am very grateful to have those eleven years behind me. But I used them. I chose to survive with my faith intact. I chose to come out strong and together. I endured, and now I'm going to thrive. I don't expect life to be easy. I do expect God to be there with me. He was during the last eleven years.