I grew up in a family in which no male upstream from me had ever finished high school, much less gone to college. But I was taught that even though there was nothing I could do about what was behind me, I could change everything about what was in front of me. My working poor parents told me that I could do better.

The New Testament persistently presses us upward, toward higher motives for being good.

Our environment, the world in which we live and work, is a mirror of our attitudes and expectations.

The renewal of our natures is a work of great importance. It is not to be done in a day. We have not only a new house to build up, but an old one to pull down.

Your personal philosophy is the greatest determining factor in how your life works out.

God has to work in a man before He can work through a man.

Send out love and harmony, put your mind and body in a peaceful place, and then allow the universe to work in the perfect way that it knows how.

Don't try to change people. It won't work, and they will end up resenting you. Only God can change people!

But our hearts are more elastic than we think, and the work of forgiveness and transformation and growth can do things you can't even imagine from where you're standing now.

Change yourself and your work will seem different.

Remember that this is not something we do just once or twice. Interrupting our destructive habits and awakening our heart is the work of a lifetime.

So many missionaries, intent on doing something, forget that His main work is to make something of them.