Bad decisions can pile up to make a wall between you and what God wants you to do.

To step toward your destiny, you might have to step away from your security.

Clearly determine your values, because when your values are clear, your decisions are easier.

If we take a risk, we might not succeed, but if we avoid all risk, we guarantee we won't succeed, and we miss so much of what God wants us to learn.

You are not a victim of your thoughts. You have the power through Christ to take them captive. As a result, you will find what you are looking for. You can believe the worst or think the best. You can find reasons to worry or reasons to have faith. You can live pessimistically, or you can possess life-changing faith.

Spiritual giftedness does not guarantee that we hear from God rightly on every point.

One of the first steps we should take in knowing God's voice is knowing God's heart.

As a young Christian, I was praying fervently one day for guidance on a particular issue when I felt the Spirit gently interrupt. I was shocked to think I heard him suggest that I was too busy seeking his will. How could that be? Then I heard the rest of his suggestion. "Don't seek my will in this matter. Seek me—and then you will know my will." Seeking God's will is important, but in this case my focus was wrong.

I got the blues thinking of the future, so I left off and made some marmalade. It's amazing how it cheers one up to shred oranges and scrub the floor.

Reach me a gentian, give me a torch!Let me guide myself with the blue, forked torch of a flowerdown the darker and darker stairs, where blue is darkened on bluenesseven where Persephone goes, just now, from the frosted Septemberto the sightless realm where darkness is awake upon the dark.

In this life, we have to make many choices. Some are very important choices. Some are not. Many of our choices are between good and evil. The choices we make, however, determine to a large extent our happiness or our unhappiness, because we have to live with the consequences of our choices.

It's remarkable how much long-term advantage people like us have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent.