Sugar cane reach up to God And every baby crying Shame the blanket of my night And all my days are dying

From disappointment, I gradually ascended the emotional ladder to haughty indignation, and finally to that state of stubbornness where the mind is locked like the jaws of an enraged bulldog.

You may trode me in the very dirt. But still, like dust, I'll rise.

People whose history and future were threatened each day by extinction considered that it was only by divine intervention that they were able to live at all.

I gave in to sadness because I had no choice.

You may not be able to control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them

He badder than death yet gives no sweet release.

I can change by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.

You will face many defeats in life, but never let yourself be defeated.

I'm convinced that much of the success I have experienced in life is a result of learning from my failures.

We'll probably never learn to enjoy our storms, but we can learn to enjoy God's presence in the midst of them.

Why does God allow us to spend so much of life in the heart of battle? Because He never meant for us to sip His Spirit like a proper cup of tea. He meant for us to hold our sweating hands over the fountain and lap up His life with unquenchable thirst.