Forgiveness is first and foremost a decision. It doesn't begin with an emotion. It is not contingent on how you feel

Truth is a deep kindness that teaches us to be content in our everyday life and share with the people the same happiness.

Life is too short to sit around and hold grudges; it doesn't make any sense to do it.

Have you ever been betrayed? Have you ever been cut to the bone, stabbed in the back? Have you ever given someone your whole heart only to find out they used your heart to beat you with it? Have you ever laid down your life for someone? Have you ever served with reckless abandonment and in return got back a list of things that you failed to do?

I was beginning to learn from my grandfather that love covers a multitude of sins and that I was more important to him than his stuff.

He adored me in spite of my blunders. He never made me feel like the rules were more important than our relationship. He often corrected me, but he refused to punish me.

punishing people for their mistakes creates self-destructive ecosystems that invite demonic oppression.

Our legacy is really the lives we touch, the inspiration we give, altering someone's plan---if even for a moment---and getting them to think, rage, cry, laugh, argue...Walk around the block, dazed...More than anything, we are remembered for our smiles; the ones we share with our closest and dearest, and the ones we bestow on a total stranger, who needed it RIGHT THEN, and God put you there to deliver. ---Carrie Louise Hamilton, dedication page

I want a kinder, gentler nation.

How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because some day in life you will have been all of these.

There is no better exercise for strengthening the heart than reaching down and lifting up another.

The way to happiness: keep your heart free from hate, your mind from worry. Live simply, expect little, give much. Fill your life with love. Scatter sunshine. Forget self, think of others. Do as you would be done by. Try this for a week and you will be surprised.