Kids are like a spring, or a Stretch Armstrong. No matter how many times they're passed around, passed off, and passed on . . . they snap back." He spit through his window. "Hope . . . it's the fuel that feeds them." He shook his head and spit something off the end of his tongue. "God forbid the day they stop eating it.

Believe and you're halfway there.

As thy days, so shall thy strength be.

God is at work in the mess. That's the message of the Bible. That's why the Bible is not pretty. That's why it's grimy, because God is working in the mess. He's working in the tears.

But it is in storms that God does his finest work, for it is in storms that God has our keenest attention

Stay strong! Your test will become your test-imony, your mess will become your mess-age.

I have learned to kiss the waves that throw me up against the Rock of Ages.

Troubles are often the tools by which God fashions us for better things.

Hope is the struggle of the soul, breaking loose from what is perishable, and attesting her eternity.

Faith is necessary to victory.

Our Father in Heaven does not wish us to cower. He does not want us to wallow in our misery. He expects us to square our shoulders, roll up our sleeves, and overcome our challenges.

We must be careful, as we seek to become more and more godlike, that we do not become discouraged and lose hope.