I guess sometimes it's got to hurt before it can get better." I nodded. "Hearts are like that.

She curled my hand into a fist and showed it to me. "Life is a battle, but you can't fight it with your fists." She gently tapped me on the chin with my fist and then put her hand on my chest. "You got to fight it with your heart." She pulled me back to her chest and sucked through her teeth like she was trying to pick the corn out with her tongue. "If your knuckles are bloodier than your knees, then you're fighting the wrong battle.

What about all that 'turn the other cheek' stuff?" Dad's eyes narrowed. "When someone's trying to control you, you come out swinging. And keep swinging. Bible never said be a doormat.

Man performs, engenders, so much more than he can or should have to bear. That's how he finds that he can bear anything.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway.

What God does is promise us, I will be with you; you will feel burdened but you will never feel abandoned.

I know that this is a painful time for you. But I know that you will get through it all right, because God never sends us more of a burden than we can bear. God only let this happen to you because He knows that you are strong enough to handle it." Harriet Schiff remembers her reaction to those words: "If only I was a weaker person, Robbie would still be alive.

Hope does not deny the evil, but is a response to it.

It can make us stronger, more compassionate, more understanding—more like Jesus—if we allow it to. And the more clutter we get rid of in our life here—the more we will be able to enjoy heaven—when we get there. So, pain can have a purpose.

My dad always said, 'Champ, the measure of a man is not how often he is knocked down, but how quickly he gets up.'

Fire is the test of gold; adversity, of strong men.

I would merely beg you not to be too much bowed down by grief. What seem to us bitter trails are often blessings in disguise.