...happiness of another person...

"Love is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own."

~ Robert Heinlein

Love is...

"Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit."

~ Peter Ustinov

Believe the Best

"I always prefer to believe the best of everybody, it saves so much trouble."

~ Rudyard Kipling

Love One Another

"Love one another and you will be happy. It's as simple and as difficult as that."

~ Michael Leunig

Forced to Love

"There is nothing that makes us love a man so much as prayer for him."

~ William Law

Helpless Against...

"...Men may spurn our appeals, reject our message, oppose our arguments, despise our persons—but they are helpless against our prayers."

~ J. Sidlow Baxter

Wake Up...

"The moment you wake up each morning, all your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists in shoving it all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other, larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in."

~ C.S. Lewis

Emotional Healing

Emotional healing is almost always a process. It takes time. There is a very important reason for this. Our heavenly Father is not only wanting to free us from the pain of past wounds, he is also desirous of bringing us into maturity, both spiritually and emotionally. That takes time, because we need time to learn to make the right choices. He loves us enough to take the months and years necessary to not only heal our wounds, but also build our character. Without growth of character we will get wounded again.

~ Floyd McClung

Korean Proverb

"If you plant a bean, then you will harvest only beans, not grapes or strawberries." This is an old Korean proverb. God gave us new life through Jesus Christ and planted special seeds of forgiveness and love in our hearts. What fruit will we bear in our daily lives?

~ Myung Lee

Reputation Vs. Character

The circumstances amid which you live determine your reputation; the truth you believe determines your character. Reputation is what you are supposed to be; charaacter is what you are. Reputation is the photograph; character is the face. Reputation comes over one from without; character grows up from within. Reputation is what you have when you come to a new community; character is what you have when you go away. Your reputation is learned in an hour; your character is built in a lifetime. Reputation grows like a mushroom; character grows like the oak. A single newspaper report gives you your reputation, a life of toil gives you your character. Reputation makes you rich or makes you poor; character makes you happy or makes you miserable. Reputation is what men say about you on your tombstone; character is what the angels say about you before the throne of God.

~ William Hersey Davis

Work Hard...

You beat 50 percent of the people in America by working hard. You beat another 40 percent by being a person of honesty and integrity and standing for something. The last 10 percent is a dogfight in the free enterprise system. 

~ A. L. Williams 

Good Habits

Good habits are not made on birthdays, nor Christian character at the New Year. The workshop of character is everyday life. The uneventful and commonplace hour is where the battle is lost or won.

~ Mattie Davenport Babcock

Improving Lives

There is one thing that keeps many from zealously improving their lives, that is, dread of the difficulty, the toil of battle. Certainly they who try bravely to overcome the most difficult and unpleasant obstacles far outstrip others in the pursuit of virtue. A person makes the most progress and merits the most grace precisely in those matters wherein he gains the greatest victories over self and most mortifies his will. True, each one has his own difficulties to meet and conquer, but a diligent and sincere person will make greater progress even though he have more passions than one who is more even-tempered but less concerned about virtue.

~ Thomas a Kempis

Impossible

When God wants to do an impossible task He takes an impossible man and crushes him.

~ Alan Redpath

Character Exhibited

Character is not made in a crisis - it is only exhibited.

~ Anonymous

Monday Morning

God does not judge the condition or quality of His church by how good the meetings are on Sunday morning, but by how good the people are on Monday morning. The main calling of our life is more than just knowing the truth - — it is having that truth become our life.

~ Rick Joyner

Change of....

It is strange that while praying, we seldom ask for a change of character, but always a change of circumstances.

~ Anonymous

Don't Forget to Live

> First I was dying to finish high school and start college.
> And then I was dying to finish college and start working.
> And then I was dying to marry and have children.
> And then I was dying for my children to grow old enough for school so I could return to work.
> And then I was dying to retire.
> And now, I am dying... and suddenly I realize I forgot to live.

~ Author Unknown

I could have written the first three lines and now that they are all accomplished, I see how fast time flies and I'm trying to slow it down now to enjoy my children before I wake up one day and realize they are grown.

Blame the Mirror?

You can no more blame your circumstances for your character than you can blame the mirror for the way you look.

~ Anonymous

Nothing is won by force...

Nothing is won by force. I choose to be gentle. If I raise my voice may it be only in praise. If I clench my fist, may it be only in prayer. If I make a demand, may it be only of myself.

~ Max Lucado

The World Will Never See You as God Sees You

Humble yourself and cease to care what men think. A meek man is not a human mouse afflicted with a sense of his own inferiority. Rather,... he has stopped being fooled about himself. He knows well that the world will never see him as God sees him and he has stopped caring. He has obtained a place of soul rest. The old struggle to defend himself is over.

~ A. W. Tozer

God's Care and Keeping

"Every day, commit the ones you love unto God's care and keeping. It's the best - and the only thing - you can do."

~ Family Life

Shape the World

Lord,
day by day, year by year;
will you remind us
that through prayer
we have a share
in shaping the world
in our town, on our street?

~ Ruth Harms Calkin

...my mother's prayers...

I remember my mother's prayers - and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life.

~ Abraham Lincoln

Meditation and Prayer

Too many women have too much leisure time for their own good. They have time for criticism, gossip, faultfinding, and complaining. They have time for idle games and lay too much attention to things of the flesh. There are other women who have too little time for the enduring things of life. They are too busy flitting about doing this and that. They have great activity and much doing, but they lack time for building Christian characters. Both kinds of women -- the too-idle and the too-busy need to take time for meditation and quiet repose in prayer to God. They need time to cultivate their souls that in turn they may cultivate their children's lives.

~ Billy Graham

A mother's love...

A mother's love
Is a beacon light
That shines faith, and truth, and prayer;
And through the changing scenes of life,
Her children find a haven there.

~ Unknown

Prayer is not...

"Prayer is not eloquence, but earnestness; not the definition of helplessness, but the feeling of it; not figures of speech, but earnestness of soul."

~ Hannah More

Hem It In

"If you hem in both ends of your day with a prayer, it won't be so likely to unravel in the middle."

~ Unknown

A surrendered life...

"A surrendered life was what Mother modeled for us. When life knocked her to her knees, she learned that was the best position for prayer. What a comfort to have a praying mother! She didn't just say prayers - she talked to God! And she talked to Him about our lives, our needs, our future."

~ June Hunt

...life will be worth living...

In the midst of everything, mothers should take time to love and laugh and pray. Then life will be worth living, each and every day.

~ Susan Wall

The Trouble Fixer

"Nobody said life would be perfect. Nobody said your kids would go through life scot-free of troubles. But what your kids do need to know is that God can be trusted to never leave, no matter how hot the trouble gets. And that's what you need to know, too, when you're tempted to jump into your kids' troubles with both feel - before you get scalded. You're not the trouble-fixer; God is. And you'd be smart to remember that!"

~ Barbara Johnson

Letting Go of Children

When my time came to let go of our children, I was able to do so largely because my mother had taught me that you don't let go of a relationship - only your dependence on it. She had done it well trusting God to protect her kids, and for this and all the other things she and Dad did, I give thanks to God. For I had a model of what to do in my own parenting.

~ Jill Briscoe

Be Faithful...

Be faithful to what God has shown you - and don't worry about what He hasn't. God will reveal to you, in His time, everything you need to know. God wants to foster your dependence on Him. As you learn to love and trust God's faithfulness more, He'll put His peace in your heart.

~ Fenelon

Pray and Thank

How important it is to teach children not only to present their requests to God, but also to thank and praise him for who he is and for all his answers! By doing so, you are cultivating a grateful heart - one that will more likely be open to a relationship with the Father.

~ Annie Daton

Golden Rule of Motherhood

The Golden Rule of Motherhood is:

"Tell me, and I'll forget.
Show me, and I may remember.
Involve me, and I will understand."

And that goes for your prayer life, too.
If you're not on your knees,
how could you expect your child to be?

~ Anne Graham Lotz

Give Your Children to God

Give your children to God.
Give your own self to God.
Pray together with your children in honest terms
that are appropriate to their age and understanding.
Then daily trust God to do his work in all of you.

~ Carole Sanderson Streeter