CONVERSATIONS THAT COUNT

"He who dares not offend cannot be honest."

-- Thomas Paine

GOD'S WAY NOT YOUR WAY

"Sometimes you have to let go of the life you pictured in order to have the life that God has planned."

-- John Hagee

ANTIDOTE TO ENVY

"Everybody is unique. Compare not yourself with anybody else lest you spoil God's curriculum."

-- Baal Shem Tov

THE GAME CLOCK IS TICKING

"The purpose of life is a life of purpose."

-- Robert Byrne

LABORATORY OF OUR SOULS

"We don't invent our mission, we detect it." 

-- Victor Frankl

photo credit: Flickr: Blinded by Science

NO EXCEPTIONS

"Everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive."

-- C.S. Lewis

FAIR OR RIGHT?

"The right to do something does not mean that doing it is right." 

-- William Saffire

ETERNAL HORIZON

"Change your perspective and you change your reality."

NO PAIN, NO GAIN

"Most people have come to prefer certain of life's experiences and deny and reject others, unaware of the value of the hidden things that may come wrapped in plain or even ugly paper."

-- Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D.

photo credit: Tuomas Lehtinen on freedigitalphotos.net

BE NOT AFRAID

"Courage is not the absence of fear but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear."

-- Ambrose Redmoon

TRUSTING GOD

"You never know God is all you need until God is all you got."

-- Rick Warren

LEFT TO TELL

"Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God."

-- Corrie ten Boom, who was instrumental in helping many Jews escape the Nazi Holocaust

FAMILY FURNACE

"Family is not the place where everything goes well, but it is the place where we live through the furnace of life and are transformed by our day-to-day relationships."

-- Rebecca Laird, author, ordained minister

TAMING OUR RESTLESSNESS

"Peace and joy can only come to us when we stop demanding that life -- our spouses, our friends, our vocations and vacations -- give us something that they cannot give."

-- Ron Rolheiser

DON'T ASK WHY, ASK HOW

"Pray not for easier lives; pray to be stronger men."

-- John F. Kennedy

photo credit: Chuck Deckert

COMPASSION

"The best wines have to be aged in cracked old barrels.  And so too does the human soul, which comes to compassion only when there are real cracks, painful ones, in the body and life of the one who carries it." 

-- James Hillman

photo credit: worradmu at freedigitalphotos.net

FELLOWSHIP OF PAIN

"Sometimes our light goes out but is blown into flame by another human being. Each of us owes our deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this light."

-- Albert Schweitzer

SERVICE VERSUS LEADERSHIP

photo credit: Stuart Miles on FreeDigitalPhotos.com

"Everybody can be great, because anybody can serve.  You only need a heart full of grace; a soul generated by love."

-- Martin Luther King, Jr.

THE PLACE OF THE BREAK

"When a man finds that it is his destiny to suffer, he will have to accept his suffering as his task. His unique opportunity lies in the way he bears his burden."

- Victor Frankl, Holocaust survivor

photo credit: Bones by Keone on Flickr

DILUTING NEGATIVE INFLUENCES

"Serenity is not freedom from the storm, but calmness within the storm."

-- Unknown