Jesus often calls us to risk. He asks us to be vulnerable, to be authentic, so others can see Him in and through us.

We cannot let the haters of this world define us. Or frighten us into no longer being ourselves.

Worry is a weighty monster with poisoned tentacles. It clutches at us, grabs at our minds, steals our breath, our will. It lurks. It pounces. It colors how we perceive the world.

When the world careens out of control, we can rest in the fact that God spun this world with a simple word. Matter from emptiness. Beauty from void. Community from chaos.

God's heart…is not that we escape our lot, but that we learn to thrive in the midst of it.

Dare to be brave today, and trust that when you extend your wings, you will fly.

Because the culture we breathe and work in rushes against rest. It equates our worth with production and wealth and fame. The more we work toward those goals, the more society assigns us worth.

Growth comes from God, to those with surrendered, yielded hearts.

We may not understand the pathways God lays out before us. We may not even like walking the journey. But even in failure, we can trust that He’ll do more than we expect.

As I look back over my mountains of growth and compare them to the molehills where I stagnated, community often made the difference.

Our task shouldn't be punishing the villains in our lives, but enlarging the God who heals us from all wounds.

On silent moonless nights, I don't feel lonely! I have my greatest friends - my books for company!

If you have seen darkness, you will appreciate the dawn of light.

The scariest, ugliest stories about in-home nursing usually are the result of nurses demonstrating a lack of professionalism, bad morals or a disregard for the child for whom they are providing care.

We must stop calling bribes in our higher institutions “helping my child to gain admission.

To let the child do as he likes when he has not yet developed any powers of control is to betray the idea of freedom.

Anything that I'm doing I'm writing specifically for a particular project.

I get the thumbs up like I'm hailing a yellow cab.

Even though I love my mother, I didn't want to make an idealized portrait of her. I'm fascinated more by her defects - they are funnier than her other qualities.

Small minds can never handle great themes.