Pride leaves no room for grace.

If God awarded us medals, as they do in the Olympics, love would win the gold, joy the silver, and peace the bronze.

Vision encompasses vast vistas outside the realm of the predictable, the safe, the expected.

Encouragement is awesome. Think about it. It has the capacity to lift a man's or a woman's shoulders. To breathe fresh air into the fading embers of a smoldering dream. To actually change the course of another human being's day, week, or life.

Think first. Talk less. Start today.

God also allows suffering so that we might learn what it means to depend on Him, not on our own strength and resources.

Grace has to be the loveliest word in the English language. It embodies almost every attractive quality we hope to find in others. Grace is a gift of the humble to the humiliated. Grace acknowledges the ugliness of sin by choosing to see beyond it. Grace accepts a person as someone worthy of kindness despite whatever grime or hard-shell casing keeps him or her separated from the rest of the world. Grace is a gift of tender mercy when it makes the least sense.