Have we the humility to thank our Father for the gift of pain?

We must quit bending the Word to suit our situation. It is we who must be bent to that Word, our necks that must bow under the yoke.

It is always possible to be thankful for what is given rather than to complain about what is not given. One or the other becomes a habit of life.

Failure means nothing now, only that it taught me life.

Muddled thinking inevitably results in muddled living

Thanksgiving and Christmas then, for us who love God, are not mere time outs from work days. They are a celebration of the gift of work itself, days on which we celebrate work by declaring our freedom. In a manner of speaking we announce that on this one day we may rest from our work, and without pressure or guilt, we may be glad. A holiday is a holy day-meant for rejoicing in God.

Loneliness comes over us sometimes as a sudden tide. It is one of the terms of our humanness, and, in a sense, therefore, incurable. Yet I have found peace in my loneliest times not only through acceptance of the situation, but through making it an offering to God, who can transfigure it into something for the good of others.