My daddy tried to get me up to speak for the 17 years that I worked behind the scenes, but I never had the desire. Naturally, I was nervous and kind of shy. I just didn't want to do it.

There's pros and cons of a big church. Cons is I don't get to know everybody, I don't get to go to their ballgame, I don't get to marry everybody, but the pros are you get all this community, 800 ushers come in to serve, getting there at 7 in the morning on their day off and coming in on Saturday to make all those wafers.

Understand that the enemy always fights the hardest when he knows you are closest to your breakthrough. He'd leave you alone if he thought you were going to live in mediocrity. If you keep pressing on toward your promise, through faith and patience, you will get there.

As long as you have breath, someone needs your talents.

When you go through enough dark places, you don't complain about little things. You don't lose your joy because you got stuck in traffic; you don't get offended because a coworker was rude to you. You've been through too much to let that sour you.

You are not defined by your past. You are prepared by your past.

When you keep God in first place, He will take you to places you've never dreamed of