Lower your expectations of earth. This isn't heaven, so don't expect it to be.

I believe for God not to allow pain to happen in the world is for Him to extract free will from the world.

Prayer is the window that God has placed in the walls of our world. Leave it shut and the world is a cold, dark house. But throw back the curtains and see His light. Open the window and hear His voice. Open the window of prayer and invoke the presence of God in your world.

No person is too hardened.

I don't think God is a gender. He presents himself as a father but he comes to us with the tenderness of a mother. In some of the parables, he is the housewife who cleans the house looking for the lost coin. So I think we can miss the point if we get too concerned about the gender of God.

Whether or not storms come, we can not choose. But where we stare during a storm, that we can.

Those in the circle of Christ had no doubt of his love; those in our circles should have no doubt about ours.