Jesus said, “I will build My church” (Matt. 16:18). If Jesus is committed to the church, should we be any less committed to it?-Mark Dever, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, Crossway, 2000, p. 145.

Let it be a settled resolution with us to "keep our hearts with all diligence," all the days of our lives. (Prov. 4:23.) Even after renewal they are weak. Even after putting on the new man they are deceitful. Let us never forget that our chief danger is from within. The world and the devil combined, cannot do us so much harm as our own hearts will, if we do not watch and pray. Happy is he who remembers daily the words of Solomon, "One who trusts in himself is a fool." (Prov. 28:26.)~ J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Matthew, [Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1986], 178, 179.

No matter what you've done for yourself or for humanity, if you can't look back on having given love and attention to your own family, what have you really accomplished? - Elbert Hubbard, 1856 - 1915

The happiest moments of my life have a been the few which I have passed at home in the bosom of my family.- Thomas Jefferson, 1743 - 1826

A happy family is but an earlier heaven.- George Bernard Shaw, 1856 - 1950

Cold words freeze people and hot words scorch them, and bitter words make them bitter, and wrathful words make them wrathful. Kind words also produce their image on men's souls; and a beautiful image it is. They smooth, and quiet, and comfort the hearer.- Blaise Pascal

Without courage, wisdom bears no fruit.- Baltasar Gracian, 1601 - 1656

Few men are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality of those who seek to change a world which yields most painfully to change, - Robert F. Kennedy, 1925 - 1968

There are many people living in the midst of unattractive circumstances, amid hardships, toil, and disease, whose daily life breathes out most gently music that blesses others about them.- J. F. Millar

The world will not be converted when Christ returns. It will be found in the same condition that it was in the day of the flood. When the flood came, men were found "eating and drinking, marrying and given in marriage," absorbed in their worldly pursuits, and utterly regardless of Noah's repeated warnings. They saw no likelihood of a flood. They would not believe there was any danger. But at last the flood came suddenly and "took them all away." All that were not with Noah in the ark were drowned. They were all swept away to their last account, unpardoned, unconverted, and unprepared to meet God. And our Lord says, "so will be the coming of the Son of Man." ~ J.C. RyleExpository Thoughts on the Gospels: Matthew, [Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1986], 326, 327.

Rather than denying problems, focus inventively, intentionally on what solutions might look or feel like. Our mind is meant to generate ideas that help us escape circumstantial traps - if we trust it to do so.- Marsha Sinetar

Inventors and geniuses have almost always been looked on as no better than fools at the beginning of their career, and very frequently at the end of it also.- Fyodor Dostoyevsky, 1821 - 1881

Lord, I wonder what fool it was that first invented kissing! - Jonathan Swift, 1667 - 1745