Trials...Look Up and Hold Fast!

"It does not matter how great the pressure is. What really matters is where the pressure lies—whether it comes between you and God, or whether it presses you nearer His heart." ~Hudson Taylor

"It is necessary that our sharpest trials should sometimes spring from our dearest comforts, else we should be in danger of forgetting ourselves and setting up our rest here." - John Newton

 "No matter what storm you face, you need to know that God loves you. He has not abandoned you." ~Franklin Graham

 

"That man is perfect in faith who can come to God in the utter dearth of his feelings and desires, without a glow or an aspiration, with the weight of low thoughts, failures, neglects, and wandering forgetfulness, and say to Him, 'Thou art my refuge.'" ~George MacDonald
"Good people must never expect to escape troubles; if they do, they will be disappointed, for none of their predecessors have been without them." ~Charles Spurgeon 
"I've read the last page of the Bible, it's all going to turn out all right." ~Billy Graham

"Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him."" ~James 1:12

Made for His purposes...

 "For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them" ~Psalm 139:13-16

 "Everyone has a unique role to fill in the world and is important in some respect. Everyone, including and perhaps especially you, is indispensable." ~Nathaniel Hawthorne

Inside There is a Family Together

"I envision that white Victorian farmhouse in a swirl of snow, and I feel the biting wind. But inside, there is a family together - its prodigal son returned, and with him the welcome gift of warm-heartedness." ~Walton

  "And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.  And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’  But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet.  And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate.  For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate." ~Luke 15:20-24