Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you encounter various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. And let perseverance be perfect, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. But if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and he will be given it. But he should ask in faith, not doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is drive and tossed about by the wind. – James 1:2-8
“there was one very important thing about your quest that we couldn’t discuss until you returned.” “I remember,” said Milo eagerly. “Tell me now.” “It was impossible,” said the king, looking at the Mathemagician. – Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth
The things that go wrong often make the best memories. ― Gretchen Rubin, The Happiness Project
The ways of the Lord are not comfortable, but we were not created for comfort. We were created for greatness. – Pope Benedict XVI
An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered. – G.K. Chesterton
But better to get hurt by the truth than comforted with a lie. ― Khaled Hosseini (via Goodreads)
Sometimes the only way the good Lord can get into some hearts is to break them. – Archbishop Fulton Sheen
Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny. – Reepicheep in Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010) – more about this quote
We tend to think that life should be problem-free and that problems are a disequilibrium we need to correct in order to bring us back to the normal, problem-free state of living. In fact nothing could be further from the truth. The normal state of life is to have one problem, which leads to another, which leads to another. Thus problem solving is not like a straight line pointing from one direction to another, but more like a spiral, with new problems emerging from old ones. – Robert J. Sternberg and Todd Lubart
I don’t mean to be like some old guy from the olden days who says, “I walked thirty miles to school every morning, so you kids should too.” That’s a statement born of envy and resentment. What I’m saying is something quite different. What I’m saying is that by having very little, I had it good.
Children need a sense of pulling their own weight, of contributing to the family in some way, and some sense of the family’s interdependence. They take pride in knowing that they’re contributing. They learn responsibility and discipline through meaningful work. The values developed within a family that operates on those principles then extend to the society at large. By not being quite so indulged and ‘protected’ from reality by overflowing abundance, children see the bonds that connect them to others. – Sidney Poitier, The Measure of a Man
No true fiasco ever began as a quest for mere adequacy. A motto of the British Special Air Force is: ‘Those who risk, win.’ A single green vine shoot is able to grow through cement. The Pacific Northwestern salmon beats itself bloody on its quest to travel hundreds of miles upstream against the current, with a single purpose, sex of course, but also life. – Elizabethtown
There is no growth without loss, and no art without longing. – A.O. Scott
…sometimes, the best-intended acts don’t have the desired effect. The parents’ motives were good – their compassion had an unintended result because it wasn’t balanced by knowledge of the positive effects of small challenges, of facing and mastering small stresses. – Bruce Perry, Born for Love
Living Differently 