Random Thoughts

Ideas or quotes I come across that I find funny, silly, inspirational, true...and just plain random!

If you want to change the world, go home and love your family. Mother Teresa

Believe me, every heart has it's secret sorrows, which the world knows not, and oftentimes we call a man cold, when he is only sad. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Using cynicism to protect yourself from the bravery that having hope requires is the sneakiest form of cowardice there is. Jon Acuff

If there was one thing he disliked more than another in a world full of objectionable happenings, it was this. PG Wodehouse

Mrs Darling: There are many different kinds of bravery. There's the bravery of thinking of others before one's self. Now, your father has never brandished a sword nor fired a pistol, thank heavens. But he has made many sacrifices for his family, and put away many dreams.
Michael: Where did he put them?
Mrs Darling: He put them in a drawer. And sometimes, late at night, we take them out and admire them. But it gets harder and harder to close the drawer...He does. And that is why he is brave.
J.M. Barrie (Peter Pan)

Above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you, because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it. Roald Dahl

Don't be fooled by the idea of calling: it's not some mystical dream life we think we deserve to live out; it's stewarding + living out well what we've been given to discover that it's really more than we deserve...Discovering 'our calling' in the everyday has so much less to do with WHAT we are doing and more to do with WHY we are doing what we're doing. This is how God's teaching me to #learntolovewhatmustbedone today..." Ruth Chou Simons

He said "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."The Velveteen Rabbit

I'm so happy! I know a million others have said it before, but none with such justice. Elizabeth Bennett, Death Comes to Pemberley

There are many little old ladies serving in church nurseries who may not understand how to articulate the theories of gospel-centeredness or have the ingenuity to dazzle our minds with psychological insights, cultural observations, and Christocentric interpretations of Old Testament passages. Their hearts, however, burn with love for Jesus and overflow with gratefulness for His grace...So don't be quick to judge them. Be humbled by them. Mastering the theology of gospel-centeredness is not the point. Loving the God of the gospel is. J.D. Greear

Recent studies show that women who carry a little extra weight live longer than do the men who mention it. Unknown

Wisdom is not primarily a function of how clever we are, nor of how much information we have managed to cram into our minds. Rather it is a moral choice to be independent of God or to be subject to him in our thinking as well as our doing. Graham Goldsworthy

No Christian can avoid theology. Every Christian is a theologian. Perhaps not a theologian in the technical or professional sense, but a theologian nonetheless. The issue for Christians is not whether we are going to be theologians but whether we are going to be good theologians or bad ones. R.C. Sproul

A life outside of Christ is both hard and frightening; a life in Christ has hard edges and dark valleys, but it is purposeful even when painful. Rosaria Champagne Butterfield

You don't have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body. CS Lewis

And I think I'm kind of a nice guy. Being a nice guy, trying to prove that nice guys don't always finish last. Darius Rucker

If I had a nickel for every time I was doomed by a puppet, I'd have...two nickels! Which isn't a lot, but really, it's weird that it happened twice, right? Dr. Doofenshmirtz

The ancient man approached God (or even the gods) as the accused person approaches his judge. For the modern man, the roles are reversed. He is the judge: God is in the dock... the trial may even end in God's acquittal. But the important thing is that Man is on the bench and God in the dock. CS Lewis

You may be whatever you resolve to be. Stonewall Jackson

Jesus is greater than I have ever portrayed Him to be. Tweeted by @JohnPiper

Don't base the number of kids you want on the pain in the {butt} of infancy, because it's so finite. Base it on how many people you want at Thanksgiving. Gwenyth Paltrow

The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise, than saved by criticism. Norman Vincent Peale

The most amazing things that can happen to a human being will happen to you, if you just lower your expectations. Philsosophy, Phil Dunphy

Wait on God and He will work, but don't wait in spiritual sulks because you cannot see an inch in front of you! Are we detached enough from our spiritual hysterics to wait on God? To wait is not to sit with folded hands, but to learn to do what we are told. Oswald Chambers

Wherefore I now admonish you, especially those that are teachers and guiders of consciences. Exercise yourselves continually by study, by reading, by meditation of the Word and by prayer to bring others from law to grace. Martin Luther

Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves. William Pitt

If the Lord fails me at this time, it will be the first time. George Mueller

People do not drift towards holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated. D.A. Carson

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A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse over loose fiscal policy. Alexander Tyler, 1887, history professor at the University of Edinburgh

The rifle itself has no moral stature, since it has no will of its own. Naturally, it may be used by evil men for evil purposes, but there are more good men than evil, and while the latter cannot be persuaded to the path of righteousness by propaganda, they can certainly be corrected by good men with rifles. Col. Jeff Cooper

In three words I can sum up everything I know about life: It goes on. Robert Frost

No one looks back on their life and remembers the nights they had plenty of sleep - Anon.

A sense of humor is needed armor. Joy in ones heart and laughter on ones lips is a sign that the person down deep has a pretty good grasp of life. Hugh Sidey

The God of the universe - the creator of nitrogen and pine needles, galaxies and E minor - loves us with a radical, unconditional, self-sacrificing love. And what is our typical response? We go to church, sing songs, and try not to cuss - Francis Chan

When I die, I want to go peacefully like my Grandfather did, in his sleep -- not screaming, like the passengers in his car. - Anon.

Listen earnestly to anything your children want to tell you, no matter what. If you don't listen eagerly to the little stuff when they are little, they won't tell you the big stuff when they are big. Because to them, it has always been big stuff. Catherine M Wallace

Intelligence is not enough. Intelligence plus character...that is the true goal of education. Martin Luther King Jr

What if we took away the cool music and the cushioned chairs? What if the screens are gone and the stage is no longer decorated? What if the air conditioning is off and the comforts are removed? Would His Word still be enough for His people to come together? David Platt

Nothing fixes a thing so intensely in the memory as the wish to forget it. Michel de Montaigne

Any child will run any errand for you if you ask at bedtime. Red Skelton

We're not like the Russians or the Ukrainians. They had the Bible taken away from them. In America, Satan's used another trick. He's taken the people away from the Bible. The end result is the same. Keith Davey

Web MD (proper noun) Something that makes a mild cold into a deadly disease that will kill you within the next 24 hours.

Don't handicap your children by making their lives easy. Robert A. Heinlein

I was and am determined not to be tempted into controversy seeing that I am far from claiming that my view is infallible. I only wish to present what I think to be the clear teachings of the New Testament. The Scripture is the final judge. G. Campbell Morgan

Piglet noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude. A. A. Milne

I define pretty as a mutually enriching balanced combination of beauty and projected innocence....That special combination of beauty and innocence, the pretty inspires men to protect and defend it....Young women today do not seem to aspire to pretty, they prefer to be regarded as hot. Hotness is something altogether different. When women want to be hot instead of pretty, they must view themselves in a certain way and consequently men view them differently as well. Pat Archbold

I believe that prayer is the measure of a man, spiritually, in a way that nothing else is, so that how we pray is as important a question as we can ever face. J.I. Packer

Brother, there is the tree of good and evil and we are not to eat from it. Therefore, I cannot say that what I have done in my Christian life was good or bad, a success or failure, productive or not, expansive or not, or that people were trained or not. Eating from the tree of life has freed me from such thinking. I only want Him. Michael Wells, an excerpt from one of the last letters he wrote, before he went to Glory.

This recession won't be over till we raise a generation that knows how to live on what they've got. Anon

Men and women, let me tell you something. God is not like anything. He is His own standard. And the tragedy is that you are going to build your little theological boxes around what you think God is like. Someday when you really need Him, you're going to race to your box and open the lid, and He won't be in there. God does not allow us to continue to reduce Him to a size and shape we can manage. He moves in our lives in ways that burst our categories and overwhelm our limits. When we realize He is bigger than anything we can get our minds around we can begin to relax and trust Him. Unknown

I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, and that His justice cannot sleep forever. Thomas Jefferson

My concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is alright right. Abraham Lincoln

I will be kind to the poor, for they are alone. Kind to the rich, for they are afraid. And kind to the unkind, for such is how God has treated me. Max Lucado

The reason most people fail instead of succeed is that they trade what they want most for what they want at the moment. Anon

Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid. Albert Einstein

God has appointed fathers to lead their children. Not for someone else to come and do it, just because they've had a college degree or some seminary training. That does not qualify someone to, all the sudden, become the spiritual leader of your family. Boyd Dellinger from a very good and thought provoking movie on youth ministries

You should try to avoid confrontation with your kids, but when you do have to go head to head over something, you don't lose. Dr. Phil McGraw

When you are younger, you worry about what people think about you. When you are older, you realize that no one was ever thinking about you at all. Anon.

For an encouraging list of "12 Things Happy {Christians} Do Differently", check out my Mom & Dad's new blog!

In my experience, evil is not a cultural phenomenon, its a human one. Jason Gideon, Criminal Minds

I must confess that I'm driven to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I have nowhere else to go. My wisdom and that of all about me is insufficient to meet the demands of the day. Abraham Lincoln

Live Simply. Love Generously. Care Deeply. Speak Kindly. Leave the Rest to God (quote on a plaque at my parents house)

Never make a principle out of your experience. Allow God to be as creative with others as He is with you - Oswald Chambers

The young man who wants to marry happily should pick out a good mother and marry one of her daughters - any one will do. - J. Ogden Armour

If you have not chosen the Kingdom of God, it will make in the end no difference what you have chosen instead - Thomas More
 
The way I see it, my son can go to therapy later if my strict rules have scarred him. But I have peace knowing he'll be able to afford therapy as an adult because I didn't allow him to wear or do whatever he wanted as a kid. - LZ Granderson (CNN contributor)

The primary goal of parents should not be to trust their children, but to understand them. The more parents understand their children, the more children will trust their parents. - the Power for True Success, The Institute in Basic Life Principles.

It should be your care, therefore, and mine, to elevate the minds of our children and exalt their courage; to accelerate and animate their industry and activity; to excite in them an habitual contempt of meanness, abhorrence of injustice and inhumanity, and an ambition to excel in every capacity, faculty, and virtue. If we suffer their minds to grovel and creep in infancy, they will grovel all their lives. - John Adams, 1756

The happiest people don't always have the best of everything; they make the best of what they have.

Ultimately, you are responsible for your choices. Your circumstances are as responsible for your character as a mirror is for your looks. What you see only reflects what you are. - John Maxwell

When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it. If it comes out of the ground easily, it is a valuable plant.

We say, "Come and listen, play under the table or at our feet. Come and listen to us talk. You will learn, my son, how the men think and speak." But you say, "Go outside and play so the adults can talk". You say, "I'm on the phone, go away while Mommy's talking". I say, "Come here my son , sit on my lap. Daddy's going to be talking on the phone. Listen and hear how a Jewish man talks." - A Jewish Rabbi

The pursuit of happiness is the source of all unhappiness - Anon.

Reading is one form of escape. Running for your life is another. - Lemony Snicket

This is a good thought in light of Halloween "...You shall not learn to imitate the detestable things of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead..." Deut 18:9-12

Weekends don't count unless you spend them doing something completely pointless. - Calvin (Calvin & Hobbes)

I have no way of knowing whether or not you married the wrong person, but I do know that many people have a lot of wrong ideas about marriage and what it takes to make that marriage happy and successful. I'll be the first to admit that it's possible that you did marry the wrong person. However, if you treat the wrong person like the right person, you could well end up having married the right person after all. On the other hand, if you marry the right person, and treat that person wrong, you certainly will have ended up marrying the wrong person. I also know that it is far more important to be the right kind of person than it is to marry the right person. In short, whether you married the right or wrong person is primarily up to you. - Zig Ziglar

Content whatever lot I see...since 'tis my God that leadeth me - Joseph Gilmore

Dear Jesus, how foolish of me to have called for human help when You are here - Corrie ten Boom

I know you shouldn't judge people based on their appearance, but when your body looks like a dirt-bags binder from seventh grade metal shop...it doesn't bode well for your character - Tina Fey, on tattooed girls

I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king. - Queen Elizabeth

I really liked this blog post. Enjoy! - (love this blog in general:-)

Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight! Woe to those who are heroes in drinking wine and valiant men in mixing strong drink, who justify the wicked for a bribe and take away the rights of the ones who are in the right! - Isaiah 5:20-23

Someone asked John Wesley's opinion, after touring the beautiful grounds of an English Nobleman, and he said "I too have a relish for these things, but, there is another world".

Drink Coffee - do stupid things earlier and with more enthusiasm!

Light and darkness are not equal forces. Darkness only comes when light allows it. A .29 cent flashlight will split the darkness in two, and nobody has developed a black beam you can shine in the daylight. It's not there. Because light is so much more powerful than darkness. - Mike Wells (Bury Your Marriage)

The grass is not greener on the other side of the fence. It is the greenest where nurtured and cared for. If your grass is not green, what are you doing - or not doing - to have it that way? - excerpt from a wedding ceremony sermon

After I'm dead, I'd rather have people ask why I have no monument than why I have one. - Cato the Elder

Give a man a fire, and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life.