Sad as it is, seems that the good always goes and gets replaced by something a whole lot less than good,” Aunt Mabel replied as she rearranged items in the old glass case. “Just seems we discard too much good in tryin’ to make things better. Maybe we should just enjoy what we got without always thinkin’ about what we don’t.

I don’t wish for a perfect life, for in doing so I will have discarded the tremendous opportunities for great good that lay hidden in the greatest bad.

Having the eyes of a child does not mean that we are naïve. Rather, it means that we’ve become brave enough to believe in a great good while simultaneously embracing the reality of a great evil.

There’s plenty of things that are wrong in our world, and we can give them free reign to completely define our view of the world. Or we can focus on the fact that what’s wrong with the world are the essential raw materials from which a person of determination crafts everything which is right.

At what point will I look beyond the rank pessimism of my own attitude and step beyond the jaded opinions of a culture gone sour in order to see that the opportunity for good will always outweigh the schemes of evil?

Without the ‘dark’ I would never understand how light the ‘light’ really is. And while I don’t care for the dark, I do appreciate what it does for the light.

The sacrifice ‘of’ self for the greater good is the greatest calling imaginable, and it is the bedrock of the greatest nations. The sacrifice ‘for’ self is the most pathetic calling imaginable, and it is the quicksand within which nations perish.

When our lives are difficult beyond description, we must remember that our God is good beyond explanation.

Integrity is the thing that binds together all that is good within us as a means of overcoming all that is bad around us.