We try so hard to instruct our children in all the right things―teaching good from bad, explaining choices and consequences―when in reality most lessons are learned through observation and experience. Perhaps we'd be better off training our youth to be highly observant.

Every brush stroke on the canvas, every dab of color introduced, the fine textures impressed in the paint—this accumulation of many small acts combines to shape a final work of art.  And so it is with life; each step, each deed, each brief choice builds gradually, day by day, to shape both character and destiny.

To pause and think about one’s actions, to consider the reasons and causes, to carefully weigh the consequences—this seems an unusual practice for humans. I cannot help but weep over the mountain of grief that might have been avoided if only individuals had paused to think.

When you make righteous choices and then experience the eventual results, you learn to love what is good. Likewise, when you make unrighteous choices and then experience the eventual consequences, you learn why sin is best avoided.

No one believes he is an idiot until the consequences of his actions prove it. Then hindsight rubs it in.

Your future self will either love you or hate you for the days you are presently living. Be wise. Be honest. Be kind. Be merciful. Be good. The consequences of your actions will matter in years to come to a much greater degree than you now comprehend.

It turns out the simplest choices have been far more important in the long run than I ever imagined.

It is a difficult thing―if not impossible―to forgive oneself for foolish errors, not for trampling a life or goring another with sharp horns, but for being the fool who opened the gate and let the bull out, blind to potential consequences.

Some decisions in life naturally lead to an unhappy ending, leaving you sinking by degrees in a lake of quicksand.  And, unless someone reaches to pull you out, chances are you will drown in the consequences.