Positive Thoughts 15

Change your thoughts, and you change your world. -Norman Vincent Peale

When we deserve love the least is when we need it the most!
Creativity can be described as letting go of certainties. -Gail Sheehy

I am always doing things I can't do; that's how I get to do them. -Pablo Picasso

Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will. -Gandhi

Allow others to give you loving care. Receive without guilt or apologies. -Doreen Virtue, Ph.D.

If children live with criticism, They learn to condemn.
If children live with hostility, They learn to fight.
If children live with ridicule, They learn to be shy.
If children live with shame, They learn to feel guilty.
If children live with encouragement, They learn confidence.
If children live with tolerance, They learn to be patient.
If children live with praise, They learn to appreciate.
If children live with acceptance, They learn to love.
If children live with approval, They learn to like themselves.
If children live with honesty, They learn truthfulness.
If children live with security, They learn to have faith in them- selves and others.
If children live with friendliness, They learn the world is a nice place in which to live.
– Dorothy Law Nolte

We only go around once. There's really no time to be afraid. So stop. Try something you’ve never tried. Teach it. Do it. Risk it. -Jon Blais

Take time to think... it is the source of power.
Take time to play... it is the secret of perpetual youth.
Take time to read... it is the fountain of wisdom.
Take time to pray... it is the greatest power on earth.
Take time to love and be loved... it is a God-given privilege.
Take time to be friendly... it is the road to happiness.
Take time to laugh... it is the music of the soul.
Take time to give... it is too short a day to be selfish.
Take time to work... it is the price of success.
Take time to do charity... it is the key to fulfillment.
– Author Unknown

I would rather stumble a thousand times
Attempting to reach a goal
Than to sit in a crowd In my weather-proof shroud
A shriveled and self-satisfied soul.
I would rather be doing and daring
All of my error-filled days
Than watching, and waiting, and dying
Smug in my perfect ways. I would rather wonder and blunder
Stumbling blindly ahead
Than for safety's sake
Lest I make a mistake
Be sure, be safe, be dead.
– Unknown

When things go wrong as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and debts are high,
And you want to smile but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit…
Rest if you must—but don’t you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about,
When he might have won if he’d stuck it out.
Don’t give up, though the pace seems slow
You may succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than
It seems to a faint and faltering man;
Often the struggler has given up
When he might have captured the victor's cup,
And he learned too late, when the night slipped down,
How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out,
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are.
It may be near when it seems afar.
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit,
It's when things go wrong That you mustn't quit.
– Unknown

To fully live,
to fully love,
to get close to someone,
Is to become vulnerable
and risk getting hurt.
But to stay in my shell
where I feel
comfortable and safe
is a greater risk by far—
For to risk nothing
is to risk everything.
Instead of living fully
I'll be dying slowly
And never will discover
the joy of loving nor the high
achievement of becoming
all that I was meant
and created to be.
– Dick Innes

"I would rather fail in a cause that will ultimately triumph than to triumph in a cause that will ultimately fail." – Jim Elliot

"Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self." – Cyril Connolly

Everyone can be great because everyone can serve...You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love. -Martin Luther King Jr.

A good laugh is sunshine in a house. -William Makepeace Thackeray

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go. -T.S. Eliot

It takes courage to grow up and be who you really are. -E.E. Cummings

Remember that unpleasant feelings will pass. Notice rather than react. -Barbara Ann Kipfer


Born to Fly

A naturalist visiting a farm one day was surprised to see a beautiful eagle in the farmer's chicken coop. Befuddled, he asked, "Why in the world is that eagle living with chickens?"

"Well," answered the farmer, "I found an abandoned eagle's egg one day and laid it in the coop, and a chicken adopted it and raised the creature after it hatched. It doesn't know any better; it thinks it's a chicken." The eagle was even pecking at grain and strutting awkwardly in circles.

"Doesn't it ever try to fly out of there?" asked the naturalist, noticing that the bird never lifted its gaze. "No," said the farmer, "I doubt it even knows what it means to fly."

The naturalist asked to take the eagle a few days for experiments, and the farmer agreed. The scientist placed the eagle on a fence and pushed it off, bellowing, "Fly!" But the bird just fell to the ground and started pecking. He then climbed to the top of a hayloft and did the same thing, but the frightened bird just shrieked and fluttered ungraciously to the barnyard, where it resumed its strutting.

Finally, the naturalist took the docile bird away from the environment to which it had grown accustomed, driving to the highest butte in the county. After a lengthy and sweaty climb to the hillcrest with the bird tucked under his arm, he peered over the edge and then spoke gently: "You were born to soar. It is better that you die here today on the rocks below than live the rest of your life being a chicken. It's not what you are."

Then, with its keen eyesight, the confused bird spotted another eagle soaring on the currents high above the bluff, and a yearning was kindled within it. The naturalist threw the majestic beast up and over the edge, crying out, "Fly! Fly! Fly!"

The eagle began to tumble toward the rocks below, but then it opened its seven-foot span of wings and, with a mighty screech, instinctively began to flap them. Soon it was gliding gracefully, climbing in ever-higher spirals on unseen thermals into the blue sky. Eventually, the mighty eagle disappeared into the glare of the morning sun. The bird had become what it was born to be.

Have you discovered your God-given purpose and potential—and have become or are becoming all that you were born to be?


You don't have to control your thoughts; you just have to stop letting them control you.
-Dan Millman

God, if I can't have what I want, let me want what I have. -Anonymous prayer

I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know that just to be alive is a grand thing. -Agatha Christie

We know nothing of tomorrow, our business is to be good and happy today. -Sydney Smith

We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon - instead of enjoying the roses blooming outside our windows today. -Dale Carnegie

When you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with the other. -Chinese Proverb

It isn't hard to be good from time to time. What's tough is being good every day. -Willie Mays

The human heart, at whatever age, opens only to the heart that opens in return.
-Maria Edgeworth

See all beings as enlightened, providing you with the education you need to awaken. Thank them. -Barbara Ann Kipfer


Wisdom is knowing when to speak your mind and when to mind your speech. -Unknown

Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: it might have been.
-Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Good habits are as easy to form as bad ones. -Tim McCarver

Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get. -Dave Gardner

Freedom is the oxygen of the soul. -Moshe Dayan

You miss 100 percent of all the shots you never take. -Wayne Gretzky