“Thinking about My Purpose POINT TO PONDER: Happiness is my choice. I don’t need anyone’s approval to be happy. VERSE TO REMEMBER: “Even if my father and mother abandon me, the Lord will hold me close.” PSALM 27:10 (NLT) QUESTION TO CONSIDER: Whose opinion matters most to me? Whose approval am I living for?”

“Put yourself in a state of mind where you say to yourself, 'Here is an opportunity for me to celebrate like never before, my own power, my own ability to get myself to do whatever is necessary.”

“I was at this time living, like so many Atheists or Antitheists, in a whirl of contradictions. I maintained that God did not exist. I was also very angry with God for not existing. I was equally angry with Him for creating a world.”

“Do you want to know what God’s will is for you? It is for you to become more and more like Christ. This is spiritual maturity, and if you make this your goal, it will change your life.”

“The philosophy of the schoolroom in one generation is the philosophy of government in the next.”

“Evangelism has always been the heartbeat for our ministry; it is what God has called us to do.”

“A man’s alibi is the child of his own imagination. It is human nature to defend one’s own brain-child.”

“True morality consists not in following the beaten track, but in finding the true path for ourselves, and fearlessly following it.”

“My father-in-law . . . was a great inspiration to me both in life and in his preparation for death.”

“Children inherit the qualities of the parents, no less than their physical features. Environment does play an important part, but the original capital on which a child starts in life is inherited from its ancestors. I have also seen children successfully surmounting the effects of an evil inheritance. That is due to purity being an inherent attribute of the soul. Polak and I had often very heated discussions about the desirability or otherwise of giving the children an English education. It has always been my conviction that Indian parents who train their children to think and talk in English from their infancy betray their children and their country. They deprive them of the spiritual and social heritage of the nation, and render them to that extent unfit for the service of the country. Having these convictions, I made a point of always talking to my children in Gujarati. Polak never liked this. He thought I was spoiling their future. He contended, with all the vigour and love at his command, that, if children were to learn a universal language like English from their infancy, they would easily gain considerable advantage over others in the race of life. He failed to convince me. I do not now remember whether I convinced him of the correctness of my attitude, or whether he gave me up as too obstinate. This happened about twenty years ago, and my convictions have only deepened with experience. Though my sons have suffered for want of full literary education, the knowledge of the mother-tongue that they naturally acquired has been all to their and the country’s good, inasmuch as they do not appear the foreigners they would otherwise have appeared. They naturally became bilingual, speaking and writing English with fair ease, because of daily contact with a large circle of English friends, and because of their stay in a country where English was the chief language spoken.”

“If you raise your children to feel that they can accomplish any goal or task they decide upon, you will have succeeded as a parent and you will have given your children the greatest of all blessings. ”

“Leadership has less to do with position than it does disposition.”

“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.”

“The mature believer is God-conscious, and ever-conscious of what God’s Word says about him and to him.”

“Whatever may be troubling you, shake it off! God has great things planned for you. The dreams of the future leave no room for the snakebites of the past.”