Valuing Yourself and Your Needs (As a Parent): This is about taking care of your OWN needs as a parent because when you consistently put yourself last to be taken care of and habitually continue to sacrifice your basic necessities to make everyone else happy…Essentially, what you’re teaching your children is that they’re here to be of service to others, then themselves. In other words, you’re teaching them to take advantage of you and use you as they please, which in turn communicates to them that they’re most likely to be used. To prevent this from happening, you need to set consistent limits that protect you from demands that could be overbearing and unfair. That way, you’re communicating that your basic needs are just as important as theirs. It’s true…often times parents that are constantly sacrificing themselves are idealized and praised by other parents. You know… the ones that have no hobbies, no friends and no avenue of enjoyment. Is this really desirable? Parents constantly stressed about the needs of others in the family are usually irritable, and unmotivated to try anything new, fun or exciting. How can parents do this long term with no outlet? Instead, us parents need to enjoy ourselves and focus on being re-energized. When you take good care of yourself, you provide the means to take better care of your children. Going out to dinner or cocktails, trips to the gym 3 or 4 times a week, date night with your spouse or even some alone time reading or going for a walk allows you to be a more productive, interested and patient parent.”

“The cancer wasn’t a stumbling block.”

“We've been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope. But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.”

“Men have differed in opinion, and been divided into parties by these opinions, from the first origin of societies; and in all governments where they have been permitted freely to think and to speak. the same political parties which now agitate the U.S. have existed through all time. Whether the power of the people, or that of the (best men; nobles) should prevail, were questions which kept the states of Greece and rome in eternal convulsions...” 

“The enjoyment comes from knowing the receiver understands the spirit of the gift.”

“Be like water making its way through crack. Do not be assertive but adjust to the object and you shall find a way round it or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid outward thigs will disclose themselves. Moving be like water. Still be like a mirror. Respond like an echo.”

“Make it your goal to build strong foundations for your life—foundations constructed from prayer and the truths of God’s Word.”

“Human happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected.”

“I do not think that all who choose wrong roads perish; but their rescue consists in being put back on the right road.”

“There lay between them, separating them, that same terrible line of the unknown and of fear, like the line separating the living from the dead.”

“Similarly, if the American people and their representatives do not know and understand what is in our Constitution, others will take advantage of them. Only when we understand the law of our land can we effectively hold our representatives accountable. Knowledge is power, and we must refuse to be bullied.”

“For the Christian, death can be faced realistically and with victory, because he knows “that neither death nor life . . . shall be able to separate us from the love of God” [Romans 8:38–39 NKJV].”

“I have consistently preached that nonviolence demands that the means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek.”

“A nation reveals itself not only by the men it produces but also by the men it honors, the men it remembers.”

“The bolt of Tash falls from above!' 'Does it ever get caught on a hook halfway?”