"A happy family is but an earlier heaven." - John Bowring

“Human life would seem to consist in that in which each man most delights, that for which he especially strives, and that which he particularly wishes to share with his friends.”

~ Thomas Aquinas

"If you don't risk anything, you risk even more." 

~ Erica Jong

"Going home means getting comfortable being who you are and who your soul really wants to be. There is no strain with that. The strain and tension come when we're not being who our soul wants to be and we're someplace where our soul doesn't feel at home."

~ Melody Beattie

Seen on a church marquis:

"If you don't have time to pray, you become easy prey."

"Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."

~ Howard Thurman

So, maybe God does have a wise purpose in letting us grow old and weak:

"I think God has planned the strength and beauty of youth to be physical. But the strength and beauty of age is spiritual. We gradually lose the strength and beauty that is temporary so we'll be sure to concentrate on the strength and beauty which is forever. And so we'll be eager to leave the temporary, deteriorating part of us and be truly homesick for our eternal home. If we stayed young and strong and beautiful, we might never want to leave."

~ J. Robertson McQuilkin

former president of Columbia Bible College in SC

(seen in Our Daily Bread, June 10, 2009)