Besides re-arming myself with joy, I need to know the holes in my defenses, the places where I'm vulnerable and where the enemy has successfully attacked me before.

Smooth seas don't produce skillful sailors.' It's the rought waters that train us to e His disciples. He uses the turbulent times I our lives to prepare us for His purposes-if we'll let Him.

Depression, I've learned, is sometimes caused by anger that we keep locked up inside.

Scriptures were just words on a page and my prayers failed to lift.

Until Gettysburg, she continued, I was working for the wrong reasons. At first it was to prove myself worthy in someone's eyes. Later it was out of guilt, trying to find atonement in God's eyes. But atonement is free, never earned. And I've learned that the only person I need to please with my life is God.

Joy explodes throughout the book of Psalms like fireworks, and is the most potent anti-missile defense system there is.

Our trials are supposed to turn us toward God, but we whine and complain and wish someone would turn down the fire so we could have our old life back the way it was.

No terrain is too bleak, no distance too far that it will stop God from rescuing His own.

[God] wants us to work with Him, honey. Not for Him.

Smooth seas don't produce skillful sailors.

You pray. And you allow the Lord to be your strength. Remember the Lord doesn't give you strength. He is your strength.

Don't be fooled by strength you can see, he said at last. Yahweh often hides His power in the simple things, the weak things, and so His strength seems foolish in man's eyes.

Happiness is something that comes from our own hearts, not from other people.