The brightest diamond;

I can’t recall any case of pain which didn’t enrich my entire life.

If you’re discouraged because of God’s delay in answering your prayers, understand the delay is not a denial. Just because the answer or the miracle hasn’t come—yet—that doesn’t mean God isn’t going to answer, or that he’s forgotten you, or that he doesn’t care about you. It simply means “not yet!”

Some of my friends call me foolish. They tell me I never learn my lesson. They say I need to be less trusting, less positive, less open, less accepting, less naive.

“People are bad.”
“People will hurt you.”
“You need to be more careful who you trust.”

Well, if learning a lesson and being “wise” means looking at people and not thinking the best of them…well then I want to be foolish the rest of my life. I want to love everyone I meet like I’ve never been hurt or burned in my life. I want to love innocently and wholly. Every. Single. Time. I want to love people the way my Christ does.

Christ knew three of his closest friends and apostles would betray him, deny him and doubt him, but He still chose to invite them to his very last dinner, love them and forgive them. I really want that to be a model for how I treat and love the people around me. Unconditional love, no matter what.

We are the body of Christ. But do we know what that means? Do we long for our brothers and sisters to be comfortable and fed and well? Do we long for it enough that we are uncomfortable under our blankets at night or eating our pancakes in the morning? Do we feel the hurt that God feels as He watches the body of Christ sit back and allow these precious children of his to perish? Maybe sometimes. But sometimes, we are too busy, or we forget, or hurting for our own children is enough. We are the body of Christ. We need to hurt. We need to react. Their needs to be the same urgency and panic and frustration and desperation as if these were our own children. They are God’s children.