Quotes About Growth

I know you're learning how to follow in your father's footsteps, and that's good, but when was the last time you went outside the castle walls? With someone other than this staff? A good queen knows herself inside and out, and you are too inside your head. The only way you can understand the people you serve is to get to know them. Enjoy their company. Hear their stories. In the process you might figure out what you enjoy, as well, when you're not focused on your studies and your future.

You can't forget the past.

I know I tackled something big, new, and scary and I survived.

You can't look back. Nothing you can do to change it. Only forward.

Change happens whether you want it to or not. And sometimes, like now, it's for the best.

Riches come and go, but no one can take away your education.

You never know what you'll find out about yourself when you stretch outside your comfort zone.

Change is a good thing. It's good to have a fresh start, even if it's painful sometimes

Books. Change. Lives.

Jax and Jack together? The two boys, who normally can't stand each other, are walking arm in arm down the hallway.

It was time to let go.

Your childhood may have been lonely, but your future won't be.

A good director, I was learning, could take criticism.

Be patient. Do the best with what you know. When you know more, adjust the trajectory.

Sometimes kids get a mean teacher or a class they don't like or an inflexible deadline even though that child was "exhausted the night before." We should not cushion every blow. This is life. Learning to deal with struggle and to develop responsibility is crucial. A good parent prepares the child for the path, not the path for the child. We can still demonstrate gentle and attached parenting without raising children who melt on a warm day.

God does not change, but He uses change—to change us. He sends us on journeys that bring us to the end of ourselves. We often feel out of control, yet if we embrace His leading, we may find ourselves on the ride of our lives.

G. K. Chesterton wrote: "A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it."2 Change means you're alive, my friend.

We are never defeated, not even when all the evidence appears to the contrary. If you are still breathing, there is always tomorrow, and it can always be new. You don't have to be who you were.

We should not cushion every blow. This is life. Learning to deal with struggle and to develop responsibility is crucial. A good parent prepares the child for the path, not the path for the child. We can still demonstrate gentle and attached parenting without raising children who melt on a warm day.

If we've been in church for years yet aren't full, are we really hungry for more knowledge? In our busy lives, do we really need another program or event? Do we really need to be fed more of the Word, or are we simply undernourished from an absence of living the Word? Maybe we love God, but are we loving others? If our faith is about us, then we are not just hungry—our spirits are starving.

If our kids only expect blessings and exemptions, they will be terrible grown-ups.

You can care about new things and new people and new beginnings, and until you are dead in the ground, you are not stuck. If you move with the blessing of your people, marvelous. But even if you don't, this is your one life, and fear, approval, and self-preservation are terrible reasons to stay silent, stay put, stay sidelined.

There will never be enough knowledge to fill the cracks of Christian maturity without the fruit of selfless service manifested in our lives.

Growing up means curbing appetites, shifting from "me" to "we," understanding private choices have social consequences and public outcomes.