No
discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces
a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Heb 12:11
Man is more himself,
man is more manlike, when joy is the fundamental thing in him, and grief the superficial.
Melancholy should be an innocent interlude, a tender and fugitive frame of
mind; praise should be the permanent pulsation of the soul. Pessimism is at
best an emotional half-holiday; joy is the uproarious labor by which all things
live. G.K. Chesterton~Orthodoxy
The
more we get what we call ourselves out of the way and let Him take us over, the
more truly ourselves we become...the more I resist Him and try to live on my
own, the more I become dominated by my own heredity and up bring and
surroundings and natural desires. In fact what I so proudly call 'Myself'
becomes merely the meeting place for trains of events which I never started and
which I cannot stop.-C.S. Lewis
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only
one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone
who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will
last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others,
I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.
1 Cor 9:24-27
