I asked God...

I asked God to take away my pride.
God said "No", It is not for me to take away, but for you to give it up.

I asked God to make my handicapped child whole.
God said "No," Her spirit was whole, her body was only temporary.

I asked God to grant me patience.
God said "No", Patience is a byproduct of tribulations; it isn't granted, it is earned.

I asked God to give me happiness.
God said "No," I give you blessings, happiness is up to you.

I asked God to spare me pain.
God said "No", Suffering draws you apart from worldly cares and brings you closer to me.

I asked God to make my spirit grow.
God said "No", You must grow on your own, but I will prune you to make you fruitful.

I asked for all things that I might enjoy life.
God said "No", I will give you life so that you may enjoy all things.

I ask God to help me LOVE others, as much as he loves me.
God said... Ahhhh, finally you have the idea!

Quotes about a life with purpose

1. The cost of a thing is the amount of what I call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.  - Henry David Thoreau

2. Look and you will find it-what is unsought will go undetected. - Sophocles

3. Purpose serves as a principle around which to organize our lives. - Anonymous

4. I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve. - Albert Schweitzer

5. The question is not whether we will die, but how we will live. - Joan Borysenko

6. Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds. - George Elliot

7. We were not sent into this world to do anything into which we can not put our heart. - John Ruskin

8. Life is a promise; fulfill it. - Mother Theresa

9. Great minds have purposes, little minds have wishes -  Washington Irving

10. The reward of a thing well done is to have done it. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

11. The purpose of life is to live a life of purpose - Richard Leider

12. If you can not find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it? Dogen Belief consists in accepting the affirmations of the soul; unbelief, denying them. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

13. "I have done my best." That is about all the philosophy of living one needs. - Lin Yutang

14. Develop an interest in life as you see it; the people, things, literature, music-the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people. Forget yourself. - Henry Miller

15. You are what your deep driving desire is; As your deep driving desire is, so is your will; As your will is so is your deed; As your deed is so is your destiny. - The Upanishads

16. That is happiness: to be dissolved into something complete and great. - Willa Cather

17. How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a weary world. - William Shakespeare

18. Everyone can be great, because everyone can serve. - King, Martin Luther King

19. Each small task of everyday is part of the total harmony of the universe. - St. Theresa of Lisieux

20. Seeing yourself as you want to be is the key to personal growth. - Anonymous

21. If I have seen farther than others, it is because I was standing on the shoulders of giants. - Isaac Newton

22. I would rather fail in a cause that will ultimately triumph than to triumph in a cause that will ultimately fail. - Woodrow Wilson

23. Intense feeling too often obscures the truth. - Harry Truman

24. We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future. - George Bernard Shaw

25. There are no eternal facts, as there are no absolute truths. - Friederich Nietzsche

26. Time will explain it all. He is a talker, and needs no questioning before he speaks. - Euripides

27. The purpose of education is to replace an empty mind with an open one - Malcom Forbes

28. Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of. - Benjamin Franklin

29. Life's Tragedy is that we get old to soon and wise too late. - Benjamin Franklin

30. The education of the will is the object of our existence. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

31. The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousandfold. - Aristotle

32. Nature does nothing uselessly. - Aristotle

33. By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest. - Confucius

34. When you know a thing, to hold that you know it; and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it - this is knowledge. - >Confucius

35. Virtue is not left to stand alone. He who practices it will have neighbors. - Confucius

36. It is impossible for a man to be cheated by anyone but himself. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

37. Nothing endures but change. - Heraclitus

38. There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision. - William James

39. Luxury is more deadly than any foe. - Juvenal

40. My father didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it. - Clarence Buddinton Kelland

41. It takes less time to do a thing right, than it does to explain why you did it wrong. - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

42. What we obtain too cheap we esteem too little; it is dearness only that gives everything its value. - Thomas Paine

43. It is not good to be too free. It is not good to have everything one wants. - Blaise Pascal

44. Life is but a moment, death also is but another. - Dr Robert Schuller

45. Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didnt get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful. - Buddha

46. It is better to deserve an honor and not receive it, than to receive one, and not deserve it! - Mark Twain

47. Never does a man portray his character more vividly than his proclaiming the character of another. - Winston Churchill

48. When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced; live your life so that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice. - Cherokee Saying

49. To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else. - Emily Dickinson