What is the difference between an obstacle and an opportunity? Our attitude toward it. Every opportunity has a difficulty, and every difficulty has an opportunity.

Recommended reading: Awake, My Heart: Daily Devotional Studies for the Year.

There is a legend about a bird which sings only once in it’s life, more beautifully than any other creature on the face of the earth. From the moment it leaves it’s nest, it searches for a thorn tree, and does not rest until it has found one. Then, it impales it’s breast on the longest, sharpest thorn. But as it is dying, it rises above it’s own agony to outsing the Lark and the Nightingale. The Thornbird pays it’s life for that one song, and the whole world stills to listen, and God in his heaven smiles, as it’s best is brought only at the cost of great pain; Driven to the thorn with no knowledge of the dying to come. But when we press the thorn to our breast, we know, we understand… and still, we do it.

Recommended reading: The Thorn Birds.

The thought manifests the word. The word manifests the deed. The deed develops into a habit. And habit hardens into character. So watch the thought and its ways with care.

Recommended reading: The Bhagavad Gita.

Always be yourself and have faith in yourself. Do not go out and look for a successful personality and try to duplicate it.

Recommended reading: Bruce Lee: Artist of Life.

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words but to live by them.

Recommend reading: An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy.

Think of what you have rather than of what you lack. Of the things you have, select the best and then reflect how eagerly you would have sought them if you did not have them.

Recommended reading: Meditations.

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.

Recommended reading: Journey to the Heart: Daily Meditations on the Path to Freeing Your Soul.

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.

Recommended reading: The Art of Happiness: A handbook for living.

Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. It is far better to take things as they come along with patience and equanimity.

Recommended reading: The Undiscovered Self.

The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely, or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature, and God. As long as this exists, and it certainly always will, then there will be comfort for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances may be.

Recommended reading: Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl.