Everything starts with one person... I don't care if you're 5 or 105, God from all eternity chose you to be where you are, at this time in history, to change the world.
Interpretation
Everyone has the potential to make a significant impact on the world, regardless of their age or background.
This quote emphasizes the importance of individual agency and the unique role each person plays in the grand tapestry of history. It suggests that regardless of one's age or circumstances, everyone is divinely placed in their position to inspire change and contribute to the world, highlighting the value of individual purpose and responsibility.
In practice
During a motivational speech to inspire youth to embrace their potential.
I am not like a pebble on the beach - a grain of sand on the seashore or just one of millions of human beings past, present and future. No, I am a unique human being loved by God as if I were an only child - the only fruit of his creative powers.
I must not permit the evil capabilities of human nature to sour my faith in the tremendous good that is possible despite the frailty of that nature.
The sinner who suddenly realizes God's love for him and then looks at his rejection of that love feels a loss similar to the death of a loved one. A deep void is created in the soul and a loneliness akin to the agony of death.
Our memories are our own, and we cannot blame anything or anyone in the past for any pain dwelling there. If we open the door to them or keep hashing over past incidents in our minds, we have only ourselves to blame.
Man can and does rationalize his sins. He finds reasons for all his weakness, invents excuses that first calm and then deaden his conscience. He blames God, society, education, and environment for his wrong doing.
Love has been defined, analyzed, explained and excused. It has been the cause of wars, feuds, heroism, martyrdom, inordinate passion, and beautiful friendships. It pulls two people of opposite temperaments together into a married state and permits them to live happily. It makes friends understand each other without the necessity of words.
This is the city of dreamers and time and again it's the place where the greatest dream of all, the American dream, has been tested and has triumphed.
I remember being in Japan when Destiny's Child put out 'Independent Women,' and women there were saying how proud they were to have their own jobs, their own independent thinking, their own goals. It made me feel so good, and I realized that one of my responsibilities was to inspire women in a deeper way.
Let us be shy no longer. Let us go to our strength. Let us offer hope. Let us tell the world that a new age is not only possible but probable.
Never lose heart in the power of the gospel.
Dear young people, let us not be satisfied with a mediocre life. Be amazed by what is true and beautiful, what is of God!
And now let me address all of you, high and low, rich and poor, one with another, to accept of mercy and grace while it is offered to you; Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation; and will you not accept it, now it is offered unto you?
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