Pyotr Petrovitch ground his teeth and at the same time once more he had a gleam of desperate hop. “Can all that be really so irrevocably over? Is it no use to make another effort?” The thought of Dounia sent a voluptuous pang through his heart. He endured anguish at that moment, and if it had been possible to slay Raskolnikov instantly by wishing it, Pyotr Petrovitch would promptly have uttered the wish.

“[Your article] was conceived on sleepless nights, with a throbbing heart, in ectasy and suppressed enthusiasm. And that proud soppressed enthusiasm in young people is dangerous! I jeered at you then, but let me tell you that, as a literary amateur, I am awfully fond of such essays, full of the heat of youth. There is a mistiness and a chord vibrating in the mist. Your article is absurd and fantastic, but there’s a transparent sincerity, a youthful incorruptible pride and the daring of despair in it. It’s a gloomy article, but that’s what’s fine in it. I read your article and put it aside, thinking as I did so that ‘that man won’t go the common way.’”

“You can never be sure of what has passed between husband and wife[...] There’s always a little corner which remains a secret to the world and is only known to those two.”

The ending:
“He thought of her. He remembered how continually he had tormented her and wounded her heart. He remembered her pale and thin little face. But these recollections scarcely troubled him now; he knew with what infinite love he would now repay all her sufferings. And what were all, all the agonies of the past! Everything, even his crime, his sentence and imprisonment, seemed to him now in the first rush of feeling an external strange fact with which he had no concern. But he could not think for long together of anything that evening, and he could not have analysed anything consciously; he was simply feeling. Life had stepped into the place of theory and something quite different would work itself out in his mind.

Under his pillow lay the New Testament. He took it up mechanically. The book belonged to Sonia; it was the one from which she had read the raising of Lazarus to him. At first he was afraid that she would worry him about religion, would talk about the gospel and pester him with books. But to his great surprise she had not once approached the subject and had not even offered him the Testament. He had asked her for it himself not long before his illness and she brought him the book without a word. Till now he had not opened it.

He did not open it now, but one thought passed through his mind: ‘Can her convictions not be mine now? Her feelings, her aspirations at least…’

She too had been greatly agitated that day, and at night she was taken ill again. But she was so happy–and so unexpectedly happy–that she was almost frightened by her happiness. Seven years, only seven years [until he was released from prison]! At the beginning of their happiness at some moments they were both ready to look on those seven years as though they were seven days. He did not know that the new life would not be given him for nothing, that he would have to pay dearly for it, that it would cost him great striving, great suffering.”

Shortly after my mom died, my dad and I went fishing, but I was in a different world. My dad hugged me and simply said, “Son, you have broken wings.” I started crying, and he said, “I’ll share something with you, and if you follow it, someday you’ll have the wings of an eagle. Close your eyes and look inside your heart. What do you find? Well, I was too young to understand, but he said, “I”ll tell you want you find: anger, because you just lost your mom; hate, because people have expressed hatred toward us; jealousy, because we don’t have anything of value; self pity. All of those emotions will destroy you.” He said, “Look down deeper, where the dreams lie. Find your dream, son. Pursue your dream. It’s the pursuit of a dream that heals you.” I remember him saying at some point, “I hope you try sports,” so I took sports as my passion when my dad died. I tried all different sports. Running–even though I wasn’t fast in the beginning–brought me tranquility. It was almost spiritual.

It’s important to pursue a dream that heals you. With dreams come desire. With desire comes self motivation. With self motivation comes work. With work comes success. Where do you find your positive desires? Sports? Drama? Music? Art? Dance? Writing? Work with the elderly? Anything that’s constructive, jovial. When do you know you’ve found that positive desire? Something happens in your heart. You feel it. You’re able to accept defeat, not failure, but because it’s a passion.

-Billy Mills, Olympic gold medal winner (1964 in track)

1The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. 2Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. 3They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. 4For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.

6If you point these things out to the brothers, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, brought up in the truths of the faith and of the good teaching that you have followed. 7Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. 8For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.

9This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance 10(and for this we labor and strive), that we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, and especially of those who believe.

11Command and teach these things. 12Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity. 13Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. 14Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through a prophetic message when the body of elders laid their hands on you.

15Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. 16Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.

[via biblegateway.com]

The one thing men want above all is to know that they are enough. That their masculinity, their power, their value, their strength is enough for their wife.

The one thing women want above all is to know that they are not too much. That they can be as big and as beautiful and as powerful as God made them without overshadowing a man who is too fragile or insecure.