Richelle E. Goodrich, Author

"It takes fewer choices than you think to end up where you thought you would never be."

"Life is a masterful teacher. It will eventually get the point across that choices have consequences, habits form every person's character, and only love can heal the human heart."

"When your parents work so hard to convince you of the gravity of making wise choices, it is not because they want to take away your agency, it is because they want so badly to save you from the distressing consequences of carelessly mishandling that agency."

"How can we truly become knowledgeable beings with no array of experiences? Short of living through an ordeal, we cannot entirely understand or appreciate it. Agency is the chief force by which we gain such experiences, whether via our own chosen actions or those of others."

"Have you ever stopped to contemplate how precious a gift it is to choose for oneself? Imagine the stagnancy and hopelessness that would result from being denied a voice or a choice in any decision. It would be death to the soul. Humans are born agents to themselves with an innate desire to want and to prefer and to choose. We long to grow, to learn, to climb, to prove, and to develop via every personal choice we make. It is no wonder that wars have raged over the protection of individual rights for freedom of choice."

"You are allowed to make decisions contrary to popular opinion. You have the agency to think for yourself."

"It is neither your environment nor your circumstances that matter most, but your core character. A trial of faith will bolster one individual while troubling another. An open opportunity will paralyze one person yet motivate the eager and willing person. A brush with failure will erode one heart while humbling another. It is the core you that matters far more than your situation."

"If you want to witness a dynamic display of thunder and lightning, mess with another person’s agency."

"I know of no person who would voluntarily give up his or her agency for anything. We love owning the right to direct our lives, to make our choices, to say 'yes' to this on the one hand and 'no' to that on the other. We love what agency offers us in the rendering of choices and exerting our free will. But agency is not just a matter of choices, it is also the receipt of whatever consequences come as results of those personal choices. You cannot expect to cause a rainstorm and escape getting wet any more than you can expect to tell lies without forfeiting trust and integrity. When you make a choice, you accept whatever comes of it as well. The truth is that agency is more responsibility than it is freedom. So think ahead before you choose… and choose wisely."

"Regardless of your circumstances, you have an amount of personal agency to exercise. This means you have the right and ability to make choices. Attached to that right is accountability for the consequences of those choices, including whatever paths they lead you down."

For every choice you make, the question should never be “What will others think of me?” The real question is “What will I think of myself?”

"Choose wisely; choose the right. Make honorable choices because they will absolutely determine your destiny."

"If you are not setting an example of what to do, you are becoming an example of what not to do."

"You can hand out good things—kind, precious, helpful, wise things—to people all the day long, but they have the right to refuse those gifts. Every individual makes repeated choices to either be good, kind, studious, and happy or to be the reverse. It is the right of personal agency, and it is a God-given right."

"Hope is to fly with wings. It is a sword against the unpredictable, A bridge that traverses despairs. Hope is to leap with springs. It is a helmet to guard the vulnerable, A barge that floats o’er anxious cares. Hope is to spar with kings. It is a shield against the uncontrollable, A hedge that fences in nightmares."

"I HOPE it will happen when I am unsure that it will but I know that it can."