Wess Stafford Quotes & Sayings

Joy is a decision, a really brave one, about how you are going to respond to life. — Wess Stafford

One changed child eventually changes a family. A changed family will influence change in its church. Enough changed churches will transform a community. Changed communities change regions. Changed regions will in time change an entire nation. — Wess Stafford

Nurturing a child's sense of personal worth and therefore hope and dreams for a wonderful future is perhaps the most important responsibility of every grownup in a child's life. — Wess Stafford

The handholds for hope are there for all of us but are made plainest to those in poverty, for whom survival actually depends on hope in their God. — Wess Stafford

I have become convinced that if God stands a child before you, for even just a minute, it is a divine appointment. — Wess Stafford

A church begins to die when it says, 'They were just children. — Wess Stafford

Children are ingenuous. They are also blessed with uncanny ability to read a person's character instantly. Even though they are inexperienced and unsophisticated, they often know instinctively who can be trusted and who is the charlatan. — Wess Stafford

I spend half my time comforting the afflicated, and the other half afflicting the comfortable. — Wess Stafford

Every major movement in world history has recognized the strategic importance of mobilizing children. The Nazis had their Hitler Youth bands. The Chinese Communists had their Red Guards. The Taliban in Afghanistan had their madrash schools to instill extremism in the young. The great omission seems to be unique to Christians. — Wess Stafford

To be compassionate in this hurting world means it will cost you something. — Wess Stafford

Every child you encounter is a divine appointment. — Wess Stafford

If God places a child before you, and you are too busy to wield either a positive or negative influence ... you just did the later! You communicated that the child doesn't matter and isn't important. — Wess Stafford

What's your cause? Does it move you to tears? What is it that moves you passionately? — Wess Stafford

I have become convinced that the more wealth a country accumulates, the more isolated and lonely its people become. The loneliest are usually the children and the elderly. Children learn what they live, and isolation in the 'village' is one of the most destructive messages we daily write on the tablets of their hearts. — Wess Stafford

If we nurture the dreams of children, the world will be blessed. If we destroy them, the world is doomed! — Wess Stafford

So why is a third of our world battling obesity and spending huge sums to burn off excess calories, while the other two-thirds yearn to get more of them? — Wess Stafford

I'm convinced that one of the most powerful forces on earth is the prayer of a child. — Wess Stafford

We absolutely must battle with every bit of determination we can muster to root out the harm that would warp the souls and spirits of children in our world. — Wess Stafford

Just know this: What you will do among children is as close to the heart of God and central to his kingdom as anything we could mention. — Wess Stafford

The ritual sacrifice of children has been taboo for thousands of years. Yet tragically it is practiced every day across our world. We sacrifice children on the altars of our most destructive sins. When the sickness of pornography has run to its most evil and destructive end, it takes the form of child pornography. When prostitution reaches its sickest, most depraved form, it becomes child prostitution. — Wess Stafford

While God has done his part in creating a world capable of providing what we need, we have not done our part in the stewardship of it, in seeing that it gets to the end of the line, to the poorest and neediest
the children. — Wess Stafford

Children are more than we think they are; they can do more than we think they can do. All they need is a vote of confidence from grownups, whom they will ultimately replace anyway. Their dream today will become the realities of tomorrow. — Wess Stafford

There is nothing to be intimidated about - it's just another long run where a few more people show up and they happen to wear numbers. — Wess Stafford

But when adults speak up for the vulnerable and the weak, working and demanding that safety and respect prevail, God's little lambs are protected and nourished. They know they are not abandoned; they are loved. And the world becomes a little more like heaven as a result. — Wess Stafford

It all begins, I maintain, with that powerful and underutilized thing called love. God's love for the individual is displayed by those people who reflect his love in their words and deeds. It ultimately gets understood and accepted by the child in poverty, and through that individual's love for others, the world gets changed. — Wess Stafford