The only higher facts that can transform our lives are those that have been made our own through firsthand experience. Until a child learns to walk for himself, he cannot move from place to place on his own, regardless of how many people he has seen walk. In the same way, memorized ideas woven into a person’s thinking without any true understanding will be of no help during a crisis. Surface ideas that have not taken hold in a person’s heart cannot grow and mature so that they touch all of a person’s life with guidance and wisdom. Parroted ideas do not provide real strength any more than the word “sugar” painted on a lemon makes it sweet.

When you see a truth from yourself, however, through your own experience, it becomes a part of you. It proves itself to you again and again through more wide-ranging examples that you yourself discover, and it attracts other truths to it. With time your clarity of vision grows, and because it is based on Truth, it cannot be shaken. What starts as one right idea – a single drop of refreshing water – grows to a generously flowing fountain that nourishes and sustains you for life.