Happy belated birthday wishes to Alice Morton, Jan. 17, Randolph.

Birthday wishes to Markell Pugh, Feb. 3, Augusta, Ga.; Eboni Shalia Freeman, Feb. 4, Farmville; Kristine Edmonds, Feb. 7, Drakes Branch; Lisa Nichols, Feb. 7, Charlotte Court House; Kenneth “Kenny” Freeman, Feb. 7, Whiting, N.J., Milan N. Shepperson, Feb. 8, Chesterfield; Micheal Fields, Feb. 9, Richmond; Barbara Gee, Feb. 9, Charlotte Court House. I wish each of you many more happy birthdays.

Get well wishes to all of the sick and shut-in. I hope you are up and well soon. You are in our prayers for a speedy recovery.

Thought for the Week: Have faith in yourself. Only you can make your life a happy one. It is a brand new year with a brand new you.

Patience and faith

If patience is worth anything, it must endure to the end of time. A living faith will last in the midst of the blackest storm. I think the greatest taboos in America are faith.

He who has faith has an inward reservoir of courage, hope, confidence, calmness and assuring trust that all will come out well — even though to the world it may appear to come out mostly bad. Have faith in God. God has faith in you.

Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase. Faith is reason grown courageous. Faith is not belief without proof, but trust without reservation. Faith, indeed, tells what the senses do not tell, but not the contrary of what they see. It is above them and not contrary to them.

Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith.

Doubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is his twin brother.

Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.

Vision looks upward and becomes faith. To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary to one without faith. No explanation is possible.

Faith means not worrying. Only faith is sufficient.

It doesn’t take much faith to believe that things always work out in the end for our good.

Community news is due by Saturday at 9 p.m. Contact Virginia Freeman at (434) 568-0596 to submit news.

Virginia Freeman is a community columnist for The Charlotte Gazette. She can be reached at vstars@pure.net.