“You are the captain of your own ship.”

Carson chooses to begin the book with his mother’s words addressed to the reader. This puts the reader in a parallel situation to Carson because the adult reader and eight-year-old Carson both begin the book with the inspirational and motivational voice of Sonya Carson.

“Because Mother never talked to anyone about the details of her divorce, people assumed the worst and circulated wild stories about her. ‘I just decided that I had to go about my own business,’ Mother once told me, ‘and ignore what people said.’”

Carson’s mother inspires and motivates him both with her words and with her actions. The idea of ignoring others’ opinions is expressed by Carson below in no. 23.

“Through my imagination and emotions I lived that story with the couple, and I thought, That’s exactly what I should do — get sheltered in the cleft of the rock. Although I was only eight, my decision seemed perfectly natural. Other kids my age were getting baptized and joining the church, so when the message and music touched me emotionally, I responded.”

A pastor’s sermon about a missionary doctor, which he hears at age eight, inspires Carson both to get baptized and to set his sights on becoming a doctor. His faith and his choice of profession are constants in his life from that time on.