Posted: under Inspirationals.
“It’s LOVE that make the world go ’round . . . !”
* * *
“We’ve all lead raucous lives, some of them inside, some of them out. But only
the poem you leave behind is what’s important…The voyage into the interior is
all that matters” — Charles Wright
* * *
A KIND WORD
A successful businessman, addressing the commercial club of his city, told a story in his after-dinner speech. It was the story of a boy named Jim, who was an orphan and the laughing stock of the whole town. He was twelve years old, slim and undersized. He never remembered having a kind word spoken to him in his whole life. He was accustomed to harsh words, suspicion, and rebuffs, and as a result became a shrinking, pitiful little figure, dodging people. And the more he dodged people, the more suspicious they became.
The only earthly possession of which Jim could boast was a dog that cringed and shrank almost as much as his master and was as much hated. Jim was not cruel to his dog except in words - and that is really the worst form of cruelty, even to a dog. A harsh, unkind word can cause more misery, heartache, and anguish than actual physical cruelty. A cruel, unkind tongue cuts like a sword.
One day as Jim walked down the street, he saw a bundle slip from the overloaded arms of a little lady just in front of him. As she stooped to pick it up, the others rolled down. Jim sprang to her assistance, gathering up the bundles and replacing them in her arms. Thank you, dear; you are a nice little boy, she said kindly, and went on her way after giving him a bright smile.
Jim was amazed; a strange choky feeling passed over him. These were the first kind words he had ever heard in his whole twelve years of existence. He stood and stared after her. He knew that she was the busy little dressmaker who lived in a small cottage on the outskirts of town. He watched her until she was out of sight, then he whistled to Tige and made straight for the woods and a stream that wound around the town.
He sat down on the bank of the stream and did some thinking. Thank you, dear; you are a nice little boy, he pondered. Come here, Tige, he commanded, and Tige slunk to his feet. Then Jim lowered his voice in imitation of the little faded lady and said, You are a nice little dog. The effect on Tige was electrical. He pricked up his ears, and if a dog could stand at attention, Tige did. Uhum! Even a dog likes it, said Jim. Well, Tige, I don’t blame you; it is nice. I won’t holler at you anymore. Tige wagged his tail joyously.
The boy continued to think, and the dog sat and watched him. Finally the boy pulled from the odds and ends in his pockets a piece of broken mirror and looked at himself. He saw nothing but grime and dirt, the accumulation of many days. He went down to the water’s edge and scrubbed it off carefully, almost painfully. Then he looked again. He scarcely recognized himself. He was surprised. He stood erect and looked up instead of down for the first time since he could remember. He distinctly liked the sensation.
A feeling of self-respect awoke within his being. Ambition sprang full- grown into life. At that moment the course of his life was changed; a determination to be worthy of the kind words spoken to him by the little dress maker, and to pass them on, took possession of his soul.
After telling this story of Jim, the orphan boy, the speaker paused; and then he electrified the audience by saying, Gentlemen, I was that boy. This city–your city, my city–was that little town of forty years ago. Our plant stands upon the spot where that gentle woman stood when she implanted in my life the first seed of kindness. She sleeps out yonder in what was then the cemetery of a country church. As a tribute to her memory I have told you this story. Oh, that all of us would learn the lesson: Be ye kind. What transforming power it has!
By Adlai Albert Esteb
<>*<>*<>*<>*<>
“Life is nothing without the
sweetness of Love!”
Jul 16 2008
Posted: under "LOVE is LOVELY".
Tags: action, activity, aim, anxiety, arms, attention, belief, Bible, change, Christ, Christian, Christianity, church, communication, companion, couple, delight, depression, designer, desire, doctrine, earth, embrace, era, faith, family, fashion, focus, friends, friendship, gift, goal, God, gratitude, hand, heart, history, humanity, husband, inspiration, intimacy, lake, language, love, man, marriage, Mathematics, meaning, message, mind, minister, mission, moment, music, ocean, others, partner, pastor, pond, praise, prayer, preacher, present, priest, psalm, rain, relationship, rivers, scripture, sermon, spouse, stream, stress, style, Sunday, surprise, team, thankfulness, time, touch, treasure, trust, understanding, universe, water, wedding, wife, woman, words, world, worship
How God Loves You
Jan Coates with Rebekah Montgomery
..
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37).
Love God? What does that mean?
God is love? What does that mean?
..
Love? What does that mean?
For many of us, before we accepted Christ, love of any kind brought hurt and rejection. We created a shield to protect our hearts from pain, establishing rules to keep love and hurt at a distance.
But God designed us to thirst from the depths of our hearts for His love—a love that can’t be lost or diminished by our performance or non-performance. The Psalmist’s describes this: “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for the living God” (Psalm 42:1-2).
..
How Can I Love God?
Loving God through prayer is His gift that excludes no one. God delights in the gift of prayer, beckoning you to come near to Him, the One who created you to love.
God desires intimacy with you. He wants to speak to you and hear from you. Prayer is two-way communication between God and you.
You can pray using the Word of God. Praying Scripture allows you to get through painful moments and into the presence of God.
Open your Bible and pray by reading: “Keep me safe, O God, for in you I take refuge” (Psalm 16:1). Or, “I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken” (Psalm 16:8).
Praise and worship is another part of prayer. It allows you to enunciate your love of the Lord. True praise and worship acknowledges God, declaring Him your all in all.
The Bible encourages us to praise and worship God in all that we do, reminding us that our praise and worship today is a dress rehearsal for eternity in the Kingdom of God.
Treasure God’s gift of prayer with praise and worship as a way to love Him.
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God’s Love Reaching You
“For the word of God is living and active” (Hebrews 4:12A).
God’s love can touch your heart and change your life as He speaks to you through the words in your Bible. Don’t be surprised when God stirs you to read your Bible. What’s happening? God is saying, “Come, child. Be embraced by my love.”
As you focus on God’s Word, you may receive new understanding of Scripture. Sometimes a verse will seem to leap from the page and your mind will hear God saying, “Pay attention! I’m talking to you… and loving you.
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God’s Embrace with Human Arms
“When two or three of you are together because of me, you can be sure that I’ll be there.” (Matthew 18:20-The Message)
Read More
Jul 16 2008
Posted: under "A Slice Of Life", Inspirationals.
A young boy was sitting in the back seat of the car eating an apple.
He poked his father in the front seat and asked, “Daddy, why does my
apple turn brown?” His father answered, “When the skin is removed
from the apple, air reaches the flesh of the apple and causes
oxidation. This changes the apple’s molecular structure and results
in a brownish color.
After a long pause, a small voice from the back seat asked, “Daddy,
are you talking to me?”
I know how that boy feels. Sometimes I want answers to some of those
confusing problems we all run up against. I want someone to explain
how to get through difficult times or tell me what to do in a tough
situation. I just want to get it right.
But I think I identify a bit more with the father whose daughter
asked him if he would help her with some homework.
“I’m sorry,” he replied. “It wouldn’t be right.”
“Well,” she said, “at least you could try.”
Problem is, I don’t always have the answers I need. And nobody else
seems too, either. So I blunder ahead worried that I’ll never get it
“right.”
But I’m beginning to learn something about not knowing what to do and
making a poor choice. That is — I don’t HAVE TO always get it right.
I don’t have to always know what to do all the time. All I really
need to do is try my best, learn from the mistakes and go on.
The affable Dr. Leo Buscaglia once said, “No one gets out of this
world alive, so the time to live, learn, care, share, celebrate, and
love is now.” Which is pretty hard to do when you’re waiting for the
answers first.
So you got it wrong. You made a mistake. So what? Forgive yourself
and try again. Even if you don’t get out of this world alive, you can
get plenty of life out of this world if you’re not too worried about
always getting it right.
– Steve Goodier
“Life is beautiful, live it well !”
Jul 16 2008
Posted: under Nasty and Rude Jokes.
The teacher gave her fifth grade class an assignment:
“Get their parents to tell them a story with a moral at the end of it.”
The next day the kids came back and one by one began to tell their stories. Tony, do you have a story to share?”
“Yes ma’am. My daddy told a story about my Aunt Karen. She was a pilot in Desert Storm and her plane got hit. She had to bail out over enemy territory and all she had was a flask of whiskey, a pistol and a survival knife.
She drank the whiskey on the way down so it wouldn’t break and then her parachute landed right in the middle of twenty enemy troops. She shot fifteen of them with the gun until she ran out of bullets, killed four more with the knife, till the blade broke, and then she killed the last Iraqi with her bare hands.”
“Good Heavens” said the horrified teacher. “What kind of moral did your daddy tell you from this horrible story?”
“Stay the !@!# away from Aunt Karen when she’s
drinking.”
Jul 16 2008
Posted: under Nasty and Rude Jokes.
A family is at the dinner table. The son asks his father, ” Dad , how many
kinds of boobies are there?
The father, surprised, answers, “Well, son, there’s three kinds of breasts.
In her twenties, a women’s breasts are like melons, round and firm. In her
thirties to forties,
they are like pears, still nice but hanging a bit. After fifty, they are
like onions.”
“Onions?” “Yes, you see them and they make you cry.”
This infuriated his wife and daughter so the daughter said, “Mom, how many
kinds of ‘willies’ are there?”
The mother, surprised, smiles and answers, “Well dear, a man goes through
three phases. In his twenties, his willy is like an oak tree, mighty and hard.
In his thirties and forties, it is a birch, flexible but reliable. After his
fifties, it is like a Christmas tree.” “A Christmas tree?” “Yes, dead from
the root up, and the balls are for decoration only.”
Jul 16 2008
Posted: under Nasty and Rude Jokes.
A husband and wife decided they needed to use “code” to
indicate
that they wanted to have intercourse without letting their
children
in on it. They decided on the word Typewriter.
One day the husband told his five year old daughter, “Go tell
your
mommy that daddy needs to type a letter”.
The child told her mother what her dad said, and her mom
responded,
“Tell your daddy that he can’t type a letter right now cause
there
is a red ribbon in the
typewriter.”
The child went back to tell her father what mommy said.
A few days later the mom told the daughter, “Tell daddy that he
can
type that letter now
The child told her father, returned to her mother and
announced,
“Daddy said never mind with the typewriter, he already wrote
the
letter by hand.”
Jul 16 2008