Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
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Vol. 11 – No. 3309 August 15, 2009
Thought for the week: "I'm constantly finding things to be grateful for...For me, it's just a constant, steady cadence. It's a metronome to my life." – Deborah Norville
"If the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning is eat a live frog, then nothing worse can happen for the rest of the day!"
Brian Tracy says that your "frog" should be the most difficult item on your things to do list, the one you're most likely to procrastinate; because, if you eat that first, it'll give you energy and momentum for the rest of the day. But, if you don't...and let him sit there on the plate and stare at you while you do a hundred unimportant things, it can drain your energy and you won't even know it.
A radio show host, whose program came on early in the morning, told of the shepherd who wrote: "Will you, on your broadcast, strike the note 'A'? I'm a sheepherder way out here on a ranch, far away from a piano. The only comfort I have is my old violin. It's all out of tune. Would you strike 'A' so that I might get in tune?" He honored the request. Later he received a "thank you" note from the distant shepherd saying, "Now I'm in tune."
Real life is unpredictable and full of interruptions. The church is not immune to real life. We organize our worship, print an "Order of Worship," and hope that everything goes as planned. But real life doesn't follow a bulletin. In a large and very formal church a particular woman visited one Sunday who just wasn't with the program. She kept shouting out "Amen," during the sermon. One of the ushers hushed her, but she kept shouting "Amen" until finally the usher approached her and, in a loud whisper asked, "Madam, what are you doing?" "I'm praising the Lord," she said. To which he responded, "Well, church is no place for that sort of thing."
Michael D. Powell, "Reach Out and Touch Somebody"
source: www.sermons.com
According to legend, a young man roaming the desert came across a spring of delicious crystal-clear water. The water was so sweet, he filled his leather canteen so he could bring some back to a tribal elder who had been his teacher.
After a four-day journey, he presented the water to the old man who took a deep drink, smiled warmly, and thanked his student lavishly for the sweet water. The young man returned to his village with a happy heart.
Later, the teacher let another student taste the water. He spat it out, saying it was awful. It apparently had become stale because of the long journey in the old leather container. The student challenged his teacher: "Master, the water was foul. Why did you pretend to like it?"
The teacher replied, "You only tasted the water. I tasted the gift. The water was simply the container for an act of loving kindness, and nothing could be sweeter. Heartfelt gifts deserve the return gift of gratitude."
We understand this lesson best when we receive innocent gifts of love from young children. Whether it's a ceramic tray or a macaroni bracelet, the natural and proper response is appreciation and expressed thankfulness because we love the idea within the gift.
Gratitude doesn't always come naturally. Unfortunately, most children and many adults value only the thing given rather than the feeling embodied in it. We should remind ourselves and teach our children about the beauty and purity of feelings and expressions of gratitude. After all, gifts from the heart are really gifts of the heart.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
Years ago a friend was talking to me about some people being "cursed with the affliction to give advice." At the time I had no idea what he was talking about. Sure sounded strange to me. Now I understand.
According to Webster's Dictionary, people "offering ... unwanted advice" are officious. They can also be obnoxious. Such advice can be and often is a thinly veiled criticism.
I'm not talking about going to a lawyer or an accountant or a car mechanic or whatever when we need and are asking for professional advice. What I'm talking about is when we share our struggles and feelings with a friend and they have a compulsion to tell us what we should or shouldn't be doing, or to "fix" us. They are in fact putting us down in that they are assuming that they know our needs better than we know them ourselves.
Even when some people want us to tell them what to do, it is a much greater help not to tell them what we think they should do, but to help THEM decide what are their options and solutions. This is what a good counselor does. He helps clients see what their options are and decide for themselves what they need to do.
What I want from a friend when I am feeling in the pits is someone to listen to me with their heart, give me their presence, and accept me as I am—and let me know they care—without giving any kind of advice or trying to fix me.
These friends can be rare. Even rarer is the friend who knows how to weep with those who weep.
In his book, Out of Solitude, Henri Nouwen wrote, "When we honestly ask ourselves which persons in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares."
May God help us all to be this kind of a friend.
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please give me an understanding, caring, and compassionate heart and help me to learn how to listen to my friends' pain, to accept them as they are, to communicate to them that I truly care—without having a compulsion to give unsolicited advice or try to fix them. To my friends in need please help me to be a friend indeed. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."
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