Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
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Vol. 14 – No. 1812 May 5, 2012
Thought for the week: "A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother." – Solomon
A little girl walked to and from school daily. Though the weather that morning was questionable and clouds were forming, she made her daily trek to school. As the afternoon progressed, the winds whipped up, along with lightning.
The mother of the little girl felt concerned that her daughter would be frightened as she walked home from school. She also feared the electrical storm might harm her child. Full of concern, the mother got into her car and drove along the route to her child's school. As she did, she saw her little girl walking along.
At each flash of lightning, the child would stop, look up, and smile. More lightning followed quickly and with each, the little girl would look at the streak of light and smile.
When the mother drew up beside the child, she lowered the window and called, "What are you doing?"
The child answered, "I am trying to look pretty because God keeps taking my picture."
Author unknown. From Care Capsule, published by the Crystal Cathedral.
Milton was flying on a plane from Atlanta to Dallas. He happened to have the middle of the three seats on one side of the aisle. To his right, sitting next to the window, was a young girl who obviously had Down's syndrome. She began to ask him some simple but almost offensive questions.
"Mister," she said, "did you brush your teeth this morning?"
Milton, very shocked at the question, squirmed around a bit and then said, "Well, yes, I brushed my teeth this morning."
The young girl said, "Good, 'cause that's what you're supposed to do." Then she asked, "Mister, do you smoke?"
Again, Milton was a little uncomfortable, but he told her with a little chuckle that he didn't.
She said, "Good, 'cause smoking will make you die." Then she said, "Mister, do you love Jesus?"
Milton was really caught by the simplicity and the forthrightness of the little girl's questions. He smiled and said, "Well, yes, I do love Jesus."
The little girl with Down's Syndrome smiled and said, "Good, 'cause we're all supposed to love Jesus."
About that time, just before the plane was ready to leave, another man came and sat down on the aisle seat next to Milton and began to read a magazine. The little girl Milton again and said, "Mister, ask him if he brushed his teeth this morning."
Milton was really uneasy with that one, and said that he didn't want to do it. But she kept nudging him and saying, "Ask him! Ask him!" So Milton turned to the man seated next to him and said, "Mister, I don't mean to bother you, but my friend here wants me to ask you if you brushed your teeth this morning."
The man looked startled, of course. But when he looked past Milton and saw the young girl sitting there, he could tell her good intentions, so he took her question in stride and said with a smile, "Well, yes, I brushed my teeth this morning."
As the plane taxied onto the runway and began to take off, the young girl nudged Milton once more and said, "Ask him if he smokes." And so, good-naturedly, Milton did, and the man said that he didn't smoke.
As the plane was lifting into the air, the little girl nudged Milton once again and said, "Ask him if he loves Jesus."
Milton said, "I can't do that. That's too personal. I don't feel comfortable saying that to him."
But the girl smiled and insisted, "Ask him! Ask him!"
Milton turned to the fellow one more time and said, "Now she wants to know if you love Jesus."
The man could have responded like he had to the two previous questions—with a smile on his face and little chuckle in his voice. And he almost did.
But then the smile on his face disappeared, and his expression became serious. Finally he said to Milton, "You know, in all honesty, I can't say that I do. It's not that I don't want to, it's just that I don't know Him. I don't know how to know Him. I've wanted to be a person of faith all my life, but I haven't known how to do it. And now I've come to a time in my life when I really need that very much."
As the plane soared through the skies between Atlanta and Dallas, Milton listened to the fellow talk about the brokenness in his life. Then he began a Bible study and explained how to become a person of faith.
And he did all of that because a little girl with Down's Syndrome had asked him to ask the fundamental question that all Christians should be finding a way to communicate, "Do you love Jesus?"
Stan Toler, "God Has Never Failed Me, But He's Sure Scared Me To Death A Few Times."
KneEmail: "And He said to them, 'Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.'" Mark 16.15
In a powerful call for evangelistic action, Billy Graham said: "The evangelistic harvest is always urgent. The destiny of men and of nations is always being decided. Every generation is strategic. We are not responsible for the past generation, and we cannot bear full responsibility for the next one; but we do have our generation. God will hold us responsible as to how well we fulfill our responsibilities to this age and take advantage of our opportunities."
A 92-year-old, petite, well-poised and proud man, who is fully dressed each morning by eight o'clock, with his hair fashionably combed and shaved perfectly, even though he is legally blind, moved to a nursing home.
His wife of 70 years recently passed away, making the move necessary. After many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home, he smiled sweetly when told his room was ready.
As he maneuvered his walker to the elevator, I gave him a visual description of his tiny room, including the eyelet sheets that had been hung on his window. "I love it," he stated with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old having just been presented with a new puppy.
"Mr. Jones, you haven't seen the room; just wait."
"That doesn't have anything to do with it," he replied. "Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn't depend on how the furniture is arranged ... it's how I arrange my mind. I already decided to love it.
"It's a decision I make every morning when I wake up. I have a choice; I can spend the day in bed recounting the difficulty I have with the parts of my body that no longer work, or get out of bed and be thankful for the ones that do.
"Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open, I'll focus on the new day and all the happy memories I've stored away for this time in my life. Old age is like a bank account. You withdraw from what you've put in. So, my advice to you would be to deposit a lot of happiness in the bank account of memories!
"Thank you for your part in filling my Memory Bank. I am still depositing."
Remember the five simple rules to be happy:
1. Free your heart from hatred.
2. Free your mind from worries.
3. Live simply.
4. Give more.
5. Expect less.
Michael was always upbeat. Some found his relentless good moods annoying, but attempts to mock or belittle his cheerfulness were just more fuel for his good nature.
Once he explained to a friend how he did it. "Every morning I look in the mirror and say good morning to myself. I see a note on the mirror that says 'Choose,' which reminds me I have a choice: I can I let my worries and disappointments dominate my thoughts and spread gloom wherever I go, or I can choose to be in a good mood no matter what and spread sunshine. I've learned that when I'm enthusiastic about life, I feel better. Usually so do others.
Years later, Michael fell off a high tower and almost died. When his old friend visited him, he was bandaged and bruised but as cheerful as ever.
He told his friend that when he regained consciousness and saw the doctors look at him as if he were dying, he resorted to his old habit of making a choice. "I could accept that my injuries were fatal, or I could choose to live. I chose to live." His friend remarked surely it wasn't that easy.
"Maybe not," Michael said. "But when they were preparing me for surgery, a doctor asked if I was allergic to anything. I said, 'Apparently I'm allergic to gravity.' He laughed.
"When I said, 'Look, I choose to live. Can you make that happen?' he nodded and said, 'I'll do my best.'
"Maybe my positive attitude helped, maybe it didn't. I choose to believe it did."
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
*This parable is derived from a similar story told in Chicken Soup for the Soul.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
"But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."1
The following illustration has been around the e-mail circuit for quite a while, but it is a good reminder. Also, there are different versions of this story, but they all make an excellent point.
A man found an eagle's egg and put it into the nest of a prairie chicken. The eaglet hatched with the brood of chicks and grew up with them.
All his life, the eagle, thinking he was a prairie chicken, did whatever the other prairie chickens did. He scratched in the dirt for seeds and insects to eat. He clucked and cackled. And he flew in a brief thrashing of wings and flurry of feathers no more than a few feet off the ground. After all, that's how prairie chickens were supposed to fly.
Years passed. The eagle grew very old. One day he saw a magnificent bird far above him in the cloudless sky. Hanging with graceful majesty on the powerful wind currents, it soared with scarcely a beat of its strong wooden wings.
"What a beautiful bird!" said the eagle to his neighbor. "What is it?"
"That's an eagle—the chief of the birds," the neighbor clucked. "But don't give it a second thought. You could never be like him."
And so the eagle, thinking he was just a prairie chicken and not able to soar into the heights, lived his life groveling and picking at the ground, never experiencing the exhilaration of flight and the majesty which was his by birthright.
Tragically, this is the picture of many Christians today. With the God-given ability to "soar on wings like eagles," as Isaiah wrote, they fail to take advantage of the abilities and blessings that God has prepared for all who truly hope and trust in him.
Let each of us determine that, with God's help, this will not be our fate, but rather that we will be like eagles and become and do all that God has planned and envisioned for us to become and do, and therein reach our God-given potential—and reap the rewards for all eternity.
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, thank you for your Word that assures me that if I put my hope and trust in you, I will be able to 'soar on wings like eagles' and fulfill my God-given potential. Help me, God, so to do. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus' name, amen."
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go with peace.
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