A simple Gusture

Mark was walking home from school one day when he noticed the boy ahead of him had tripped and dropped all of the books he was carrying, along with two sweaters, a baseball bat, a glove and a small tape recorder.

        Mark knelt down and helped the boy pick up the scattered articles. Since they were going the same way, he helped to carry part of the burden. As they walked Mark discovered the boy’s name was Bill, that he loved video games, baseball and history, and that he was having lots of trouble with his other subjects and that he had just broken up with his girlfriend.

        They arrived at Bill’s home first and Mark was invited in for a Coke and to watch some television. The afternoon passed pleasantly with a few laughs and some shared small talk, then Mark went home. They continued to see each other around school, had lunch together once or twice, then both graduated from junior high school.

        They ended up in the same high school where they had brief contacts over the years. Finally the long awaited senior year came and three weeks before graduation, Bill asked Mark if they could talk.

        Bill reminded him of the day years ago when they had first met. “Did you ever wonder why I was carrying so many things home that day?” asked Bill.

        “You see, I cleaned out my locker because I didn’t want to leave a mess for anyone else. I had stored away some of my mothers sleeping pills and I was going home to commit suicide. But after we spent some time together talking and laughing, I realized that if I had killed myself, I would have missed that time and so many others that might follow. So you see, Mark, when you picked up those books that day, you did a lot more, you saved my life.”

        - John W. Schlatter (true story)

Love in action

One night a man came to our house and told me, “There is a family with eight children. They have not eaten for days,” I took some food and I went. When I finally came to the family, I saw the faces of those little children disfigured by hunger. There was no sorrow or sadness in their faces, just the deep pain of hunger. I gave the rice to the mother. She divided it in two, and went out, carrying half the rice with her. When she came back, I asked her, “Where did you go?” She gave me this simple answer, “To my neighbors-they are hungry also.”

        I was not surprised that she gave–because poor people are generous. But I was surprised that she knew they were hungry. As a rule, when we are suffering, we are so focused on ourselves we have no time for others.

        –Mother Teresa

Enjoy Your Life At Every Moments

Once a fisherman was sitting near seashore, under the shadow of a tree smoking his beedi. Suddenly a rich businessman passing by approached him and enquired as to why he was sitting under a tree smoking and not working. To this the poor fisherman replied that he had caught enough fishes for the day.

        Hearing this the rich man got angry and said: Why don’t you catch more fishes instead of sitting in shadow wasting your time?

        Fisherman asked: What would I do by catching more fishes?

        Businessman: You could catch more fishes, sell them and earn more money, and buy a bigger boat.

        Fisherman: What would I do then?

        Businessman: You could go fishing in deep waters and catch even more fishes and earn even more money.

        Fisherman: What would I do then?

        Businessman: You could buy many boats and employ many people to work for you and earn even more money.

        Fisherman: What would I do then?

        Businessman: You could become a rich businessman like me.

        Fisherman: What would I do then?

        Businessman: You could then enjoy your life peacefully.

        Fisherman: Isn’t that what I am doing now?

        Moral – You don’t need to wait for tomorrow to be happy and enjoy your life. You don’t even need to be more rich, more powerful to enjoy life. LIFE is at this moment, enjoy it fully.

        As some great men have said “My riches consist not in extent of my possessions but in the fewness of my wants”.

Funny Short Stories

The child and his mother:

        A curious child asked his mother: “Mommy, why are some of your hairs turning grey?”

        The mother tried to use this occasion to teach her child: “It is because of you, dear. Every bad action of yours will turn one of my hairs grey!”

        The child replied innocently: “Now I know why grandmother has only grey hairs on her head.”

        :mrgreen:

        Wrong email address:

        A couple going on vacation but his wife was on a business trip so he went to the destination first and his wife would meet him the next day.

        When he reached his hotel, he decided to send his wife a quick email.

        Unfortunately, when typing her address, he mistyped a letter and his note was directed instead to an elderly preacher’s wife whose husband had passed away only the day before.

        When the grieving widow checked her email, she took one look at the monitor, let out a piercing scream, and fell to the floor in a dead faint.

        At the sound, her family rushed into the room and saw this note on the screen:

        Dearest Wife,
        Just got checked in. Everything prepared for your arrival tomorrow.

        P.S. Sure is hot down here.

        :mrgreen:

        Will’s experience at the airport:

        After his return from Rome, Will couldn’t find his luggage in the airport baggage area. He went to the lost luggage office and told the woman there that his bags hadn’t shown up on the carousel.

        She smiled and told him not to worry because they were trained professionals and he was in good hands.

        Then she asked Will, “Has your plane arrived yet?”

        8-O
        :mrgreen:

        Clever kids:

        A police officer found a perfect hiding place for watching for speeding motorists.

        One day, the officer was amazed when everyone was under the speed limit, so he investigated and found the problem.

        A 10 years old boy was standing on the side of the road with a huge hand painted sign which said “Radar Trap Ahead.”

        A little more investigative work led the officer to the boy’s accomplice: another boy about 100 yards beyond the radar trap with a sign reading “TIPS” and a bucket at his feet full of change.

        :P :mrgreen:

        Mouthology:

        A Professor was traveling by boat. On his way he asked the sailor:

        “Do you know Biology, Ecology, Zoology, Geography, physiology?

        The sailor said no to all his questions.

        Professor: What the hell do you know on earth. You will die of illiteracy.

        After a while the boat started sinking. The Sailor asked the Professor, do you know swiminology and escapology from sharkology?

        The professor said no.

        Sailor: “Well, sharkology and crocodilogy will eat your assology, headology and you will dieology because of your mouthology.

        :D

        Captain:

        A navy captain is alerted by his First Mate that there is a pirate ship coming towards his position. He asks a sailor to get him his red shirt.

        The captain was asked, “Why do you need a red shirt?”

        The Captain replies, “So that when I bleed, you guys don’t notice and aren’s discouraged.” They fight off the pirates eventually.

        The very next day, the Captain is alerted that 50 pirate ships are coming towards their boat. He yells, “Get me my brown pants!”

        :D

        Elephant:

        The class teacher asks students to name an animal that begins with an “E”. One boy says, “Elephant.”

        Then the teacher asks for an animal that begins with a “T”. The same boy says, “Two elephants.”

        The teacher sends the boy out of the class for bad behavior. After that she asks for an animal beginning with “M”.

        The boy shouts from the other side of the wall: “Maybe an elephant!”

Words of encouragement

“When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.”
        Henry Ford

        “One has to remember that every failure can be a stepping stone to something better.”
        Col. Harland Sanders

        “When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.”
        Harriet Beecher Stowe

        “A diamond is merely a lump of coal that did well under pressure.”
        Unknown

        “I am grateful for all of my problems. After each one was overcome, I became stronger and more able to meet those that were still to come. I grew in all my difficulties.”
        James Cash Penney

        “A bend in the road is not the end of the road… unless you fail to make the turn.”
        Unknown

        “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
        Mark Twain

        “Use what talent you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best.”
        Henry Van Dyke

        “Forget about all the reasons why something may not work. You only need to find one good reason why it will.”
        Dr. Robert Anthony

        “Extraordinary struggles bring an extraordinary purpose for those who wait.”
        Brianna Gazvoda

        “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.”
        Henry David Thoreau

        “Count the garden by the flowers, never by the leaves that fall. Count your life with smiles and not the tears that roll.”
        Unknown

        “Only your real friends will tell you when your face is dirty.”
        Sicilian Proverb

        “The world is round and the place which may seem like the end may also be only the beginning.”
        Ivy Baker Priest

        “It doesn’t matter how many say it cannot be done or how many people have tried it before; it’s important to realize that whatever you’re doing, it’s your first attempt at it.”
        Wally Amos

        “If you have made mistakes, there is always another chance for you. You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call ‘failure’ is not the falling down, but the staying down.”
        Mary Pickford

        “He who refuses to embrace a unique opportunity loses the prize as surely as if he had failed.”
        William James

        “When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.”
        Alexander Graham Bell

        “Instead of giving myself reasons why I can’t, I give myself reasons why I can.”
        Unknown

   

 - Sent from Inspirational Short Stories (android app), https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.codingg.reader

Be content about your Life

Wonder if any of you ever had the feeling that life is bad, real bad… and you wish you were in another situation? Do you find that life seems to make things difficult for you, work sucks, life sucks, everything seems to go wrong?

        It was not until yesterday that I totally changed my views about life; after a conversation with one of my friends.

        He told me despite taking 2 jobs, and bringing back barely above $1000 per month, he is happy as he is. I wonder how he can be as happy as he is now, considering that he has to skimp his life with the low pay to support a pair of old-age parents, in-laws, wife, 2 daughters and the many bills of a household.

        He explained that it was through one incident that he saw in India.

        That happened a few years ago when he was really feeling low and was touring India after a major setback. He said that right in front of his very eyes, he saw an Indian mother chopped off her child’s right hand with a chopper. The helplessness in the mother’s eyes, the scream of the pain from the innocent 4 years old child haunted him until today. You may ask why did the mother do so, has the child been naughty, was the child’s hand infected??

        No, it was done for two simple words — to beg. The desperate mother deliberately caused the child to be handicapped so that the child can go out to the streets to beg. I cannot accept how this could happen, but it really did, just in another part of the world which I don’t see.

        Taken aback by the scene, he dropped a small piece of bread he was eating half-way. And almost instantly, flock of 5 or 6 children swamp towards this small piece of bread which was then covered with sand, robbing of bits from one another. The natural reaction of hunger. Striken by the happenings, he instructed his guide to drive him to the nearest bakery. He arrived at two bakeries and bought every single loaf of bread he found in the bakeries.

        The owner is dumb-folded, but willing, sold everything. He spent less than $100 to obtain about 400 loaf of bread (this is less than $0.25/per loaf) and spend another $100 to get daily necessities. Off he went in the truck full of bread into the streets. As he distributed the bread and necessities to the children (mostly handicapped) and a few adults, he received cheers and bows from these unfortunate. For the first time in life he wonder how people can give up their dignity for a loaf of bread which cost less than $0.25. He began to ask himself how fortunate he is as a Singaporean. How fortunate he to be able to have a complete body, have a job, have a family, have the chance to complain what food is nice what isn’t, have the chance to be clothed, have the many things that these people in front of him are deprived of…

        Now I begin to think and feel it, too. Was my life really that bad?

        Perhaps….no… it should not be bad at all….

        What about you? Maybe the next time you think you are, think about the child who lost one hand to beg on the streets.

        Story By Wendy Tan
        Story Submitted to AcademicTips.org By Laura

Mom's last laugh

Consumed by my loss, I didn’t notice the hardness of the pew where I sat. I was at the funeral of my dearest friend — my mother. She finally had lost her long battle with cancer. The hurt was so intense, I found it hard to breathe at times.

        Always supportive, mother clapped loudest at my school plays, held a box of tissues while listening to my first heartbreak, comforted me at my father’s death, encouraged me in college, and prayed for me my entire life.

        When mother’s illness was diagnosed, my sister had a new baby and my brother had recently married his childhood sweetheart, so it fell on me, the 27-year-old middle child without entanglements, to take care of her. I counted it an honor.

        “What now, Lord?” I asked sitting in church. My life stretched out before meas an empty abyss. My brother sat stoically with his face toward the cross while clutching his wife’s hand.

        My sister sat slumped against her husband’s shoulder, his arms around her as she cradled their child. All so deeply grieving, no one noticed I sat alone. My place had been with our mother, preparing her meals, helping her walk, taking her to the doctor, seeing to her medication, reading the Bible together. Now she was with the Lord. My work was finished and I was alone.

        I heard a door open and slam shut at the back of the church. Quick footsteps hurried along the carpeted floor. An exasperated young man looked around briefly and then sat next to me. He folded his hands and placed them on his lap. His eyes were brimming with tears.

        He began to sniffle. “I’m late,” he explained, though no explanation was necessary. After several eulogies, he leaned over and commented, “Why do they keep calling Mary by the name of ‘Margaret’?”

        “Oh” “Because that was her name, Margaret. Never Mary. No one called her ‘Mary,’ I whispered. I wondered why this person couldn’t have sat on the other side of the church. He interrupted my grieving with his tears and fidgeting. Who was this stranger anyway?

        “No, that isn’t correct,” he insisted, as several people glanced over at us whispering, “Her name is Mary, Mary Peters.”

        “That isn’t who this is, I replied..”

        “Isn’t this the Lutheran church?”

        “No, the Lutheran church is across the street.”

        “Oh.”

        “I believe you’re at the wrong funeral, Sir.”

        The solemnness of the occasion mixed with the realization of the man’s mistake bubbled up inside me and came out as laughter.

        I cupped my hands over my face, hoping it would be interpreted as sobs.

        The creaking pew gave me away. Sharp looks from other mourners only made the situation seem more hilarious. I peeked at the bewildered, misguided man seated beside me.He was laughing, too, as he glanced around, deciding it was too late for an uneventful exit.

        I imagined mother laughing.

        At the final “Amen,” we darted out a door and into the parking lot. “I do believe we’ll be the talk of the town,” he smiled. He said his name was Rick and since he had missed his aunt’s funeral, asked me out for a cup of coffee.

        That afternoon began a lifelong journey for me with this man who attended the wrong funeral, but was in the right place.

        A year after our meeting, we were married at a country church where he was the assistant pastor. This time we both arrived at the same church, right on time. In my time of sorrow, God gave me laughter. In place of loneliness, God gave me love. This past June we celebrated our twenty-second wedding anniversary. Whenever anyone asks us how we met, Rick tells them, “Her mother and my Aunt Mary introduced us, and it’s truly a match made in heaven.”

A box of Kisses

Some time ago, a man punished his 3-year-old daughter for wasting a roll of gold wrapping paper. Money was tight and he became infuriated when the child tried to decorate a box to put under the Christmas tree.

        Nevertheless, the little girl brought the gift to her father the next morning and said, “This is for you, Daddy.” He was embarrassed by his earlier overreaction, but his anger flared again when he found the box was empty.

        He yelled at her, “Don’t you know that when you give someone a present, there’s supposed to be something inside it?”

        The little girl looked up at him with tears in her eyes and said,”Oh, Daddy, it is not empty. I blew kisses into the box. All for you, Daddy.”

        The father was crushed. He put his arms around his little girl, and he begged for her forgiveness.
        It is told that the man kept that gold box by his bed for years and whenever he was discouraged, he would take out an imaginary kiss and remember the love of the child who had put it there.

        In a very real sense, each of us as humans have been given a gold container filled with unconditional love and kisses from our children, friends, family and God. There is no more precious possession anyone could hold.

The Mouse Trap

A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package. “What food might this contain?” the mouse wondered. He was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap.

        Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning: “There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!”

        The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, “Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it.”

        The mouse turned to the pig and told him, “There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!” The pig sympathized, but said, “I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured you are in my prayers.”

        The mouse turned to the cow and said, “There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!” The cow said, “Wow, Mr. Mouse. I’m sorry for you, but it’s no skin off my nose.”

        So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer’s mousetrap alone.

        That very night a sound was heard throughout the house – like the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey. The farmer’s wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught. The snake bit the farmer’s wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital and she returned home with a fever.

        Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup’s main ingredient. But his wife’s sickness continued, so friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig. The farmer’s wife did not get well; she died. So many people came for her funeral, the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them.

        The mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness. So, the next time you hear someone is facing a problem and think it doesn’t concern you, remember, when one of us is threatened, we are all at risk. We are all involved in this journey called life. We must keep an eye out for one another and make an extra effort to encourage one another. Each of us is a vital thread in another person’s tapestry.

 - Sent from Inspirational Short Stories (android app), https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.codingg.reader

How the poor live

One day, a father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the firm purpose of showing his son how poor people live. They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family. On their return from their trip, the father asked his son, “How was the trip?”

        “It was great, Dad.”

        “Did you see how poor people live?” the father asked.

        “Oh yeah,” said the son.

        “So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip?” asked the father.

        The son answered, “I saw that we have one dog and they had four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden, and they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lanterns in our garden, and they have the stars at night. Our patio reaches to the front yard, and they have the whole horizon. We have a small piece of land to live on, and they have fields that go beyond our sight. We have servants who serve us, but they serve others. We buy our food, but they grow theirs. We have walls around our property to protect us; they have friends to protect them.”

        The boy’s father was speechless.

        Then his son added, “Thanks, Dad, for showing me how poor we are.”

Learn and Earn

Chuan and Jing joined a wholesale company together just after graduation. Both worked very hard.

        After several years, the boss promoted Jing to sales executive but Chuan remained a sales rep. One day Chuan could not take it anymore, tender resignation to the boss and complained the boss did not value hard working staff, but only promoted those who flattered him.

        The boss knew that Chuan worked very hard for the years, but in order to help Chuan realize the difference between him and Jing, the boss asked Chuan to do the following. Go and find out anyone selling water melon in the market? Chuan returned and said yes. The boss asked how much per kg? Chuan went back to the market to ask and returned to inform boss the $12 per kg.

        Boss told Chuan, I will ask Jing the same question? Jing went, returned and said, boss, only one person selling water melon. $12 per kg, $100 for 10 kg, he has inventory of 340 melons. On the table 58 melons, every melon weighs about 15 kg, bought from the South two days ago, they are fresh and red, good quality.

        Chuan was very impressed and realized the difference between himself and Jing. He decided not to resign but to learn from Jing.

        My dear friends, a more successful person is more observant, think more and understand in depth. For the same matter, a more successful person sees several years ahead, while you see only tomorrow. The difference between a year and a day is 365 times, how could you win?

        Think! how far have you seen ahead in your life? How thoughtful in depth are you?

Don't be afraid

Here we are, afraid of losing what we have all the time, holding on to it so tight that not a soul can touch it. We think by hiding it from the world, it’s hidden and it’s ours. Nothing is. Nothing ever will be. For, nothing ever was.

        If you think there is anything that you have, that’s yours, be it money, a house, a job, or a girlfriend… it’s nothing but an illusion. It’ll all disappear… in one blow. One blow, my man.

        Here we are, so insecure that we are afraid of re-starting our lives, so we just carry on trying to sort out the current mess. The thought that we should give it all up and just start all over – with nothing – might cross our minds some time, sure, but we get scared and we push away anything that scares us.

        There is nothing I can ever achieve or gain that I cannot lose, in a matter of seconds. You have never gained enough to not be able to lose it all, in just a few minutes. What you think is yours, was never yours and will never be yours. Whatever you make here, you leave here. You came naked and you’re going to go back naked.

        So what are you afraid of?

        Let all be lost. Let them take away everything. As long as you have your heart beating strong, as long as you have your nostrils working fine, as long as the blood flows in your veins, you will live, you will breathe and you can get it all back… again and again. For, if you can do it once, you can damn well do it again. It’s just a game we play – Life.

        By Rohit Wadhwaney

The smell of rain

A cold March wind danced around the dead of night in Dallas as the Doctor walked into the small hospital room of Diana Blessing. Still groggy from surgery, her husband David held her hand as they braced themselves for the latest news. That afternoon of March 10,1991, complications had forced Diana, only 24 weeks pregnant, to Danae Lu Blessing.

        At 12 inches long and weighing only one pound and nine ounces, they already knew she was perilously premature. Still, the doctor’s soft words dropped like bombs. I don’t think she’s going to make it, he said, as kindly as he could. “There’s only a 10 percent chance she will live through the night, and even then, if by some slim chance she does make it, her future could be a very cruel one.” Numb with disbelief, David and Diana listened as the doctor described the devastating problems Danae would likely face if she survived. She would never walk, she would never talk, she would probably be blind, and she would certainly be prone to other catastrophic conditions from cerebral palsy to complete mental retardation, and on and on. “No! No!” was all Diana could say. She and David, with their 5-year-old son Dustin, had long dreamed of the day they would have a daughter to become a family of four. Now, within a matter of hours, that dream was slipping away.

        Through the dark hours of morning as Danae held onto life by the thinnest thread, Diana slipped in and out of sleep, growing more and more determined that their tiny daughter would live, and live to be a healthy, happy young girl. But David, fully awake and listening to additional dire details of their daughter’s chances of ever leaving the hospital alive, much less healthy, knew he must confront his wife with the inevitable. David walked in and said that we needed to talk about making funeral arrangements. Diana remembers, ‘I felt so bad for him because he was doing everything, trying to include me in what was going on, but I just wouldn’t listen, I couldn’t listen. I said, “No, that is not going to happen, no way! I don’t care what the doctors say; Danae is not going to die! One day she will be just fine, and she will be coming home with us!”

        As if willed to live by Diana’s determination, Danae clung to life hour after hour, with the help of every medical machine and marvel her miniature body could endure. But as those first days passed, a new agony set in for David and Diana. Because Danae’s under-developed nervous system was essentially raw, the lightest kiss or caress only intensified her discomfort, so they couldn’t even cradle their tiny baby girl against their chests to offer the strength of their love. All they could do, as Danae struggled alone beneath the ultraviolet light in the tangle of tubes and wires, was to pray that God would stay close to their precious little girl. There was never a moment when Danae suddenly grew stronger.

        But as the weeks went by, she did slowly gain an ounce of weight here and an ounce of strength there. At last, when Danae turned two months old, her parents were able to hold her in their arms for the very first time. And two months later-though doctors continued to gently but grimly warn that her chances of surviving, much less living any kind of normal life, were next to zero. Danae went home from the hospital, just as her mother had predicted.

        Today, five years later, Danae is a petite but feisty young girl with glittering gray eyes and an unquenchable zest for life. She shows no signs, what so ever, of any mental or physical impairment. Simply, she is everything a little girl can be and more-but that happy ending is far from the end of her story.

        One blistering afternoon in the summer of 1996 near her home in Irving, Texas, Danae was sitting in her mother’s lap in the bleachers of a local ballpark where her brother Dustin’s baseball team was practicing. As always, Danae was chattering non-stop with her mother and several other adults sitting nearby when she suddenly fell silent. Hugging her arms across her chest, Danae asked, “Do you smell that?” Smelling the air and detecting the approach of a thunderstorm, Diana replied, “Yes, it smells like rain.” Danae closed her eyes and again asked, “Do you smell that?” Once again, her mother replied, “Yes, I think we’re about to get wet, it smells like rain. Still caught in the moment, Danae shook her head, patted her thin shoulders with her small hands and loudly announced, “No, it smells like Him. It smells like God when you lay your head on His chest.” Tears blurred Diana’s eyes as Danae then happily hopped down to play with the other children.

        Before the rains came, her daughter’s words confirmed what Diana and all the members of the extended Blessing family had known, at least in their hearts, all along. During those long days and nights of her first two months of her life, when her nerves were too sensitive for them to touch her, God was holding Danae on His chest and it is His loving scent that she remembers so well.

        This is a real story

Juggle Balls

Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. You name them – work, family, health, friends and spirit and you’re keeping all of these in the air. You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls – family, health, friends and spirit are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered. They will never be the same. You must understand that and strive for balance in your life. How?

        Don’t undermine your worth by comparing yourself with others. It is because we are different that each of us is special.

        Don’t set your goals by what other people deem important. Only you know what is best for you.

        Don’t take for granted the things closest to your heart. Cling to them as you would your life, for without them, life is meaningless.

        Don’t let your life slip through your fingers by living in the past or for the future. By living your life one day at a time, you live ALL the days of your life.

        Don’t give up when you still have something to give. Nothing is really over until the moment you stop trying.

        Don’t be afraid to admit that you are less than perfect. It is this fragile thread that binds us each together.

        Don’t be afraid to encounter risks. It is by taking chances that we learn how to be brave.

        Don’t shut love out of your life by saying it’s impossible to find. The quickest way to receive love is to give; the fastest way to lose love is to hold it too tightly; and the best way to keep love is to give it wings.

        Don’t run through life so fast that you forget not only where you’ve been, but also where you are going.

        Don’t forget that a person’s greatest emotional need is to feel appreciated.

        Don’t be afraid to learn. Knowledge is weightless, a treasure you can always carry easily.

        Don’t use time or words carelessly. Neither can be retrieved. Life is not a race, but a journey to be savored each step of the way.
        By Coca Cola CEO Brian 

Never Quits

Abraham Lincoln never quits.

        Born into poverty, Lincoln was faced with defeat throughout his life. He lost eight elections, twice failed in business and suffered a nervous breakdown.

        He could have quit many times – but he didn’t and because he didn’t quit, he became one of the greatest presidents in the United States history.

        Here is a sketch of Lincoln’s road to the White House:

        1816 His family was forced out of their home. He had to work to support them.
        1818 His mother died.
        1831 Failed in business.
        1832 Ran for state legislature – lost.
        1832 Also lost his job – wanted to go to law school but couldn’t get in.
        1833 Borrowed some money from a friend to begin a business and by the end of the year he was bankrupt. He spent the next 17 years of his life paying off this debt.
        1834 Ran for state legislature again – won.
        1835 Was engaged to be married, sweetheart died and his heart was broken.
        1836 Had a total nervous breakdown and was in bed for six months.
        1838 Sought to become speaker of the state legislature – defeated.
        1840 Sought to become elector – defeated.
        1843 Ran for Congress – lost.
        1846 Ran for Congress again – this time he won – went to Washington and did a good job.
        1848 Ran for re-election to Congress – lost.
        1849 Sought the job of land officer in his home state – rejected.
        1854 Ran for Senate of the United States – lost.
        1856 Sought the Vice-Presidential nomination at his party’s national convention – get less than 100 votes.
        1858 Ran for U.S. Senate again – again he lost.
        1860 Elected president of the United States.

Believe in yourself

There may be days when you get up in the morning and things aren’t the way you had hoped they would be.

        That’s when you have to tell yourself that things will get better. There are times when people disappoint you and let you down.

        But those are the times when you must remind yourself to trust your own judgments and opinions, to keep your life focused on believing in yourself.

        There will be challenges to face and changes to make in your life, and it is up to you to accept them.

        Constantly keep yourself headed in the right direction for you. It may not be easy at times, but in those times of struggle you will find a stronger sense of who you are.

        So when the days come that are filled with frustration and unexpected responsibilities, remember to believe in yourself and all you want your life to be.

        Because the challenges and changes will only help you to find the goals that you know are meant to come true for you.

The pretty one, very inspiring

It had been a very long night. Our black cocker spaniel ‘Precious’ was having a difficult delivery. I lay on the floor beside her large four-foot square cage, watching her every movement. Watching and waiting, just in case I had to rush her to the veterinarian.

        After six hours the puppies started to appear. The first-born was black and white. The second and third puppies were tan and brown in color. The fourth and fifth were also spotted black and white. “One, two, three, four, five,” I counted to myself as I walked down the hallway to wake my wife, Judy, and tell her that everything was fine.

        As we walked back down the hallway and into the spare bedroom, I noticed a sixth puppy had been born and was now laying all by itself over to the side of the cage. I picked up the small puppy and laid it on top of the large pile of puppies, who were whining and trying to nurse on the mother. Precious immediately pushed the small puppy away from rest of the group. She refused to recognize it as a member of her family.

        “Something’s wrong,” said Judy.

        I reached over and picked up the puppy. My heart sank inside my chest when I saw the little puppy had a cleft lip and palate and could not close its little mouth. I decided right there and then that if there was any way to save this animal I was going to give it my best shot.

        I took the puppy to the vet and was told nothing could be done unless we were willing to spend about a thousand dollars to try and correct the defect. He told us that the puppy would die mainly because it could not suckle. After returning home, Judy and I decided that we could not afford to spend that kind of money without getting some type of assurance from the vet that the puppy had a chance to live. However, that did not stop me from purchasing a syringe and feeding the puppy by hand. Which I did every day and night, every two hours, for more than ten days. The little puppy survived and learned to eat on his own as long as it was soft canned food.

        The fifth week I placed an ad in the newspaper, and within a week we had people interested in all of the pups, except the one with the deformity. Late one afternoon I went to the store to pick up a few groceries. Upon returning I happened to see the old retired schoolteacher, who lived across the street from us, waving at me. She had read in the paper that we had puppies and was wondering if she might get one from us for her grandson and his family. I told her all the puppies had found homes, but I would keep my eyes open for anyone else who might have an available cocker spaniel. I also mentioned that if someone should change their mind, I would let her know. Within days, all but one of the puppies had been picked up by their new families. This left me with one brown and tan cocker as well as the smaller puppy with the cleft lip and palate.

        Two days passed without me hearing anything from the gentleman who had been promised the tan and brown pup. I telephoned the schoolteacher and told her I had one puppy left and that she was welcome to come and look at it. She advised me that she was going to pick up her grandson and would come over at about eight o’clock that evening.

        That night at around seven-thirty, Judy and I were eating supper when we heard a knock on the front door. When I opened the door, the man who had wanted the tan and brown pup was standing there. We walked inside, took care of the adoption details and I handed him the puppy. Judy and I did not know what we would do or say when the teacher showed up with her grandson. At exactly eight o’clock the doorbell rang. I opened the door, and there was the schoolteacher with her grandson standing behind her. I explained to her the man had come for the puppy after all, and there were no puppies left. “I’m sorry, Jeffery. They found homes for all the puppies,” she told her grandson.

        Just at that moment, the small puppy left in the bedroom began to yelp.

        “My puppy! My puppy!” yelled the little boy as he ran out from behind his grandmother.

        I just about fell over when I saw that the small child also had a cleft lip and palate. The boy ran past me as fast as he could, down the hallway to where the puppy was still yelping. When the three of us made it to the bedroom, the small boy was holding the puppy in his arms. He looked up at his grandmother and said, “Look, Grandma. They found homes for all the puppies except the pretty one, and he looks just like me.”

        The schoolteacher turned to us, “Is this puppy available?”

        “Yes,” I answered. “That puppy is available.”

        The little boy, who was now hugging the puppy, chimed in, “My grandma told me these kind of puppies are real expensive and that I have to take real good care of it.”

        The lady opened her purse, but I reached over and pushed her hand back down into her purse so that she would not pull her wallet out. “How much do you think this puppy is worth?” I asked the boy. “About a dollar?” “No. This puppy is very, very expensive,” he replied.

        “More than a dollar?” I asked.

        “I’m afraid so,” said his grandmother.

        The boy stood there pressing the small puppy against his cheek. “We could not possibly take less than two dollars for this puppy,” Judy said, squeezing my hand. “Like you said, it’s the pretty one.”

        The schoolteacher took out two dollars and handed it to the young boy.

        “It’s your dog now, Jeffery. You pay the man.”

        Still holding the puppy tightly, the boy proudly handed me the money. Any worries I’d had about the puppy’s future were gone.

        The image of the little boy and his matching pup stays with me still. I think it must be a wonderful feeling for any young person to look at themselves in the mirror and see nothing, except “the pretty one.”

        By Roger Dean Kiser,

        a love, hope, courage books writer.

The greatest gift is Love

A woman came out of her house and saw 3 old men with long white beards sitting in her front yard. She did not recognize them.

        She said, “I don’t think I know you, but you must be hungry. Please come in and have something to eat.”

        “Is the man of the house home?”, they asked.

        “No”, she said. “He’s out.”

        “Then we cannot come in”, they replied. In the evening when her husband came home, she told him what had happened.

        “Go tell them I am home and invite them in!” The woman went out and invited the men in. “We do not go into a House together,” they replied.

        “Why is that?” she wanted to know. One of the old men explained: “His name is Wealth,” he said pointing to one of his friends, and said pointing to another one, “He is Success, and I am Love.” Then he added, “Now go in and discuss with your husband which one of us you want in your home.”

        The woman went in and told her husband what was said. Her husband was overjoyed. “How nice!!”, he said. “Since that is the case, let us invite Wealth. Let him come and fill our home with wealth!”

        His wife disagreed. “My dear, why don’t we invite Success?”

        Their daughter-in-law was listening from the other corner of the house. She jumped in with her own suggestion: “Would it not be better to invite Love? Our home will then be filled with love!”

        “Let us heed our daughter-in-law’s advice,” said the husband to his wife. “Go out and invite Love to be our guest.”

        The woman went out and asked the 3 old men, “Which one of you is Love? Please come in and be our guest.” Love got up and started walking toward the house. The other 2 also got up and followed him. Surprised, the lady asked Wealth and Success: “I only invited Love, Why are you coming in?”

        The old men replied together: “If you had invited Wealth or Success, the other two of us would’ve stayed out, but since you invited Love, wherever He goes, we go with him. Wherever there is Love, there is also Wealth and Success!”

The Elephant Rope

As a man was passing the elephants, he suddenly stopped, confused by the fact that these huge creatures were being held by only a small rope tied to their front leg. No chains, no cages. It was obvious that the elephants could, at anytime, break away from their bonds but for some reason, they did not.

        He saw a trainer nearby and asked why these animals just stood there and made no attempt to get away. “Well,” trainer said, “when they are very young and much smaller we use the same size rope to tie them and, at that age, it’s enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free.”

        The man was amazed. These animals could at any time break free from their bonds but because they believed they couldn’t, they were stuck right where they were.

        Like the elephants, how many of us go through life hanging onto a belief that we cannot do something, simply because we failed at it once before?

        Failure is part of learning; we should never give up the struggle in life.

YOU ARE UNIQUE

Think what a remarkable, unduplicatable, and miraculous thing it is to be you! Of all the people who have come and gone on the earth, since the beginning of time, not ONE of them is like YOU!

        No one who has ever lived or is to come has had your combination of abilities, talents, appearance, friends, acquaintances, burdens, sorrows and opportunities.

        No one’s hair grows exactly the way yours does. No one’s finger prints are like yours. No one has the same combination of secret inside jokes and family expressions that you know.

        The few people who laugh at all the same things you do, don’t sneeze the way you do. No one prays about exactly the same concerns as you do. No one is loved by the same combination of people that love you – NO ONE!

        No one before, no one to come. YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY UNIQUE!

        Enjoy that uniqueness. You do not have to pretend in order to seem more like someone else. You weren’t meant to be like someone else. You do not have to lie to conceal the parts of you that are not like what you see in anyone else.

        You were meant to be different. Nowhere ever in all of history will the same things be going on in anyone’s mind, soul and spirit as are going on in yours right now.

        If you did not exist, there would be a hole in creation, a gap in history, something missing from the plan for humankind.

        Treasure your uniqueness. It is a gift given only to you. Enjoy it and share it!

        No one can reach out to others in the same way that you can. No one can speak your words. No one can convey your meanings. No one can comfort with your kind of comfort. No one can bring your kind of understanding to another person.

        No one can be cheerful and lighthearted and joyous in your way. No one can smile your smile. No one else can bring the whole unique impact of you to another human being.

        Share your uniqueness. Let it be free to flow out among your family and friends and people you meet in the rush and clutter of living wherever you are. That gift of yourself was given you to enjoy and share. Give yourself away!

        See it! Receive it! Let it tickle you! Let it inform you and nudge you and inspire you! YOU ARE UNIQUE!