Good
Morning: It's Sunday March 18, 2001!
BIRTHDAYS:
Grover Cleveland, 1837; Edward Everett Horton, 1887; Irving Wallace, 1916;
George Plimpton, 1927; John Updike, 1932; Peter Graves, 1936; Wilson Pickett,
1941; Vanessa Williams, 1963.
THIS
DAY IN HISTORY:
On this
date in 1766 Great Britain repealed the Stamp Act.
On this
date in 1931 the electric razor was first marketed by Schick.
On this
date in 1941 the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was formed.
On this
date in 1965 Soviet Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov became the first man to walk
in space.
MEANINGLESS
FACTS: The most common name for a town in the United States is Fairview...
When asked to name a color, the most common answer is "red"... The most
common last initial in the United States is "z".
TRIVIA:
From which show in the late sixties was "Happy Days" a spinoff?
Let's learn a new word this morning -- rugose: adjective: wrinkled,
ridged. Be careful with it! I guess, though, you could say
to someone, "Your face is very rugose..." and run less chance of offending
them than if you said, "Your face is very wrinkled..." Enough --
on to the real ones!
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Thanks
to LBS: Adversity
A daughter
complained to her father about her life and how things were so hard for
her. She did not how she was going to make it and wanted to give
up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed
as one problem was solved a new one arose.
Her
father, a chef, took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots with
water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to a boil.
In one he placed carrots, in the second he placed eggs, and the last he
placed ground coffee beans. He let them sit and boil, without saying
a word.
The
daughter sucked her teeth and impatiently waited, wondering what he was
doing. In about twenty minutes he and turned off the burners.
He fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. He pulled the
eggs out and placed them a bowl. Then he ladled the coffee out and
placed it in a bowl. Turning to her he asked, "Darling what do you see?"
"Carrots,
eggs, and coffee," she replied.
He brought
her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that
they were soft. He then asked her to take an egg and break it.
After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg. Finally,
he asked her to sip the coffee. She smiled as she tasted its rich
aroma.
She
humbly asked. "What does it mean Father?"
He explained
that each of them had faced the same adversity, boiling water, but each
reacted differently.
The
carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. But after being subjected
to the boiling water, it softened and became weak.
The
egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid
interior. But after sitting through the boiling water, its inside
became hardened.
The
ground coffee beans were unique however. After they were in the boiling
water, they had changed the water.
"Which
are you," he asked his daughter. "When adversity knocks on your door,
how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean? "
=============================================
How
about you? Are you the carrot that seems hard, but with pain and
adversity do you wilt and become soft and lose your strength?
Are
you the egg, which starts off with a malleable heart? Were you a
fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a divorce, or a layoff have
you become hardened and stiff. Your shell looks the same, but are
you bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and heart?
Or are
you like the coffee bean? The bean changes the hot water, the thing
that is bringing the pain, to its peak flavor reaches 212 degrees Fahrenheit.
When the water gets the hottest, it just tastes better.
If you
are like the coffee bean, when things are at their worst, you get better
and make things better around you .
When
people talk about you, do your praises to the Lord increase? When
the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest, does your worship
elevate to another level? How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot,
an egg, or a coffee bean?
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Thanks
to AB: Thoughts For Today
Have
no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose
them. Ephesians 5:11
When
we have nothing left but God, we find that God is enough.
The
most beautiful people are those who remind us of Christ.
There's
no room for double occupancy in the Christian's heart.
Unless
Christ is the center of interest, your life will be out of focus.
I could
never live without Him, Live without His love and grace; I could never
find another Who could ever take His place.
In this
is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to
be the propitiation for our sins. --1 John 4:10
Christ
endured the darkness so that we can enjoy the light.
Many
believed in Him, but . . . they did not confess Him, . . . for they loved
the praise of men more than the praise of God. --John 12:42-43.
May
everything we do By word or deed or story Be done to please the Lord--
To Him be all the glory.
Living
for God's approval is better than living for man's applause.
Words
spoken in love need no interpreter.
If God
can make a tiny seed Into a flower so fair, What can He make, O soul, of
you Through study, faith, and prayer?
When
growth stops, decay begins.
For
Whom Can I Pray Today?
Talk
to God about people before you talk to people about God.
Christ
bears our burdens that we may bear the burdens of others.
He spoke,
and it was done. --Psalm 33:9
God's
great power generates our grateful praise.
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Thanks
to a friend: The Young Girl
The
young girl took the steps into the bus. As she looked down the aisle she
felt a wave of cold fear slip down her throat in the pit of her stomach.
Here she was, only fifteen years old, traveling across country to meet
an aunt that she has only seen once. She looked down to stop the tears
from flooding her face as she thought about her mother and father. She
had to face the fact that they were not here, and they were never going
to be with her again, she reminded herself. She took a breath and started
walking down the aisle. She breathed deeply and told herself that she only
had to find a seat, and then she would be fine.
She
started to go to a seat by a young woman with a small child, who
looked friendly enough, but the woman saw her coming and quickly pushed
her bag into the empty seat. Hurt, the young girl took a few more steps
until she came to an empty seat by a man. All she could see of him was
the back of his head as he stared out the window. She started to sit, but
he turned his head and she quickly moved on. She had smelled the alcohol
staining his breath and saw in his unfocused eyes that he was drunk. She
wanted to make it through this trip unharmed. She moved on until she saw
another man. He looked about sixty and was very small with fine features.
He looked tidy in a gray suit and in his hands was a bouquet of wildflowers.
The seat next to him was empty and she quickly stepped over. As she sat
his head came up and he bobbed his head once in greeting. She smiled and
glanced at the flowers. Surely, she thought, surely a man holding flowers
couldn't be all that bad. She leaned her head back and closed her eyes.
She was fine. She had made it this far.
Then
tears filled her face, with no warning. She closed her eyes and blinked
them away, forcing herself to be brave. She could do it. Her parents would
want her to do it, for them. She felt the bus come to a stop and opened
her eyes when she felt the man beside her stand up. He stepped into the
aisle and then bent, as if to talk to her.
"Excuse
me, miss?" she felt him whisper. She could barely hear him and moved her
head closer as he talked. "Miss, I saw you looking at these flowers, and
I would like you to have them. You look like you could use something to
cheer you up, and I hope they work." He pushed the flowers into her hands
and stood to go.
"Wait!"
she called. "Don't you have someone to give these to?"
He smiled,
"They were for my wife, but she'll understand why I gave them to you."
He turned and walked off the bus. She sat back down in the window seat
and watched the man get off the bus and then walk towards a gate.
She looked closely at the sign and saw the words "Baptist Cemetery".
The
bus drove away with some flowers and a young girl, smiling.
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ANSWER:
"Happy Days" began as a segment on the lighthearted romance anthology "Love,
American Style" and then itself spun off "Lavern and Shirley", "Mork and
Mindy" and "Joanie Loves Chachie."
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