The Fern and the Bamboo

One day I decided to quit. I quit my job, my relationship, my spirituality. I wanted to quit my life. I went to the woods to have one last talk with God.

"God", I said. "Can you give me one good reason not to quit?" His answer surprised me. "Look around", He said. "Do you see the fern and the bamboo?" "Yes", I replied. "When I planted the fern and the bamboo seeds, I took very good care of them. I gave them light. I gave them water. The fern quickly grew from the earth. Its brilliant green covered the floor. Yet nothing came from the bamboo seed. But I did not quit on the bamboo."

In the second year the fern grew more vibrant and plentiful. And again, nothing came from the bamboo seed. "But I did not quit on the bamboo". He said, "In year three there was still nothing from the bamboo seed. But I would not quit".

In year four, again, there was nothing from the bamboo seed. I would not quit. He said.

Then in the fifth year a tiny sprout emerged from the earth. Compared to the fern, it was seemingly small and insignificant, but just six months later the bamboo rose to over 100 feet tall. It had spent the five years growing roots. Those roots made it strong and gave it what it needed to survive. I would not give any of my creations a challenge it could not handle. He said to me, "Did you know, my child, that all this time you have been struggling, you have actually been growing roots ? I would not quit on the bamboo. I will never quit on you.

Don't compare yourself too theirs."He said, "The bamboo had a different purpose than the fern. Yet they both make the forest beautiful. Your time will come."God said to me, "You will rise high.""How high should I rise?" I asked. "How high will the bamboo rise?" He asked in return. "As high as it can?" I questioned. "Yes." He said, "Give me glory by rising as high as you can."

I left the forest and brought back this story.

I hope these words can help you see that God will never give up on you. He will never give up on you. Never regret a day in your life. Good days give you happiness; bad days give you experiences; both are essential to life.

God Bless

SAND AND STONE

TWO FRIENDS WERE WALKING
THROUGH THE DESERT. DURING SOME POINT OF THE JOURNEY, THEY HAD AN ARGUMENT; AND ONE FRIEND SLAPPED THE OTHER ONE IN THE FACE.

THE ONE WHO GOT SLAPPED WAS HURT, BUT WITHOUT SAYING ANYTHING, WROTE IN THE SAND:

"TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SLAPPED ME IN THE FACE."

THEY KEPT ON WALKING, UNTIL THEY FOUND AN OASIS, WHERE THEY DECIDED TO TAKE A BATH.

THE ONE WHO HAD BEEN SLAPPED GOT STUCK IN THE MIRE AND STARTED DROWNING, BUT THE FRIEND SAVED HIM.

AFTER HE RECOVERED FROM THE NEAR DROWNING, HE WROTE ON A STONE:

"TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SAVED MY LIFE ".

THE FRIEND WHO HAD SLAPPED AND SAVED HIS BEST FRIEND ASKED HIM, "AFTER I HURT YOU, YOU WROTE IN THE SAND AND NOW, YOU WRITE ON A STONE, WHY?"

THE FRIEND REPLIED - "WHEN SOMEONE HURTS US WE SHOULD WRITE IT DOWN IN SAND, WHERE WINDS OF FORGIVENESS CAN ERASE IT AWAY. BUT, WHEN SOMEONE DOES SOMETHING GOOD FOR US, WE MUST ENGRAVE IT IN STONE WHERE NO WIND CAN EVER ERASE IT."

LEARN TO WRITE YOUR HURTS IN THE SAND AND TO CARVE YOUR BENEFITS IN STONE.

THEY SAY -

IT TAKES A MINUTE TO FIND A SPECIAL PERSON,

AN HOUR TO APPRECIATE THEM,

A DAY TO LOVE THEM,

BUT THEN AN ENTIRE LIFE TO FORGET THEM.

A day without the presence of God, is a wasteful day.

GOD Bless

Love vs. Sex

I, won't be afraid, anymore;
Of the Terrors by night,
Or the arrow that flies by day;

Though a thousand may fall, at my side;
And though ten thousand may fall,
I will say of the Lord;
In him I TRUST

Cause he who dwells in the secret place of the MOST HIGH;
Shall abide in the shadows (of the Almighty),
He who dwells in in the secret place of the MOST HIGH;
Shall abide in the shadows.

Amen

A teenage girl about 17 had gone to visit some friends one evening and time passed quickly as each shared their various experiences of the past year.

She ended up staying longer than planned, and had to walk home alone. She wasn't afraid because it was a small town and she lived only a few blocks away.

As she walked along under the tall elm trees, Diane asked God to keep>>her safe from harm and danger. When she reached the alley, which was a short cut to her house, she decided to take it. However, halfway down the alley she noticed a man standing at the end as though he were waiting for her.

She became uneasy and began to pray, asking for God's protection. Instantly a comforting feeling of quietness and security wrapped round her, she felt as though someone was walking with her. When she reached the end of the alley, she walked right past the man and arrived home safely.

The following day, she read in the newspaper that a young girl had been raped in the same alley just twenty minutes after she had been there. Feeling overwhelmed by this tragedy and the fact that it could have been her, she began to weep.

Thanking the Lord for her safety and to help this young woman, she decided to go to the police station. She felt she could recognize the man, so she told them her story. The police asked her if she would be willing to look at a lineup to see if she could identify him. She agreed and immediately pointed out the man she had seen in the alley the night before.

When the man was told he had been identified, he immediately broke down and confessed. The officer thanked Diane for her bravery and asked if there was anything they could do for her. She asked if they would ask the man one question. Diane was curious as to why he had not attacked her.

When the policeman asked him, he answered, "Because she wasn't alone. She had two tall men walking on either side of her."

Shoes in Chruch

I showered and shaved, I adjusted my tie. I got there and sat, in a pew just in time.

Bowing my head in prayer, as I closed my eyes, I saw the shoe of the man next to me.

Touching my own, I sighed. With plenty of room on either side, I thought, "Why must our soles touch?"

It bothered me, his shoe touching mine, but it didn't bother him much.

A prayer began: "Our Father"...... I thought, "This man with the shoes has no pride. They're dusty, worn, and scratched. Even worse, there are holes on the side!" "Thank You for blessings," the prayer went on. The shoe man said a quiet "Amen."

I tried to focus on the prayer, but my thoughts were on his shoes again. Aren't we supposed to look our best. When walking through that door? "Well, this certainly isn't it," I thought, Glancing toward the floor. Then the prayer was ended and the songs of praise began. The shoe man was certainly loud. Sounding proud as he sang.

His voice lifted the rafters. His hands were raised high. The Lord could surely hear, the shoe man's voice from the sky. It was time for the offering and what I threw in was steep. I watched as the shoe man reached into his pockets so deep. I saw what was pulled out. What the shoe man put in. Then I heard a soft "clink" as when silver hits tin.

The sermon really bored me to tears, and that's no lie. It was the same for the shoe man for tears fell from his eyes. At the end of the service, as is the custom here. We must greet new visitors and show them all good cheer. But I felt moved somehow and wanted to meet the shoe man. So after the closing prayer I reached over and shook his hand.

He was old and his skin was dark and his hair was truly a mess. But I thanked him for coming, for being our guest. He said, "My names' Charlie......... I'm glad to meet you, my friend." There were tears in his eyes, but he had a large, wide grin.

"Let me explain," he said......... Wiping tears from his eyes. "I've been coming here for months and you're the first to say 'Hi.' "I know that my appearance is not like all the rest, but I really do try to always look my best. I always clean and polish my shoes before my very long walk but by the time I get here they're dirty and dusty, like chalk."

My heart filled with pain and I swallowed to hide my tears as he continued to apologize for daring to sit so near. He said, "When I get here I know I must look a sight but I thought if I could touch you then maybe our souls might unite."

I was silent for a moment, knowing whatever was said, would pale in comparison, I spoke from my heart, not my head. "Oh, you've touched me," I said......"And taught me, in part; that the best of any man is what is found in his heart."

The rest, I thought,................ This shoe man will never know, like just how thankful I really am that his dirty old shoe touched my soul.

God Bless

Credit Marla

Living in a Boomerang World

"When you ask [pray], you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures."1 "God is near to all who call on him; to all who call on him in truth."2

There's a corny joke about the old Australian aborigine who was given a brand new boomerang for Christmas. Unfortunately he went crazy trying to throw his old boomerang away.
Life's kind of like that. Have you ever tried to throw away an old bad habit ... or a self-defeating addiction?

Someone said that the best way to break a bad habit is to drop it. Sure would be great if it were that easy. It isn't. However, if we don't break the habit or addiction, it will have a way of breaking us.

So how do we break a bad habit and/or a self-defeating addiction?

First, we need to admit that we have a problem and that it has us beaten. The only person God or anyone else can ever help is the one who admits, "I have a problem. I need help"—and genuinely means it and is prepared to do something about it. Bad habits and addictions rarely, if ever, leave us without a battle.

Second, we need to avoid playing the blame-game at all costs and accept full responsibility for our actions and our recovery.

Third, we need to realize that bad habits and especially addictions are a means to medicate some inner problem or pain that we have never faced, dealt with and resolved. Bad habits and addictions are almost always the "fruit of a deeper root."

Fourth, we need to seek qualified help, be it a support/recovery group and/or that of a qualified counselor/therapist. We need this support in order to keep us accountable and to help us stop acting out our addiction and thereby medicating (deadening) the pain. To heal it we need to feel it. Medicating it stops us from facing and resolving it.

Fifth, we need to pray the right prayer. Many people beg God to deliver them from their destructive symptoms but never think to realize that they need to pray that God will confront them with the reality of the cause or causes that drives them to act out in destructive habits and/or addictions. It is only as we face and confront the truth behind our destructive habits that we have any chance of recovery.

As Dr. Cecil Osborne used to day, "When we are hiding a deeper sin or fault we tend to confess a lesser one all the more vigorously." That is; instead of confessing the cause/causes of our behavior we get obsessed with and confess only the symptom. This tends to reinforce the addiction rather than overcome it because whatever the mind dwells on, the body acts on."

When we pray for truth and genuinely mean it, God always answers. Once we see the truth (cause) of our problem, we usually know what we need to do about resolving it. As God's Word says, "The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth."2

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, no matter what problems I struggle with, please help me to see the real cause/s behind them and, with your help, accept full responsibility for dealing with them. Also, please lead me to the help I need to overcome. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."

1. James 4:3 (NIV).

2. Psalm 145:18 (NIV).

Credit: Daily Encounter

i thank you God for most this amazing day

Give Thanks with a Grateful Heart;

Give Thanks to the Holy One;

Give Thanks because he's given;

Jesus Christ his Son.

And Now let the Weak say I am Strong;

Let the Poor say I am rich;

Because of what the Lord has done for Us.

Give Thanks!!!!!

A blessed and wonderful morning to all of God's beautiful creation. This is the day that the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it. I don't know about you but I am truly happy to be alive and well today.

Each day brings a new beginning and I am a firm believer that we all need a fresh start sometime in our lives. Where there is life there is always hope and where there is hope there is always God.

I opened up my email today and my friend Dana sent me one of her favorite poems this is what she had to say and below is the poem. Please enjoy and be blessed.

E, for your blog I just want to share with you this poem I love which is a really amazing prayer. From the first time I heard it stayed with me. I know the words by heart and I think it's beautiful to say first thing in the morning as your eyes open. One of the best things about it is how everything is in lowercase, especially the letter 'i' and only references to God in upper, signifying that He is the mighty one and we, minute until elevated by him. Dana

i thank You God for most this amazing day:

for the leaping greenly spirits of trees and a blue true dream of sky;

and for everything which is natural which is infinite which is yes (i who have died am alive again today, and this is the sun's birthday; this is the birthday of life and of love and wings: and of the gay great happening inimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing breathing any--lifted from the no of all nothing--human merely being doubt unimaginable You?(now the ears of my ears awake and now the eyes of my eyes are opened)