A friend shared with me a beautiful legend about a king who decided to set aside a special day to honor his greatest subject. When the big day arrived, there was a large gathering in the palace courtyard. Four finalists were brought forward, and from these four, the king would select the winner.

The first person presented was a wealthy philanthropist. The king was told that this man was highly deserving of the honor because of his humanitarian efforts. He had given much of his wealth to the poor.

The second person was a celebrated physician. The king was told that this doctor was highly deserving of the honor because he had rendered faithful and dedicated service to the sick for many years.

The third person was a distinguished judge. The king was told that the judge was worthy because he was noted for his wisdom, his fairness, and his brilliant decisions.

The fourth person presented was an elderly woman. Everyone was quite surprised to see her there, because her manner was quite humble, as was her dress. She hardly looked the part of someone who would be honored as the greatest subject in the kingdom. What chance could she possibly have, when compared to the other three, who had accomplished so much? Even so, there was something about her— the look of love in her face, the understanding in her eyes, her quiet confidence.

The king was intrigued, to say the least, and some-what puzzled by her presence. He asked who she was. The answer came: “You see the philanthropist, the doctor, and the judge? Well, she was their teacher!”

That woman had no wealth, no fortune, and no title, but she had unselfishly given her life to produce great people. There is nothing more powerful or more Christlike than sacrificial love

James W. Moore, Some Things Are Too Good Not To Be True,
Dimensions, 1994, 129.

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John Milton lost one eye, and then the second one too, but he didn’t lose heart. Instead he produced some of the world’s greatest poetry. His blindness was an opportunity to stimulate his verbal richness.

Helen Keller was deaf, dumb and blind since childhood. But she never thought of herself as handicapped. Her positive attitude in her world of darkness brought light to others and transformed every difficulty into an opportunity to overcome.

Socrates was ugly and uneducated. But his thoughts were always lofty, his attitude always positive. His wife would always find faults with him but he never let a sense of defeat overpower him. Once finding his wife extremely angry, he sat on a stone slab near his gate and started basking in the sun. When the angry woman rushed out and emptied a pitcher of cold water over his head, he praised his wife instead of retaliating: “I was wondering dear, why after thundering it hadn’t rained yet!” Such a peaceful bent of mind gave him the opportunity to be the number one philosopher in the world.

Abraham Lincoln was the son of a poor farmer who could never afford to buy books and clothes for him. But Lincoln had a positive attitude about life. He would wash his only suit at night so that it would dry by the morning. Covering himself with a rough towel he would study the books borrowed from his friends under the street lamp as there was no light in his own house. One day an envious neighbor made a taunting remark to Lincoln: “Why study in the mosquito-ridden street at night! After all you are not going to become the President of America?” Lincoln took it as a positive challenge and one day occupied the White House as President.

Difficulties and discouragements are often merely a rung on the ladder of life. Where you stand on the ladder of life is not as important as how many rungs you have persistently climbed and the character you have developed in the journey!

Have you allowed difficulties and discouragements to prevent you from reaching God’s purpose for your life?

200 page e-book that explains everything you need to know when planning your very own object lessons. It contains 90 fully developed object lesson ideas and another 200 object lesson starter ideas based on Biblical idioms and Names / Descriptions of God.

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Imagine a family of mice who lived all their lives in a large piano. In their piano world the music of the instrument filled all the dark spaces with sound and harmony. At first the mice were impressed by it. They drew comfort and wonder from the thought that there was Someone who made the music – though invisible to them – above, yet close to them. They loved to think of the Great Player whom they could not see. Then one day a daring mouse climbed up part of the piano and returned very thoughtful. He had found out how the music was made. Wires were the secret; tightly stretched wires of graduated lengths which tremble and vibrate. The mice must revise all their old beliefs. Some, however, still held on to the faith in the Unseen Player.

Later, another explorer carried the explanation further. Hammers were now the secret, many hammers dancing and leaping on the wires. This was a more complicated theory, but it all went to show that they lived in a purely mechanical and mathematical world. Now mothers told their little ones about the myth of the Unseen Player.

But the pianist continued to play.

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About 1 billion Valentine’s Day cards are exchanged each year. That’s the largest seasonal card-sending occasion of the year, next to Christmas.

February 14, 270 A.D. : Roman Emperor Claudius II, dubbed “Claudius the Cruel,” beheaded a priest named Valentine for performing marriage ceremonies. Claudius II had outlawed marriages when Roman men began refusing to go to war in order to stay with their wives.

In the Middle Ages, young men and women drew names from a bowl to see who their valentines would be. They would wear these names on their sleeves for one week. To wear your heart on your sleeve now means that it is easy for other people to know how you are feeling.

Some people used to believe that if a woman saw a robin flying overhead on Valentine’s Day, it meant she would marry a sailor. If she saw a sparrow, she would marry a poor man and be very happy. If she saw a goldfinch, she would marry a millionaire.

In the 17th century a hopeful maiden ate a hard-boiled egg and pinned five bay leaves to her pillow before going to sleep on Valentine’s eve. It was believed this would make her dream of her future husband.

The Italian city of Verona, where Shakespeare’s lovers Romeo and Juliet lived, receives about 1,000 letters addressed to Juliet every Valentine’s Day.

The red rose was the favorite flower of Venus, the Roman goddess of love. Red stands for strong feelings which is why a red rose is a flower of love.

Wearing a wedding ring on the fourth finger of the left hand dates back to ancient Egypt, where it was believed that the vein of love ran from this finger directly to the heart.

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If I talk a lot about God and the Bible and the Church, but I fail to ask about your needs and then help you, I’m simply making a lot of empty religious noise.

If I graduate from theological seminary and know all the answers to questions you’ll never even think of asking, and if I have all the degrees to prove it and if I say I believe in God with all my heart, and soul and strength, and claim to have incredible answers to my prayers to show it, but I fail to take the time to find out where you’re at and what makes you laugh and why you cry, I’m nothing.

If I sell an extra car and some of my books to raise money for some poor starving kids somewhere, and if I give my life for God’s service and burn out after pouring everything I have into the work, but do it all without ever once thinking about the people, the real hurting people-the moms and dads and sons and daughters and orphans and widows and the lonely and hurting-if I pour my life into the Kingdom but forget to make it relevant to those here on earth, my energy is wasted, and so is my life.

Here is what love is like–genuine love. God’s kind of love. It’s patient. It can wait. It helps others, even if they never find out who did it. Love doesn’t look for greener pastures or dream of how things could be better if I just got rid of all my current commitments. Love doesn’t boast. It doesn’t try to build itself up to be something it isn’t. Love doesn’t act in a loose, immoral way. It doesn’t seek to take, but it willingly gives. Love doesn’t lose its cool. It doesn’t turn on and off. Love doesn’t think about how bad the other person is, and certainly doesn’t think of how it could get back at someone. Love is grieved deeply (as God is) over the evil in this world, but it rejoices over truth.

Love comes and sits with you when you’re feeling down and finds out what is wrong. It empathizes with you and believes in you. Love knows you’ll come through just as God planned, and love sticks right beside you all the way. Love doesn’t give up, or quit, or diminish or go home. Love keeps on keeping on, even when everything goes wrong and the feelings leave and the other person doesn’t seem as special anymore. Love succeeds 100 percent of the time. That, my friend, is what real love is!

Copyright 2003 David Sanford. Not to be used for commercial purposes.

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Creative Holiday Ideas has over 300 pages of ideas to help you plan your next New Year’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Halloween or Fall Festival, and Thanksgiving event. If you’ve ever wondered what you’re going to do for all these holidays and how you’re going to do it, this resource is for you.

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A little boy was selling newspapers on the corner, the people were in and out of the cold. The little boy was so cold that he wasn’t trying to sell many papers.

He walked up to a policeman and said, “Mister, you wouldn’t happen to know where a poor boy could find a warm place to sleep tonight would you? You see, I sleep in a box up around the corner there and down the alley and it’s awful cold in there for tonight. Sure would be nice to have a warm place to stay.”

The policeman looked down at the little boy and said, “You go down the street to that big white house and you knock on the door. When they come out the door you just say John 3:16, and they will let you in.”

So he did. He walked up the steps and knocked on the door, and a lady answered. He looked up and said,
“John 3:16.” The lady said, “Come on in, Son.”

She took him in and she sat him down in a split bottom rocker in front of a great big old fireplace, and she went
off. The boy sat there for a while and thought to himself: John 3:16…I don’t understand it, but it sure makes
a cold boy warm.

Later she came back and asked him “Are you hungry ?” He said, “Well, just a little. I haven’t eaten in a couple of
days, and I guess I could stand a little bit of food,” The lady took him in the kitchen and sat him down to a table full of wonderful food. He ate and ate until he couldn’t eat any more. Then he thought to himself: John 3:16 …Boy, I sure don’t understand it but it sure makes a hungry boy full.

She took him upstairs to a bathroom to a huge bathtub filled with warm water, and he sat there and soaked for a
while. As he soaked, he thought to himself: John 3:16… I sure don’t understand it, but it sure makes a dirty boy
clean. You know, I’ve not had a bath, a real bath, in my whole life. The only bath I ever had was when I stood in
front of that big old fire hydrant as they flushed it out. The lady came in and got him. She took him to a room,
tucked him into a big old feather bed, pulled the covers up around his neck, kissed him goodnight and turned out
the lights. As he lay in the darkness and looked out the window at the snow coming down on that cold night,
he thought to himself: John 3:16 …I don’t understand it but it sure makes a tired boy rested.

The next morning the lady came back up and took him down again to that same big table full of food. After he
ate, she took him back to that same big old split bottom rocker in front of the fireplace and picked up a big old Bible.

She sat down in front of him and looked into his young face. “Do you understand John 3:16 ? ” she asked gently. He
replied, “No, Ma’am, I don’t. The first time I ever heard it was last night when the policeman told me to use it,” She opened the Bible to John 3:16 and began to explain to him about Jesus. Right there, in front of that big old fireplace, he gave his heart and life to Jesus. He sat there and thought: John 3:16 — don’t understand it, but it sure makes a lost boy feel safe.

You know, I have to confess I don’t understand it either, how God was willing to send His Son to die for me, and how Jesus would agree to do such a thing. I don’t understand the agony of the Father and every angel in heaven as they watched Jesus suffer and die. I don’t understand the intense love for ME that kept Jesus on the cross till the end. I don’t understand it, but it sure does make life worth living.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should
not perish, but have everlasting life.

Circulating around the internet

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The story goes that some time ago, a man punished his 3-year-old daughter for wasting a roll of gold Christmas 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 Christmas gift to her father the next morning and said, “This is for you, Daddy.”

The man was embarrassed by his earlier overreaction, but his anger flared again when he found out the box was empty. He yelled at her, stating, “Don’t you know, when you give someone a Christmas present, there is supposed to be something inside? The little girl looked up at him with tears in her eyes and cried, “Oh, Daddy, it’s not empty at all. I blew kisses into the box. They’re all for you, Daddy.”

The father was crushed. He put his arms around his little girl, and he begged for her forgiveness.

Only a short time later, an accident took the life of the child. It is also said that her father kept that gold Christmas box by his bed for many 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 one of us, as humans beings, have been given a gold container filled with unconditional love and kisses… from our children, family members, friends, and God. There is simply no other possession, anyone could hold, more precious than this.

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Creative Holiday Ideas has over 300 pages of ideas to help you plan your next New Year’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Halloween or Fall Festival, and Thanksgiving event. If you’ve ever wondered what you’re going to do for all these holidays and how you’re going to do it, this resource is for you.

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Jake lived in and orphanage with nine other boys. In the wintertime it seemed that any extra money went for coal to heat the old buildings. At Christmas, the buildings always seemed a little warmer and food a little more plentiful. But more that this, Christmas meant an orange. It was the only time of the year such a rare treat was provided, and it was coveted by each boy, like no other thing they possessed.

Each boy would save his orange for several days, admiring it, feeling it, loving it, and contemplating the moment he would eat it. Some would even save it until New Year’s Day or later, much as many of us relish saving our Christmas trees and decorations until New Year’s to remind us of the joy of Christmas.

This particular day, Jake had broken the orphanage rules by starting a fight. The orphanage Mother took Jake’s orange away as punishment for breaking the rules. Jake spent Christmas day empty and alone. Nighttime came and Jake could not sleep. Silently, he sobbed because this year he would not have his orange with the other boys.

A soft hand placed on Jake’s shoulder startled him and an object was quickly shoved in Jake’s hand. The child then disappeared into the dark to leave Jake alone to discover a strange looking orange. An orange made from the segment of nine other oranges…nine highly prized oranges that the boys would have had to break open that Christmas night, instead of saved, admired, and cherished until a later date.

At this Christmas time, may oranges remind us all of the unselfish love of nine orphaned boys. Unselfish love taught to us by our Savior, whose birth we celebrate

Author Unknown

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