Don't Fight Back

When I was a boy, I used to work in a sport center. My job was to look after the target in the dart-shooting area. I had to pull out the darts after each game and get them ready for the next player. Sometimes I used to get annoyed at some men who would start a new game even before I had all the darts pulled out...and some of those sharp darts just missed my hand and even my head. And these throwers seemed to get a special delight out of scaring me, they often threw unusually fast.
I was not happy about this and so I consulted one of my teachers about it. He told me, "Sure, they are carelessly throwing those darts, but they don't mean to hurt you. It is nothing personal. That is just their way of blowing off steam when they are upset about something. In other words, they have a problem. But don't fight back. If you do, then you, too, have a problem!"
It's the same in life. When someone wrongs you, it is his or her problem. When you return evil for evil, then you have a problem, perhaps an even worse one, for your reaction was intentional.

--Tom Haggai in Quote

Decision Making

There is an old legend which tells of a powerful genius who promised a beautiful girl a gift of rare value if she would go through a filed of corn and select the biggest and ripest ear she could find. She must do this as she was walking along, and she was not allowed to turn back. The value of the gift would be in proportion to the size and perfection of the ear.

She started out, and passed by many fine ears. But she was so anxious to find the biggest and best, that she kept on going without plucking any. Then the ears began to grow smaller and smaller and smaller, until they became so stunted that she was ashamed to pick any. And not being allowed to go backward, she came out of the field without anything in her hand.

Because she could not make up her mind, she missed everything.

Rash Judgment

Bishop Potter of New York was sailing for Europe. As he went aboard the large ocean liner, he found that another passenger was to share the cabin with him. After looking over his quarters, he went back to the purser's desk and asked if he could leave his gold watch and other valuables in the ship's safe. He explained that ordinarily he never did this sort of thing but he had been to his cabin and had met the man would occupy the other bed, and judging from his appearance, he was afraid that he might not be a very trustworthy person.

The purser accepted the responsibility of caring for the valuables and remarked, "It's all right, Bishop. I'll be very glad to take care of them for you. The other man has just been up here and deposited all his valuables for the same reason."

Personal Savior

Many years ago a wealthy English family took their children to the country for a holiday. Their host turned over his estate to them for a weekend. The children went swimming in the pool. One of the boys began to drown and the other boys screamed for help. The son of the gardener jumped in and rescued the boy. Later, the grateful parents asked the gardener what they could do for the youthful hero. The gardener said his son wanted to go to college. "He wants to be a doctor," he said.
The visitors shook hands on that. "We'll be glad to pay his way," they told him.

Years later, Winston Churchill was stricken with pneumonia and the king of England instructed the best doctor be found to save Prime Minister Churchill. The doctor turned out to be Dr. Fleming, the discoverer of penicillin.

After he was well again, Churchill said to Fleming, "Rarely has one ,man owed his life twice to the same rescuer."
It was Fleming who had saved Churchill in that swimming pool.

Would the Truth Have Made Him Free?

"A client of mine," said the lawyer, "was in court suing for compensation. He had an arm and a leg in a cast, and his head in bandages."
"The judge, who knew him, leaned over and asked, "George, how do you feel?"
"About ready to die," answered the battered-up George.
"But I don't understand. The police account of the accident says here that right after the accident, you told Sergeant Buka that you were fine."
"Well, that's not quite right." said George. "It was like this: after that big truck hit me and my horse and wagon, I was knocked cold. When I came to, I saw Buka's car with the blue light going on around... Then Buka walked over to where my horse was in the ditch, he shook his head and took out his gun and shot her. Then with the gun still smoking, he walked over to me and asked, "How do you feel?"
"And I said, "I feel fine."

Mothers and Math

A teacher in one of the public schools put this question to little Jimmy in the math class, "James, suppose your mother made a cake and there were ten of you at the table-- your mother and father and eight children. How much of the pie would you get?"
"A ninth ma'am," was the prompt answer.
"No, no James. Now pay attention," said the teacher. "There are ten of you. Ten, remember. Don't you know your fractions?"
"Yes, ma'am," was the swift reply of little Jimmy, "I know my fractions. But I know my mother, too. She'd say she didn't want any."

Little Sins

Two sinners visited a holy man and asked his advice. "We have done wrong," they said, "and our conscience is troubled. What must we do to be forgiven?"
"Tell me of your wrongdoing, my sons," said the old man.
The first man said, "I committed a great and grievous sin."

The second man said,"I have done some small things, nothing much to worry about."
"All right," said the saint. "Go and bring me a stone for each sin."
The first man came back with a big boulder. The second man cheerfully brought a bag of small stones.

"Now," said the old man, "go and put them all back where you found them."

The first man lifted the rock and staggered back to the place where he had gotten it. The second man could not remember where half the stones belonged, so he just gave up. It was too much like work.
"Sins are like these stones," said the old man. "If a man commits a great sin, it is like a heavy stone on his conscience. But with true sorrow it is removed completely. But the man who is constantly committing small sins which he knows to be wrong, gets hardened to them and feels no sorrow. So he remains a sinner.

"So you see, my sons," concluded the old saint, "it is as important to avoid little sins as well as the big ones."

The Bible in Figures

A prisoner was confined to solitary confinement and was given a Bible as his only companion. So he studied it very carefully for several years. Long before the days of computers, he discovered the following facts about the Bible:
It contains 3,586,489 letters.
It has 773,692 words.
It has 31,173 verses.
It has 1,189 chapters.
The word "and" occurs 46,277 times.
The middle verse in the entire Bible is verse 8 of psalm 118.
All the letters of the alphabet are found in Ezra 8:12.
The longest verse is Esther 8:9.
The shortest verse is John 11:35.
Those were the amazing facts which that prisoner researched out of the Bible.
We are nowhere told that the message of the Bible touched the prisoner's heart.

Treasure in Heaven

A wealthy man lay on his deathbed. His entire life had been centered around money. As his life ebbed away, he presumed that in the afterlife, money would also be everything. So he gave orders that a purse filled with gold coins be placed inside his casket alongside his body. His last wish was carried out.
In the next world, it took the bookkeeper a long time to find his name in any of the good books. In fact it took so long that he got very hungry and thirsty just waiting. He looked around and sure enough, he saw an attractive eatery not far away. "Aha," he said to himself, "it's just like I thought. It's a good thing that i brought some money along with me."
His mouth was already watering as he approached the restaurant. But before he sat down to eat, he was told that the money he had brought along had no value now. In fact, only money that was of any value now was the money he had given away on earth. The rich man dropped his head in deep thought, but could not remember having given any money away..so now he had none.
As an Englishman of another stripe let his tombstone explain:
"What I spent I had.
What I kept I lost.
What I gave I have."

Working For God

Joe had always been a helpful neighbor and so the lady next door asked him if he could drive her little son to the hospital. Actually, Joe had other plans but he did not know how to say no. So he sat the little boy onto the car seat, fastened his seatbelt, and started off on the 50-mile trip to the hospital.
As they were driving along, the little boy slowly turned to Joe and asked, "Are you God?"
Startled, Joe said, "No."
The boy continued, "I heard my mommy asking God for some way to get me to a doctor. If you are not God, do you work for him?"
Joe replied,"I guess so-sometimes. And now you asked, I will be doing it a lot more."

the magic mustard seed

A Chinese lady who had lost her only son went to the man of religion in her village and said, "Is there anything you can give me to reduce the pain that I feel?"
"Yes," he said. "There is a wonderful thing you can do. I want you to go and get me a mustard seed from a home that has no problems. When yo find it, you bring it to me and I will use it to relieve your pain."
So the lady started out and came to a big mansion. Nothing could possibly be wrong here!" She knocked on the door, told what she was looking for, and they answered, "You've come to the wrong house." And then they told her all their problems..
As she was listening to their problems, she thought, "I know something about problems.. maybe I can help these people with theirs." So she listened to them; and this helped people.
She kept on searching for her magic mustard seed. But no matter where she went, she could not find that seed. Everyone everywhere had some kind of troubles.
But she really did find the magic mustard seed, because in trying to help others solve their problems, she forgot all about her own.