Tolitz Fantastic Blog

2011-07-29T10:33:00.001-07:00

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Short Story Collection

2009-12-30T06:30:00.000-08:00

A Bamboo Tree
A farmer had a cluster of beautiful bamboo trees. One day he stood before the tallest one and said, "My friend, I need you." "Sir," said the bamboo, "Use me in any way you wish, I am ready." Then the gardener's voice became serious and he said, "In order to use you, I've got to split you in half." Then the bamboo reacted, "Split me" Oh, no... I'm the nicest bamboo in this garden. Use me in any way you wish, but please don't split me in half." "Well," said the gardener, "if I can't split you, I can't use you." The bamboo went silent. Then it bowed its head and said, "Okay. If the only way you can use me, is by splitting me, go ahead." "But that's not all," said the gardener. "I am going to have to cut off all your branches." "That will be the end of my beauty," the bamboo said. "But - if that's the only way I can be of use - cut me down altogether." So the farmer cut down the bamboo, removed its branches and split it down the middle. After hollowing out its insides, he brought it to a spring of water. It became a pipe to bring water to the gardens and make them fertile and fruitful.
It gave its life to help other lives. Everyday right around us people are giving their lives that we might live... Take our parents, our teachers, ...

God Hidden in People
Once God promised an elderly lady that he would visit her that day. So she got ready... She scrubbed and cleaned and polished and dusted and put everything in order. Then she sat down and waited for God to come. Suddenly someone knocked. She raced to the door and quickly pulled it open and what did she see but just a poor beggar standing outside. "No, not today," the lady said, "for heaven's sake get along with you... I am waiting for God to come any minute now... I can't be bothered with you." The beggar left as hungry as he had come. A bit later there was another knock. The lady opened the door even faster than before. A poor old man stood there. "Sorry," said the lady, "I can't take care of you today." With that she slammed the door in his face. Quite a bit later someone again knocked at the door. Again it was a ragged hungry beggar. She sent him off empty-handed and sat down to wait. Evening came on and still there was no sign of God. Finally she went to bed with a heavy heart. She dreamt that the good Lord had come to her and said, "I came to you three times today and all three times you threw me out."
There is an old custom in the monasteries of Europe. All guests, all people coming to the door, are treated well, because they believe in the old saying: "When a guest comes, Christ comes."

Believing in People
A wealthy businessman in a small town had signs printed and placed all over the town. They stated that if any person in the town who owed debts, would come to his office on a certain day between nine and twelve in the morning, he would pay those debts. Naturally, that promise was the talk of the town. But very few believed it. They thought there was a catch somewhere. The day came. The business man sat in his office at nine. Bu ten, no one had come. At eleven, a man was seen walking up and down outside, occasionally looking up at the office door. Finally he seemed to take courage and open it. He put his head in and asked, "Is it true that you will pay any person's debt?""That's right," the rich man replied. "Are you in debt?" "I certainly am," the caller answered. "Do you have along the bills and statements to proveit?" The visitor produced the documents and the business man wrote out a check covering all of them. Before twelve o'clock, two other men came and had their debts paid. People outside could not believe it. But now there was no time left to have their bills paid.
If people don't believe in the goodness of man, how can they believe in the goodness of God?

Education
An Arab sheik was getting along in years and he felt that it was time to name one of his sons his successor. He had three sons, who were triplets. He loved them all equally and did not know which of them to choose as a successor. So he sent them off to a distant land and promised that the one who would come back with the most useful learning would get the birthright. The three went off to distant lands; attended universities and visited exotic places. The first brother invented magic glasses with which he could see any place he wished to see on earth. The second perfected a magic carpet on which he sat and zoomed to any part of the earth in five minutes. The third son invented a medicine that could cure any sickness. After some years the three came together for a birthday party and explained what they had found. The first son looked through his magic glasses and saw his father dying. The second invited the other two to hop onto his magic carpet and within five minutes they were at their father's side. There the third son took out his magic medicine and cured his father at once. Now the sheik was more confused than ever, since it took the work of all three of them to save his life....
That is the story of Christian education. It needs three places of schooling: the home, the church and the classroom. If one of them is lacking, the other two won't work.

Forgiveness of Sins
A missionary on one of the islands was sitting in his cool seaside hut one day when one of the village women came in, carrying a handful of dripping sand she had just picked up off the beach. "Do you know what this is?" she asked. "It looks like sand," said the missionary. "Do you know why I brought it here?" she asked. "No. I can't imagine why," the padre answered. "Well, these are my sins," the women explained. "My sins are as countless as the sands of the sea. How can I ever obtain forgiveness for all of them.?" "You got that sand down by the shore, didn't you?" said the missionary. "Well, take it back there, and pile it up into a heaping mound of sand at the water's edge. Then you sit back and watch the tide come in and slowly wash away the pile altogether. That is how God's forgiveness works."...
In Isaiah 1:18 God says to the people: "Now, let's settle this matter. You are stained red with sin, but I will wash you as clean as snow. Although your stains are deep red, you will be as white as wool."

The Validity of Religions
Down at the local coffee shop, two farmers were arguing about the validity of their respective religions. A third farmer listened fro a while and then observed out loud: "I've been bringing' my wheat here to this same mill for over forty years. Now, there be two roads that lead up to the mill. Never once, friends, has he miller asked me which road I take.
He just asks: 'Is your wheat good?'"

Life is Like An Echo
A little boy came running excitedly to his mother saying: "Mom, there is a boy out there in the woods who is mocking me. Everything I say he says after me. If I say: "Hello," he says: "Hello." When I say "Who are you?" he says: "Who are you?" "So I got mad and jumped over the fence and went into the woods to find him. But he wasn't anywhere. So I yelled, "I'll punch you in the nose." And he said the very same thing, exactly as I had said it." The boy's mother told him, "That is only an echo answering you Billy. If you had said: 'I love you,' it would have said the same to you." There is a similar story about a dog who went into a room full of mirrors. He eventually died of exhaustion trying to fight his mirrored 'enemies.' If he had only wagged his tail once, he would have had all of them wagging their tails in friendship.
Life is like an echo or a mirror: we get out of it what we put in.

Bible For Illiterates
Four clergymen were discussing the merits of the various translations of the Bible. On liked the King James version because of its simple, beautifullanguage. Another liked the American Standard version best because it comes closer to the original Hebrew and Greed. The third liked Moffatt's translation best because of its up-to-date words. The fourth clergyman was silent. When asked to express his opinion, he replied: "I like my mother's translation best."
The other three expressed surprise and wanted to know what he meant. "Well," he explained, "my mother translated the Bible into her everyday life, and it was the most convincing translation I ever saw."

Faith in God
Smitty was a hard-headed farmer. When a flood hit the area, he climbed onto the roof of his house. A rescue boat came along but Smitty told them, "No, thanks. I have faith in the Lord. He will save me. The waves got even higher and Smitty had to go to the very top of the roof. Another boat came by to save him, but he still insisted that the Lord would save him. Then the water began to get his feet wet and a helicopter swooped down to take him away. But Smitty still depended on the Lord to save him. Well, you can easily imagine what happened. Yes. Smitty was drowned. When he stood before the Lord in the next world, he complained, "Lord, I had such faith in you. Why didn't you save me?" To which the Lord replied, "What more do you want me to do? I sent you two boats and a helicopter."
Saint James puts it this way in the Scripture: "It is by his actions that a man is put right with God, and not by his faith alone" (James 2: 24)

Being a Light
In one corner of the world squatted a sullen, sulking, friendless darkness. Suddenly a tiny light appeared. It was very small but it was a light. Someone had put it there. It just stood there and sent out its rays. A passerby remarked to the light: "Don't you think you would be of more use somewhere else and not in this God-forsaken corner?" "Not really," said the little light. "I shine because I am a light. And because I shine, I am a light. I don't shine in order to be seen, but so that others could seen in the dark." When the gloomy darkness heard this, it gritted its teeth and full of furry, tried to put out the light. But the gigantic darkness was powerless againstthis tiny light that wanted to shine.
An old saying goes: "It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness."

Seeing Dirt
One of the British noblemen had left behind a big castle which contained priceless paintings. The public could come and see them from time to time. One day a group of people were moving through the large rooms and admiring the paintings as they went. One elderly woman never spoke a word but would repeatedly go close to each picture and examine it very carefully. After the visit, someone asked her what she thought of it all. "It was perfect," she said with enthusiasm. "I could not find a speck of dust anywhere." How often we miss the beauties of life because we are so intent on looking for faults.
Someone puts it this way: "There is so much bad in the best of us, and so much good in the worst of us, that it is not fair for any of us to speak against the rest of us."

Sincerity
They tell a story about the wise King Solomon of the old Testament. One day his friend the Queen of Sheba sent him two vases of roses. One vase had real roses in it; the other had hand-made roses, which were so perfect that she challenged King Solomon to tell her which roses were the real ones without smelling them. That was no problem to the wise Solomon. He just opened the window and let in a swarm of bees. They flew right over to the real roses. Many people may look alike from the outside, but God can easily tell the difference.
Saint Paul in Galatians 6:3 puts it this way, "if someone thinks he is somebody when really he is nobody, he is only deceiving himself."

Envy
Centuries ago in the country of Greece there was a young athlete who had so distinguished himself in the public games that his fellow citizens raised a statue in his honor, to keep fresh the memory of his victories. This statue so excited the envy of another athlete who had been defeated in the races, that one night he went out under cover of darkness with the intention of destroying that statue and knocking it to pieces. First he tried and tried to tip over the statue. He tugged and pulled and shoved... and after an hour it moved just a little bit. This encouraged him and he gave one mighty push and the statue fell -- on top of him, and killed him. Envy always harms the one who is guilty of it.
Did it ever occur to you that when you envy somebody or you are jealous of somebody, that this does not hurt that person in any way... He or she does not feel it at all... It only hurts you: it eats your insides out... So, you see, that it is a useless, self-destructive exercise. As Ben Sirach says in the Old Testament "Envy and anger shorten one's life." [Sir. 30:24]

Greed
A rich landowner offered to give the newly arrived neighbor all the land he could walk around in one day. The condition was that he would have to be back at the spot from which he started by sundown. Early the next morning the neighbor set out, without eating any breakfast or greeting anyone. His plan was to cover six square miles. When he finished the first six, he decided to make it nine, then twelve, and finally fifteen. That meant he would have to walk sixty miles before sundown. By noon he had covered thirty miles. He did not stop for food or drink. His legs grew heavier and heavier. About two hundred yards from the finish line, he saw the sun going toward the horizon. He had only a few minutes left. He gathered all his energies for that one last effort. He staggered across the line just in time. Then he reached for his heart and fell down in a heap - dead. All the land he got was a piece six feet by two for his grave. He died of greed.
In Luke 12:15 Jesus says to the crowd: "Avoid greed in all forms."

Tongues
The king made a banquet and ordered his clever slave to serve the best food that money could buy. The main food at the meal was tongue... all kinds of tongue cooked in all kinds of ways. All the side dishes and even dessert were also tongue... When the king objected, the slave said: "My Lord, what excels the tongue? It is the channel of wisdom and learning. By it we make speeches and carry out business. By it great personas are made known. With our tongue we speak even to God.. King, there is nothing equal to the tongue." The king all the guests were astounded to hear all this wit and wisdom come from the slave. The next day the king threw another banquet. The same guests came back. This time the king ordered the slave to serve the worst kind of meat he could find. Again, he served tongue - and only tongue. When the king began to scold the slave over this, he answered: "My Lord, can there be anything worse than the tongue? Treasons, deaths, violence, injustices, fraud, murder, wars - all are debated and decided by the tongue. The tongue ruins empires and countries, peoples and families. What is worse than the tongue?"
When would have the slave served your tongue?

Relaxation
They say that Saint John the Apostle liked to play with his pet sparrow from time to time. One day a hunter came to visit him and was surprised to see such a famous man playing. He surely could and should be making better use of his time. So he asked him, "Why do you waste your time playing? Why devote so much attention to something as useless as a sparrow?" Saint John looked at him in surprise and asked: "Why is the string on your bow not tight?" "Oh, you can't keep it tight all the time," the hunter explained, "otherwise it loses its tension and becomes useless for shooting arrows." So Saint John told him in return: "My friend, just as you always release the tension on your bowstring, so you must release the tension inside of you and relax. If I don't relax and just play, I have no strength for any great undertaking. I don't even have the strength to do what I have to and what is necessary."
The recess break which gets us out of the classroom or office is a very necessary part of work and education. We will need it later on in life if we want to do a good job for a long time...

Hope
Many years ago there lived a very old man. Before his house stood two tall mountains that kept out the sunlight. He was not happy about this and so he sat down with his sons and all made a solemn promise that they would hack back away those two mountains A neighbor saw them go out with their hoes and shook his head. "How stupid can you get?" he screamed. "It's absolutely impossible for you to carry away those mighty mountains." The old man only smiled and said: "Well, when I die, my sons will carry on the work. And when they die, my grandsons will continue it. Yes, the mountains are high but they won't get any higher. But our strength can still grow. With every shovel full of earth that we carry away, we come closer to our goal." "It is better to do something than just sit around and complain that those mountains keep out the sunlight." With complete conviction the old man kept right on digging. God saw it and was moved to send two angles to earth. They lifted the two mountains onto their shoulders, and carried them off.
In his letter to the Corinthians, Saint Paul talks about having faith great enough to move mountains. [1 Cor. 13:2].

Everyone has Problems
A mother 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. Such a mustard seed can ward off all problems. When you find it, bring it to me and I will use it to relieve your pain." So the mother 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.

God Needs Our Hands
At the end of World War II a group of soldiers offered to help the people of a destroyed village in any way they could. But instead of asking for food, money, or farm equipment, the townsmen asked for help in restoring a statue. For years their proudest possession had been a statue of Christ in their own town square. Now it lay shattered into many pieces. Could the soldiers help put it together again? It was a difficult task, chips and pieces lay all over the square. Finally the statue was repaired except for two missing parts that the soldiers could not find. Finished, they covered the statue with a silken parachute, so that it could be unveiled in a ceremony before the townspeople, even though it was incomplete. On the occasion the mayor of the town gave a speech and pulled the cord of the silken drape... It dropped from the statue, showing a Christ withouthands. At first the townspeople were shocked. Then they looked down at a sign which the soldiers had put at the feet of the statue. It said: "I have no hands. Won't you please lend me yours?"...
Matthew 25:40 says: "Whenever you did something for one of the least important of these brothers of mine, you did it for me."

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 seat belt, 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 God?" Joe replied: "I guess so - sometimes. And now that you ask, I will be doing it a lot more."
Are you on God's most current employee list...?

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 bookkeepers 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."

Listening
A man realized that he could not hear very well and that he had to buy a hearing aid. But he did not want to spend much money on it. So he went to the store and asked the clerk, "How much do hearing aids cost?" "Well" said the salesman, "it depends. They run from two dollars to two thousand .'' "Let me see the two dollar model," the man said. The clerk hung a string around the man's neck. "Just put this button in your ear," he said, "and stick this string in your pocket." "How does it work?" asked the customer. "It doesn't work. But when people see it on you, they'll speak louder."
Actually most of our communication problems are not due to people speaking too softly, Most of us are not good listeners. Big companies know that people want to be listened to. One company uses the motto: "We listen better, and another company says, "We hear you." As one little girl promised, "I'll try to listen louder."

Un-Selfishness
They tell a story about Saint Peter. He was taking a visitor to the next world on a tour. First they came to hell. It was like a big dining room with long tables all loaded with food. And still, everyone seemed skinny and half starved. They had a special way of eating here in hell: each one had a spoon with a handle which was two meters long. Now when the guest visited heaven he noticed that they had the same system of eating in their dining room. But here everyone seemed well fed. Noticing this, the visitor asked Saint Peter for the reason. "Well," he explained, "did you notice that in hell everyone tried to feed himself with that long spoon? Well, no one can reach his mouth, and so they are all starving. But in heaven everyone feeds everyone else with those long spoons. And so, everything goes just fine.
This is a good example of Christianity in practice. We think of the other person first and of ourselves, last.

Selfishness
In Africa they have a special way of capturing monkeys. These wary little animals are very fond of rice. In order to capture them, local farmers put some rice inside a hollow coconut shell, into which they have cut a hole just large enough for the monkey's hand. Half a dozen traps like this are left lying around in the center of the village. But each one is attached by a string to a nearby house. A family of monkeys comes up, attracted by the smell of rice. Each slips its hand into a shell to get a handful of rice. But with its hand full, it is unable to remove it. The hunters then approach and easily gather in their prey. If the monkey would only let go of the rice, it would be able to get away from the trap that had been set for it. But it likes rice too much to give it up - even at the risk of life.
How true it is, that the hand which is closed cannot receive - even freedom

A Candle
One evening a man took a small candle from a box and began to climb a long winding stairway. "Where are we going?" asked the candle. "We're going up higher than a house to show the ships the way to the harbor." "But no ship in the harbor could ever see my light," the candle said. "It is so very small." "If your light is small," the man said "just keep on burning brightly and leave the rest to me." When they reached the top of the long stairs, they came to a large lamp. Then he took the little candle and lit the lamp. Soon the large polished mirrors behind the lamp sent beams of fight out across the miles of sea.
We are God's candle. Our job is to keep on shining. The success of our work is in His hands. A tiny candle or match can start a forest fire. The little flame of your good example can actually change the lives of others without you knowing it. Be a light to them like the beacon light in the story which guided the ships to safe harbor.

The Family Bible
One day the pastor was trying to test little Anna on her religious knowledge. So he began by asking: "Do you attend Sunday school regularly?" "Oh, yes, father," she answered. "And you know your Bible?" "Yes, father." "Could you perhaps tell me something that is in it?" "I could tell you everything that's in it," said the little girl. "Indeed!" the priest smiled. "Do tell me then." "Well my sister's boyfriend's photo is in it," said Anna. "And my mother's recipe for cake is in it, and a lock of my hair which they cut off when I was a baby... and there's the guarantee to Dad's watch..." Question: Were these items in the family Bible because everyone was using it regularly? Or because it was never used, and so they were safe there?

Doing a Good Job
They tell the following story about the famous Polish pianist Paderewski. A mother had a little boy who was learning to play the piano. In order to encourage him she took him to a concert by the famous Paderewski. Both of them arrived at the music hall a bit early and soon the mother got into a conversation with one of her lady friends. Meanwhile, the little boy wandered off....When it was eight o'clock, the spotlights came on and the stage curtain opened. And there was that little boy seated at the piano innocently playing that children's song, "Twinkle, twinkle, little star." Paderewski came on stage and quickly moved over to the piano. "Don't quit. Just keep on playing," he whispered to the little boy. Then he leaned over the boy and put his hands onto the keyboard right alongside the little boy's. The little boy kept repeating and repeating "Twinkle, twinkle, little star" and meanwhile the genius was weaving all kinds of new melodies around it, a different one each time. The crowd was thrilled by this unpreparedconcert.
As we play our little melody in our daily life, God whispers to us, "Don't quit, Keep on playing..." And He makes a masterpiece out of our simple music.
By:
SOCIETY OF THE DIVINE WORD

Helping a Man in a Hole
A man was walking along and fell into such a deep hole that he could not get out. So he began to shout very loud for help. A learned professor came along and found him. He looked down into the hole and began to scold him: "How could you be so careless as to fall down there? You should be more careful. If you ever get out again, watch your step." And with that he walked away. Then a holy man came along. He looked down into the hole and told the man, "I'll reach down as far as I can and you reach up as far as you can. If I can grab your hand, I'll pull you out." But it did not work: the hole was too deep. So the holy man said he was sorry, and left the trapped man to his fate. Then Christ came along. He saw the man's problem, and without asking him any questions, he jumped down into the hole. Then he let the man climb up onto his shoulders, and even onto his outstretched arms. And the man got out.
This is known as being personally involved. A Christian gives his life for another.

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The Long and Winding Road

2009-12-30T06:17:00.000-08:00

By: Joanne A. Cuyugan

I wanna get rich… I do… I believe.

Climbing the ladder of success could be easy and not so easy with some people but the key here is what we call—Attitude. First you must start with attitude. What makes you tick? Or who makes you tick? What drives you? Or who drives you?

If you know the answer to those questions, you would see how far you’d go. If you know you’re leaning on to something more solid than yourself, or Someone like the One who created them all, you know you’re in good hands. But if you’re reclining into something temporal and changeable, then, as one wise king once said, everything is vanity.

Life is one hell of a ride, people say. It is. Life is short and quick the key is how to spend it. We want to get rich, at least most people do. For different reasons, for different motivations, we want to climb that high ladder of success. We can push, kick, grasp, strive, pant, we wanna get there. But on what means?

If you are not able to master a positive and rightful attitude, all efforts to get rich become like sinking sand. Some people would climb the ladder fast and easy but falling down is much quicker. While some people do it steadily, patiently, consistently, and reach the top just right. Which of these is you?

One Filipino author once told, a lady went to a mango vendor. She asked the vendor how much a kilo of mango costs. The vendor told her Php 50 per kilo. She was shocked. The vendor saw the unbelief in her face and he calmly suggested: “Madam, if you want cheaper mangos, you can look at that bunch over there. They’re yours for free.” She looked and there were overripe, rotten mangos.

Excellence or Mediocrity? Excellence costs a higher price of hardwork and perseverance. Mediocrity is “pwede na yan” (“that would do”) attitude. Like those sweet, ripe and luscious mangoes that cost 50 pesos, excellence produce as such output. While mediocrity spells old, overripe, rotten mangos anybody can have for free. They’re totally useless.

I wanna get rich. I wanna get there. I believe I can. I believe the big Boss up there will see me through reach my dreams. I have to have the right attitude, and the right motivation.

Hardwork, perseverance, determination- they all must lead to one road: Excellence. If you want to get rich, I have one word for you…excel.

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The Secret of Happiness: Recognizing that being born is like winning the lottery

2009-11-10T07:09:00.000-08:00

by Mitch McCrimmon, Ph.D.

How would your happiness improve if you won the lottery? This fantasy is universal because so many people are unhappy, dissatisfied with their lot in life.
But why do you focus on what you haven’t got rather than on things you could feel happy about now? Why waste your life dreaming about winning a pile of money when you have already won an infinitely more valuable lottery prize: You were born. Can you imagine what you would have missed if you had never been born? No doubt some people say they would prefer not to have been born. But life can be viewed as a great opportunity to make whatever we can out of it, to find happiness in the here and now. No matter what the present is like, we can choose to dwell on how horrible it all is or we can choose to think about all the small things that have made us happy throughout our lives.
Try thinking of your life as a dream holiday. Suppose you won the most fantastic, luxurious 2 week holiday you can imagine. Would you let yourself enjoy only the first week of your holiday and then spend the second week feeling sorry for yourself because your holiday had to come to an end soon? This is what people in the second half of life do. They get increasingly grumpy because their time is running short but they spoil half their lives by letting themselves feel this way.
Every morning when you wake up, try telling yourself that your dream holiday has just been extended by another day. You have won the lottery all over again. Tell yourself how lucky you are to have whatever you have and make up your mind to enjoy your day. Try to make it a special day, have some fun and make someone close to you feel good.
You might object: ‘’My life is no dream. In fact, it’s crap!’’ Someone who feels this way is likely to add: ‘’If you look at life objectively, it’s no picnic. We struggle along for a few miserable years only to get sick, old and die. Where is the fun in that!’’ The truth is that it is not possible to look at life ‘’objectively.’’ How we view life is totally and utterly a matter of attitude. We can all think of people who are worse off than we are who are happy in spite of their limitations or setbacks.
The fascinating question here, therefore, is why do so many people choose to maintain such a negative attitude toward their lives? A tendency to be dissatisfied with the present and to take for granted the good progress we have made has evolutionary value. We wouldn’t keep striving to improve our lot otherwise.
But excessive dissatisfaction is self-defeating and a recipe for unhappiness. Here are a few reasons why this happens:
• Things we have gained or done well are easily taken for granted.
• We can readily see lots of ways that things could be better, how we could be happier.
• Seeing what we don’t have is painful and hence more visible.
• We are bombarded with role models on TV who look better off than we are.
• Feeling that others are better off than us induces envy, anger and resentment.
• To protect our self esteem, we blame others or circumstances for our fate.
• We tend to globalize – some things in life are crap, therefore life is crap.
• We get more negative than positive feedback because people react more strongly to things that annoy them.
So, what can you do to change your attitude toward your life, to find more happiness? Here are a few suggestions:
• Tell yourself every morning that you have won the lottery all over again because you have won another day to live and enjoy.
• Make up your mind to make every day special.
• At the end of every week, make a list of all the good things you did, the things you enjoyed and what made you happy that week. Like managing your weight or changing any bad habit, regular, consistent discipline is absolutely vital.
• Continuously monitor and catch yourself thinking negative thoughts, then force yourself to stand back and focus on something positive if only to tell yourself that you are so lucky to be alive that none of this annoying stuff really matters by comparison.

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Contemplating ending it all?

2009-11-10T07:04:00.000-08:00

by Mitch McCrimmon, Ph.D.

• If you are medically depressed, you may need medical attention or counselling.
• You can try to help yourself first, but you should get professional help. It doesn't hurt to talk to an expert.
How can you help yourself to avoid committing suicide
• Think about how we make decisions - when we feel like doing something, we look for MORE reasons to do it. We don't objectively seek reasons NOT to do what we want. This is self-serving but we do it for all sorts of decisions, like buying a new car or changing jobs.
• So, if you feel like committing suicide, you may be backing yourself into a corner by not letting yourself see any good reasons to live.
• Can you make a list of all the good reasons you can think of to go on living? Writing things down, forcing yourself to make a LONG list can help.
• How can you help others feel better about themselves? Much of the world is unhappy for many of the same reasons.
• Don't forget the best reason to go on. Being born at all rather than not is like winning the world's biggest lottery. You are one of the lucky ones.
• If you don't agree with this, you should realize that there is no right and wrong answer here. It is a CHOICE we make how to look at the accident of our birth. You can convince yourself that you are incredibly lucky to be alive, but only if you make a list of all the great opportunities that life brings, little things like seeing birds sing or feeling the sun on your face, not to mention doing things for others or trying to make the world a better place in some small way.
• You may have some objective aspects of your life that you don't like and can't change, like having a disability, but you can change how you view yourself and your life. You can find something to be happy about if you make up your mind to do it and look for something you can enjoy doing.
• Realize that whenever you start thinking about how bad things are for you that this is your choice. It is not easy to simply talk yourself into feeling good. This is only the first step. The more important step is to get out of yourself and focus on doing good things in the world, like helping people, for instance. We acquire good feelings about ourselves by being busy doing things we like doing and seeing the gratitude in others when we help them.

Are you a fault-finder?

2009-11-10T07:00:00.000-08:00

by Mitch McCrimmon, Ph.D.

• Some people do more than their share of finding fault with all kinds of things around them.
• They do so only partly because things are not so great around them. But the main reason is that they are unhappy within themselves.
• Research has shown that people who are bored with working in a factory, complain about poor working conditions, a noisy environment, a cold workplace, poor lighting and numerous other things that are bugging them about where they work.
• These same people, however, don't mind getting dirty working on their cars or in their gardens or working in poor light or nasty weather on their pet projects. They might even work long hours or forget to take a break.
• Why the difference? Because they feel such a strong sense of personal satisfaction when doing their hobbies that they overlook the negatives which are insignificant by comparison to the sense of achievement and personal worth they get from doing something that is meaningful to them.
• By contrast, at work, they may be just getting paid to do work that doesn't interest them. But the odd thing is that we complain about the small stuff rather than say that we feel undervalued or uninterested in our work.
• So, if you find yourself complaining a lot about small things, ask yourself what deeper reason is there that might explain why you are unhappy.
• See what you can do about that. Can you change your focus so that you spend more time doing the things you like doing? Try to focus more on making other people happy. That is easy to do and it achieves two other things: it can give you a better sense of self-worth and, secondly, it can get your mind off yourself for a while.

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I don't like how I look! - How does this affect your self esteem?

2009-11-10T06:50:00.000-08:00

by Mitch McCrimmon, Ph.D

• What can you change about how you look? Not much but do what you can.
• More importantly, we have to find ways of valuing ourselves other than our looks.
• Everyone has good qualities, many of which can be learned or cultivated.
• It is easy to overlook our good qualities because these are the things we do naturally, that we like doing or find easy to do, so we discount them, thinking everyone does them, but that is often not true.
• For example, people like us because of how we treat them. This is a more important quality for preserving long term relationships than how we look.
• Even the so-called ''beautiful'' people get divorced and can be unhappy.
• Often the best looking people are so wrapped up in their looks that they have no depth, no attractive qualities beyond their looks - this is a worse handicap than not having great looks.
• If your sole basis for attracting the interest of others is how you look, what value is that? How long do you think people's interest can be maintained merely by how someone looks? Not very long.
• We need to have other qualities, ones that are not just skin deep if we want to hold someone's interest.
• How interesting do you make yourself if, not liking your looks, you spend most of your time worrying about how you look, moaning about life in general and complaining about everything around you?
• You can do little to change how you look, but you can change your attitude.
• Instead of focusing on yourself, focus on others. Help them feel good, be warm, amusing, a good listener, supportive and helpful. Develop a range of interests to make you more interesting.
• When the people you want to attract get beyond looks, you will need to have qualities like this to sustain a long term relationship. What is more important?
• The bottom line is to stop basing your self esteem on how you look and base it instead on how you relate to others, how you behave not what or who you are.

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Get Feedback to build and maintain self esteem

2009-11-10T06:47:00.000-08:00

by Mitch McCrimmon, Ph.D.

• Without feedback, we think negatively and we lose touch with reality. We maintain low self esteem.
• In a negative frame of mind, we exaggerate negative thoughts about ourselves and our self esteem falls further.
• The thought of feedback is frightening as we expect confirmation of our worst fears.
• Actual feedback is more objective and we are surprised at how positive it is.
• The best way to get honest feedback is through an anonymous questionnaire.
• Like businesses, you need accurate feedback from key customers.
• You will get some negative feedback, as will everyone.
• The key is to CELEBRATE the positive feedback and plan to improve in the other areas.
• Use regular feedback as a way of maintaining perspective on yourself.
• Your self esteem will rise as you see how little it takes to really please people.
• Our self esteem suffers when we have no feedback because we expect the worst.
• Even if you don't like some feedback, it is critical to thank the person giving it and to avoid arguing or defending yourself. Otherwise you won't get such feedback ever again.

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Whose standards are hurting your self esteem?

2009-11-10T06:44:00.000-08:00

by Mitch McCrimmon, Ph.D.

Low self esteem can be the result of trying to live up to unrealistic standards - usually ones we acquired early in life and which are no longer relevant.
Some questions to ponder:
• What are you really trying to achieve?
• Why is it so important?
• What about your other values? How well balanced is your perspective?
• Who are you trying to prove yourself to: your boss, father, mother, spouse?
• Beware the Tyranny of The Shoulds - the enemy of self esteem.
• I should...
○ be earning much more money
○ be the best provider for my family in the world
○ be at the very top of my profession
○ get all my work done on time always
○ never make any mistakes...ever
○ always make the right decisions
○ always know exactly what to do
○ always feel enthusiastic and energetic
○ always win all my arguments with everyone
○ always be on top of everything
• You no doubt have other Shoulds to beat yourself with
• But who says you have to be perfect? Or inhumanly invulnerable?
• Can you live up to your Shoulds AND maintain perspective
• Having excessively high standards is a no-win situation with you as the number one loser
• Unachievable standards = low self esteem = pushing yourself even harder
• Exerting even more effort and still failing = even lower self esteem
• Hence you are caught in a self-defeating vicious circle

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Celebrate your strengths

2009-11-10T06:41:00.000-08:00

by Mitch McCrimmon, Ph.D.

Why do you think you have so few strengths worth celebrating?
• Because everyone has always pointed out your shortcomings - as you do yourself.
• Because you rarely get any positive feedback for a job well done .
• Because the things you do well are so familiar to you that you take them for granted .
• Because you have learned to focus only on your mistakes .
Audit your strengths
• This is not as easy as it seems because you will have discounted your strengths.
• Find a good listener to help you review everything you have done.
• Others may be more objective about what you can do than you can be.
• Discuss work and non-work projects you have been involved in over the last 5 years.
• Strive to avoid discounting the other person's attempts to name your strengths.
Regularly review your strengths
• Make a list of your strengths and read it to yourself regularly, adding to it as you go.
• Praise yourself for what you have achieved.
• Compare yourself favourably with peers who have not done what you have done.
• Review your strengths whenever you are feeling particularly defeated.

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How assertive are you?

2009-11-10T06:37:00.000-08:00

by Mitch McCrimmon, Ph.D.

• Some of us are too aggressive others are too submissive.
• Getting the balance right is not easy.
• To the passive, assertiveness feels like being aggressive.
• You feel ashamed, guilty, flustered and upset.
• To the aggressive, just being moderately assertive feels like someone is takiing advantage of them.

Are you aggressive, passive
or assertive?

Enhancing your assertiveness
• You may think you're assertive just because you rant and rave at times.
• But maybe you give in a lot, kidding yourself that you're just being reasonable.
• So how can you say "no" to your boss or others without incurring their wrath?
• Say "Yes, but"... and find a way to help others get what they want without you doing it!
• Or...you negotiate priorities. Which crisis do they want handled first?
• A flat "no" is always confrontational even if not expressed aggressively
• Try saying ''Let me see how I can help you.'' Then advise them how to do it instead of taking it on yourself. Or suggest someone else.
• Being assertive just means speaking firmly about how you feel about a situation.
• It's less confrontational to refer to YOUR feelings rather than the other's behaviour.
• Arguing may be be experienced by the other party as an attack even if you speak gently.
• You can be assertive by asking questions - statements are more confrontational.
• To make a point, ask questions to lead the other party to your conclusions
• Emphasize areas of agreement before disussing differences to defuse conflict.
• Assertiveness...getting the words and the balance just right takes a lot of practice.
• Practice works best with frequent feedback from someone you trust.
• Be assertive to keep yourself from sliding into burnout due to excessive stress.
• The benefit for you is control over your priorities rather than being driven by demands you feel unable to manage.

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Are you happy? What is happiness?

2009-11-10T06:28:00.000-08:00

by Mitch McCrimmon, Ph.D.

• People with low self esteem are unhappy with themselves.
• You can have OK self esteem and still be unhappy.
• This means that you like yourself but are unhappy with some of the
circumstances of your life.
• You could be unhappy with your relationships, career, finances, how you
look, a recent setback, boredom, being criticized or any number of other
factors.
• But if you are unhappy your self esteem could be low as well - this is
because we often blame ourselves when we are unhappy.
How to be happy?
• Unhappiness may be due to a specific circumstance in your life, but the
feeling infects you completely.
• It is hard to feel happy about some things and unhappy about others at the
same time.
• Small things can tip the scales to make us feel happy or unhappy.
• We all have happy and unhappy moods - feelings that do not last long.
• Often we shift from unhappy to happy just with the passage of time.
• Or something happens to tip the balance towards a happy mood.
• Something as simple as warm sunshine on a cool day or a refreshing breeze
on a hot day.
• But what if you are unhappy most of the time?
• What can you do to shift yourself to a happier mood?
• Unhappy people may have real problems with relationships, career,
finances, etc.
• Changing your circumstances might make you happier but this may not be
very easy.
What else can you do?
• Try to avoid dwelling on what makes you unhappy - but thinking alone won't
get you far.
• It helps to be active - doing what makes you happy and taking more
pleasure in them.
• Even physical exercise can shift your brain chemistry towards a happier
state. It's all about getting out of yourself.
• Try to take a different perspective on your life as a whole.
• Imagine that you just arrived at your dream holiday destination.
• Would you let the fact that your holiday has to end spoil your holiday?
• What about mishaps and setbacks --- short of being killed, seriously
injured or mugged?
• Would you not strive to enjoy your dream holiday in spite of minor mishaps?
• Or would you waste your whole holiday feeling sorry for yourself?
• If you thought of your life as a dream holiday, would you not seek to make
more of it?
• Why should you regard your life as the holiday of a lifetime?
• But can you imagine the great things you would have missed if you had
never been born?
• Just being born is like winning the holiday of a lifetime.
• You can view your life however you want. It's your choice.
• But if you have an negative attitude towards your life or circumstances,
ask yourself if it isn't your self esteem that's a problem rather than
your external circumstances.
• It is easy to be defensive by dumping bad feelings on convenient external
scapegoats.
• Constantly criticizing everything around us helps us feel better about
ourselves.
• But this way of eliminating unhappy feelings is no better than abusing
substances.
• So, becoming happier requires being active, changing what we can change,
accepting what we cannot change, trying not to blame others or
circumstances for our misfortunes, valuing what we have and developing a
more positive attitude to our lives.

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What is healthy self esteem?

2009-11-10T06:25:00.000-08:00

by Mitch McCrimmon, Ph.D.

Healthy self esteem does not imply over confidence.
People who have an OK level of self esteem are:
• confident without being overbearing
• not devastated by criticism
• not overly defensive when questioned
• active and achievement orientated without being driven
• mostly happy with themselves as they are
• not easily defeated by setbacks and obstacles
They are also:
• able to accept and learn from their own mistakes
unlikely to feel a need to put others down
• open and assertive in communicating their needs
• self reliant and resourceful without refusing help
• not overly worried about failing or looking foolish
• not harshly or destructively critical of themselves
• not aggressively driven to prove themselves - people with normal self
esteem are happy with themselves as they are
• able to laugh at themselves, not taking themselves too seriously

People with normal self esteem might doubt themselves from time to time but their sense of self worth consistently reverts to a balanced state. Having healthy self esteem does not mean feeling perfect. It is just not being continually plagued by self doubt. Having normal self esteem means not being excessively high one minute and feeling completely worthless the next.

What is low self esteem?

2009-11-10T05:58:00.000-08:00

by Mitch McCrimmon, Ph.D

What is low self esteem?
Here are two basic low self esteem responses:
1. Feeling down on yourself
• feeling overwhelmed by the pace of life
• feeling like a failure relative to everyone else
• constantly doubting whether you can achieve anything
• staying where it's safe, being afraid to try anything too new
• behaving timidly and cannot assert yourself
• overly depending on others to look after you
• finding ways of escaping unpleasant realities
• putting little effort into things because you doubt you can be successful
• putting yourself down constantly
• don't like your looks - too fat, too slim, too short, too tall
2. Feeling angry and getting even
• losing your temper at the drop of a hat
• being quick to pick a fight
• blaming others or circumstances for every setback
• constantly finding fault with the world
• being negative - nothing is good, everything is horrible
• taking pleasure in stories about the troubles of others
• taking things out on others
• constantly arguing about petty issues
Got that sinking feeling? Is that how low self esteem feels for you?
Some stay in one of these positons, others vacilate between them.
• We mistakenly compare how we feel with how others behave.
• Inevitably, most others will behave more happily than we feel.
• So we conclude that no one else could feel as bad as we do.
• This creates a vicious circle and our self esteem drops further.
• Dwelling on the negative is like cancer. It grows and gets worse. It's
pretty hard to force yourself just to think differently when you feel so
negative.
• One solution, if we can't change our situation or ourselves, is to change
our attitude towards such things. One way to do this is to list all of the
good things we can find in any situation. This may be hard at first.
Perhaps someone else can help you. Keep in mind that you are partly
causing yourself to feel worse. When we feel bad, we try to make ourselves
feel better by blaming anything and everything around us, but that can
often just make us feel worse. The worse we feel the more we feel a need
to attack something, anything just to unload these negative feelings. The
problem is, however, that this does not really offer a long term solution
even if it provides immediate relief. You need, instead, to look at what
you can do to change how you perceive things in the first place. This
means finding a more positive way of viewing yourself and your situation.
• Another tactic is to spend time doing and thinking about things that get
in the way of our focus on the negative. Do things that are constructive
and make us feel good. That means such things as helping others or
achieving things that take effort rather than just getting drunk for
instance or watching TV. We can't develop a sense of achievement with no
effort
• Achievement is one of the surest ways of building better self esteem.
Dwelling on ourselves is one of the surest ways of staying down.

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What is self esteem?

2009-11-10T05:53:00.000-08:00

by Mitch McCrimmon, Ph.D.

• Self esteem does not mean seeing yourself as the greatest person in the world.
• It's not the same as being conceited.
• Healthy self esteem means liking yourself, for the most part, as you are.
• You can have OK self esteem and still have occasional bouts of self doubt.
• How you feel about yourself depends on who you compare yourself with.
• Healthy self esteem means thinking as highly of yourself as you think of your
peers.
• Excessive self esteem = being over confident or complacent.
• OK self esteem is compatible with humility.
• Humility is not the same as self-effacement.
• The right balance should place you mid-way between grandiosity and self-
effacement.
• To build and maintain healthy self esteem:
○ Forgive yourself for your mistakes.
○ Celebrate your strengths and achievements.
○ We are so used to negative feedback that we are more aware of our
weaknesses.
○ Set achievable targets and get regular feedback.
○ Change the way you talk to yourself - stop putting yourself down.
○ Be sure that you are not judging yourself against unreasonable standards.
○ Beating yourself for your weaknesses is self-defeating

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How do you talk to yourself?

2009-11-10T05:19:00.000-08:00

by Mitch McCrimmon, Ph.D

It is well known that negative self-talk kills self esteem. Cognitive therapy focuses on helping people talk to themselves more positively, among other things.

• What names do you call yourself?
• When you make a mistake, do you say...
○ What an idiot! How can you be so stupid!
○ Can't you get anything right! What a loser!
○ There you go again! You're not really up to it, are you?!!
• Who else has talked to you this way in the past?
• Why are you still listening to them?
• You can't change your past, but you can change the way you talk to
yourself today.
• Start by making a LONG list of all the good things you have ever done.
• Catch yourself saying nasty things to yourself.
• Exclaim: Stop it!!
• Say the opposite to yourself, that you have achieved a lot of good things.
• Recite your list of achievements to yourself.
• Regularly review your list of Shoulds and tell yourself it's OK to be less
than perfect.
• Be proud of what you have done and of what you are working on.

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The Tract

2009-11-07T07:25:00.000-08:00

Unknown author

Every Sunday afternoon, after the morning service at their church, the pastor and his eleven year old son would go out into their town and hand out gospel tracts. This particular Sunday afternoon, as it came time for the pastor and his son to go to the streets with their tracts, it was very cold outside as well as pouring down rain.

The boy bundled up in his warmest and driest clothes and said ---"OK dad, I'm ready."

His Pastor/Dad asked - "Ready for what?"

"Dad, it's time to get our tracts together and go out."

Dad responds - "Son, it's very cold outside and it's pouring down rain."

The boy gives his dad a surprised look, asking - "But dad, aren't people still going to Hell, even though it's raining?"

Dad answered - "Son, I am not going out in this weather."

Despondently the boy asked - "Dad, can I go, Please?"

His father hesitated for a moment then said - "All right, you can go.

Here are the tracts; be careful son."

"Thanks Dad!!! "And with that he was off and out into the rain.

This eleven year old boy walked the streets of the town going door to door and handing a tract to everybody he met in the street. After 2 hours of walking in the rain he was soaking wet, bone chilled and down to his very last tract. He stopped on a corner and looked for someone to hand a tract to but the streets were totally deserted. Then he turned toward the first home he saw and started up the sidewalk to the front door.

He rang the bell - but nobody answered. He rang it again and again but, still no one answered. He waited but still no answer. Finally the eleven year old trooper turned to leave but something stopped him. Again, he turned to the door and rang the bell and knocked loudly on the door with his fist. He waited, something holding him there on the front porch. He rang again, and this time the door slowly opened. Standing in the doorway was a very sad looking elderly lady.

She softly asked - "What can I do for you son?"

With radiant eyes and a smile that lit up her world this little boy said - "Ma'am, I'm sorry if I disturbed you, but I just want to tell you that Jesus really does love you, and I came to give you my very last gospel tract which will tell you all about Jesus and His great love." With that he handed her his last tract, and turned to leave.

She called to him as he departed - "Thank you son! And God Bless You!"

Well, the following Sunday morning in church, the pastor was in the pulpit and as the service began he asked - "Does anybody have a testimony or want to say anything?"

Slowly, in the back row of the Church, an elderly lady stood to her feet.

As she began to speak a look of glorious radiance came from her face as she said - "None of you in this church know me. I've never been here before. You see, before last Sunday I was not a Christian. My husband passed on, some time ago, leaving me totally alone in this world. Last Sunday, being a particularly cold and rainy day, it was even more so in my heart as I came to the end of the line where I no longer had any hope or will to live.

So I took a rope and a chair and climbed up the stairs to the attic of my home. I fastened the rope securely to a rafter in the roof then stood on the chair and fastened the other end of the rope around my neck. Standing on that chair, so lonely and brokenhearted, I was about to leap off when suddenly the loud ringing of my doorbell downstairs startled me. I thought -
'I'll wait a minute, and whoever it is will go away.'

I waited and waited, but the ringing doorbell seemed to get louder and more insistent and then the person ringing also started knocking loudly. I thought to myself again - 'Who on earth could this be?! Nobody ever rings my bell or comes to see me." I loosened the rope from my neck and started for the front door, all the while the bell rang louder and louder. When I opened the door and looked I could hardly believe my eyes, for there on my front porch was the most radiant and angelic little boy I had ever seen in my life.

His SMILE, oh, I could never describe it to you!!! And the words that came from his mouth caused my heart, that had long been dead, to leap to life as he exclaimed with cherub like voice - Ma'am, I just came to tell you that Jesus really does love you.' Then he gave me this tract that I now hold in my hand. As the little angel disappeared back out, into the cold and rain, I closed my door and read slowly every word of this tract. Then I went up to my attic to get my rope and chair. I wouldn't be needing them any more. You see, I am now a child of the King! And since the address of your church was on the back of this gospel tract, I wanted to come here to personally say 'THANK YOU' to God's little angel who came just in the nick of time.

There were now no dry eyes in the church. And as shouts of praise and honor to the King, resounded off the very rafters of the building, the Pastor/Dad descended from the pulpit to the front pew where the little angel was seated; he took him in his arms and sobbed uncontrollably. Probably no church has had a more glorious moment. And probably this universe has never seen a Papa that was more filled with love for his son - except for one - the Heavenly FATHER Who allowed His Son to go out into a cold & dark world. He received His Son back with joy unspeakable, and as all of heaven shouted praises and honor to the King, The FATHER sat His beloved son on a throne far above all Principality and Power.... and every name that is named....

There may be someone, reading this, who is also going through a dark, cold, lonely time in your soul. You may be a Christian, for we are not without problems, or you may not yet know the KING. Whatever the case, and whatever the problem or situation you find yourself in, and no matter how DARK it may seem, I want you to know that I sent this to tell you - JESUS REALLY DOES LOVE YOU.

“Jesus said to them again, '... 'As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.'" John 20:21

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The Armed Guards

2009-10-31T08:03:00.000-07:00

Author Unknown

Have you ever felt the urge to pray for someone and then just put it on a list and said, "I'll pray for them later."? Or has anyone ever called you and said, "I need you to pray for me, I have this need."? Read the following story. It may change the way that you may think about prayer and also the way you pray. A missionary on furlough told this true story while visiting his home church in Michigan...

"While serving at a small field hospital in Africa, every two weeks I traveled by bicycle through the jungle to a nearby city for supplies. This was a journey of two days and required camping overnight at the halfway point.

On one of these journeys, I arrived in the city where I planned to collect money from a bank, purchase medicine and supplies, and then begin my two-day journey back to the field hospital. Upon arrival in the city, I observed two men fighting, one of whom had been seriously injured. I treated him for his injuries and at the same time talked to him about the Lord Jesus Christ. I then traveled two days, overnight, and arrived home without incident.

Two weeks later I repeated my journey. Upon arriving in the city,I was approached by the young man I had treated. He told me that he had known I carried money and medicines. He said, 'Some friends and I followed you into the jungle, knowing you would camp overnight. We planned to kill you and take your money and drugs. But just as we were about to move into your camp, we saw that you were surrounded by 26 armed guards.

At this I laughed and said that I was certainly all alone out in that jungle campsite.

The young man pressed the point, however, and said, 'No sir, I was not the only person to see the guards. My five friends also saw them, and we all counted them.

It was because of those guards that we were afraid and left you alone.'"

At this point in the sermon, one of the men in the congregation jumped to his feet and interrupted the missionary and asked if he could tell him the exact day that this happened. The missionary told the congregation the date, and the man who interrupted told him this story:

"On the night of your incident in Africa, it was morning here and I was preparing to go play golf. I was about to putt when I felt the urge to pray for you. In fact, the urging of the Lord was so strong, I called men in this church to meet with me here in the sanctuary to pray for you. Would all of those men who met with me on that day stand up?"

The men who had met together to pray that day stood up. The missionary wasn't concerned with who they were-he was too busy counting how many men he saw.

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MR. Nosey

2009-10-29T05:52:00.000-07:00

Author Unknown

Once upon a time, there lived a happy family in a great wood: Mother and Father, Brother, Sister and Baby. Father went off to work each day, and Mother planted seeds and tended her garden and loved her children and taught them to read and write. At night, when Father came home, the family sang songs and laughed and played together.

One day while Father was away at work, a knock came at the door of the family's home. Mother opened the door and found a stern man with sharp teeth and a very Nosey standing on the doorstep.

"May I help you?" Mother asked.

"I am here," snarled the man, "to inspect your home and your children."

Mother was surprised. "Whatever for?" she asked.

"It has been reported," snapped Mr. Nosey, "that you do not institutionalize your children, as is the norm. It has been reported that you spend an abnormal amount of time with your children, and you have been seen laughing with them, and they with you.

It has been reported that your teen child is not embarrassed to be seen with you and that she smiles while working in your garden and hanging laundry. I will have to inspect your house and ask you some questions."

Mother invited Mr. Nosey in and offered him a cup of tea. Mr. Nosey pulled a great pile of papers from his briefcase and began asking important questions: "How many television sets do you own, how often do you dine out, why do you have so many books, what do you have against institutions, why do you grow your own food, do your children know who Madonna is, how about Beavis and Butthead?"

Mother was very kind and reassuring: "We have one television set in the closet," she told Mr. Nosey, "and we dine outside several times a week in nice weather. We have so many books because we love to read. We have no personal grudge against institutions -- we simply choose not to institutionalize. We grow food to eat, and of course my children know who the Madonna is. I'm not sure what a beavis is, and while butthead is a rather crude term, I have known a few."

Mr. Nosey seemed insulted by this last statement and jumped up in a huff. "I must speak with your children," he announced.

Mother called Brother and Sister. Baby was too young to speak. Brother was six years old and Sister was 13. Mr. Nosey asked Brother, "Have you ever heard of Beavis and Butthead?"

"Yes," said Brother. "We have beavers in the creek, and Butthead is my uncle's boss."

Sister giggled, but Mr. Nosey was not amused. He addressed Brother again. "Do your parents ever yell at you?"

"You better believe it!" said Brother. "One time I climbed clear to the top of a 30 foot tree, and Dad yelled and yelled at me to stay up there till he could climb up, too. He doesn't get much time to climb trees, and I think he yelled so much 'cause he was excited at the chance."

Mr. Nosey turned in disgust and asked Sister, "Wouldn't you like to be institutionalized with other children your age?"

"Well, most of my friends are institutionalized," Sister told him. "And I haven't been too impressed with it. They can hardly read anything -- they don't even like Charles Dickens. And they all hate history and math. I like playing jump rope with them in the evening, but they talk about the most boring things, like clothes and make-up and what's on TV, and... oh -- I know who Beavis and Butthead are. Do you know who Mr. Pickwick is?"

"No," said Mr. Nosey curtly. "What sort of music do you listen to?"

"Oh, Beethoven is my favorite. Did you know he went deaf and just kept on writing music?"

"No," said Mr. Nosey impatiently. "Why don't you listen to popular teenage music?"

Sister was surprised that a grown-up would ask such a question, but she answered as politely as possible, "Because it sounds simply wretched."

"Wretched! Wretched!?" screeched Mr. Nosey. "That is not a seventh grade word! Where did you learn it?"

Mother had been in the kitchen preparing a snack of homemade bread and strawberry preserves. When she heard Mr. Nosey screech, she rushed to the living room. "What's wretched?" she asked, a little alarmed.

"This child," Mr. Nosey said indignantly, "correctly used the word wretched."

"Oh, I'm sure she wasn't referring to you," Mother said gently. "Here, have some fresh bread and jam."

Mr. Nosey looked at the tray in Mother's hands suspiciously, then cautiously took her offering. As he ate he began to relax a little. "You made this yourself?" he asked.

"Oh, yes," said Mother.

"And I helped," chimed in Sister. Then she added, "I'm sorry for upsetting you. I didn't know you had an aversion to that word, or I would never have said it."

"Aversion?" Mr. Nosey sighed. He slumped in his chair and looked at Mother. "How do you ever expect your children to fit into the world if you don't institutionalize them, and you encourage them to develop advanced vocabularies and you teach them self-sufficiency. This does not coincide with the new way -- they must follow the new standards."

Mother looked at Mr. Nosey thoughtfully. "I appreciate your apparent concern, kind sir," she said, " but you see, I am not raising children to follow standards -- I am raising them to set standards."

Mr. Nosey looked around in a musing way and murmured, "Yes, yes. I can see that." He left with a bread recipe and an invitation to visit again some time.
"Train up a child in the way he should go,
And when he is old he will not depart from it." Proverb 22:6

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Dundee not betting on a Pacquiao win vs Cotto

2009-10-28T06:26:00.000-07:00

GMANews.TV

For the third time, legendary trainer Angelo Dundee is keeping off his bet on Manny Pacquiao in his Nov. 14 title showdown with Miguel Cotto.

Despite being proven wrong twice before by the Filipino boxing champion, the 88-year-old Dundee thinks reigning World Boxing Organization (WBO) welterweight title holder Cotto has got what it takes to pull off a stunning upset.
Filipino ring superstar Manny Pacquiao and Puerto Rican bomber Miguel Cotto. Top Rank photo
Hall of Fame trainer Dundee visited Cotto's training camp recently in Tampa, Florida, and was convinced the Puerto Rican champion can beat Pacquiao based on what he had seen.

“If I had to pick anybody in the world to fight Pacquiao, it would be Cotto," Dundee, who recently moved in from Miami to Tampa, told Top Rank promoter Bob Arum, whom he chanced upon at Cotto’s Florida training camp.

“Cotto has the best chance of anybody to beat him (Pacquiao) because of his physical power and strong left hook."

Despite being a revered boxing personality involved in the “sweet science" for more than six decades now, Dundee has never got it right in Pacquiao’s last two fights.

The long-retired trainer helped prepare superstar Oscar De La Hoya when he fought the "Pacman" a year ago in a mega-fight that ended with boxing’s "Golden Boy" quitting on his stool just before the ninth round of their "Dream Match" showdown.

The bout proved to be De La Hoya’s last as he retired shortly after.

And only last summer, Dundee also picked two-time junior middleweight champion Ricky Hatton to beat the hell out of Pacquiao. The opposite happened as the 30-year-old General Santos City native knocked the lights out of the boxer from Manchester and scored a swift, second round technical knockout.

If I had to pick anybody in the world to fight Pacquiao, it would be Cotto. Cotto has the best chance of anybody to beat him (Pacquiao) because of his physical power and strong left hook.
– Legendary trainer Angelo Dundee
As the man who promotes both Pacquiao and Cotto, Arum wouldn’t come out in public as to who he thinks will win the much-anticipated slugfest at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

But having seen the two fighters sweat it out in training camps, the veteran boxing promoter, undoubtedly, is a lot impressed with Pacquiao’s work ethic.

“I think, in general, both guys looked very, very good," he said.

“Cotto looked strong. He’s Cotto. He works hard for two hours, He does all his sparring. He’s in tremendous shape," said Arum of the 28-year-old champion from Caguas, Puerto Rico.

Yet for Arum, Pacquiao does more than that.

“I know Cotto works hard, but in contrast to the other guy (Pacquiao), it looks like he’s taking a vacation," said the 77-year-old promoter.

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STOPPED

2009-10-28T03:02:00.000-07:00

Unknown author

Cars were at a stoplight. The light turned green, but the man didn't notice it. The woman behind him begins pounding on her steering wheel and yelling at the man to move. The man doesn't move. The woman is going ballistic inside her car, ranting and raving, pounding on her steering wheel and dash. The light turns yellow. The woman begins to blow the horn, flips him off, screams profanity and curses. The man looks up, sees the yellow light and accelerates through the intersection just as the light turns red.

The woman is beside herself, screaming in frustration as she misses her chance to get through the intersection. As she is in mid-rant she hears a tap on her window and looks up into the barrel of a gun held by a policeman. The policeman tells her to shut off her car while keeping both hands in sight. She complies, speechless at what is happening. After she shuts off the engine, the policeman orders her to exit her car with her hands up.

She gets out of the car and he orders her to turn and place her hands on her car. She turns, places her hands on the car roof and quickly is cuffed and hustled into the patrol car. She is too bewildered by the chain of events to ask any questions and is driven to the police station where she is fingerprinted, photographed, searched, booked and placed in a cell.

After a couple of hours, a policeman approaches the cell and opens the door for her. She is escorted back to the booking desk where the original officer is waiting with her personal effects. He hands her the bag containing her things, and says, "I'm really sorry for this mistake. But you see, I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn, flipping the guy off in front of you, and cussing a blue streak at him. Then I noticed the: "Choose Life" license plate holder, the "What Would Jesus Do" bumper sticker, the "Follow Me to Sunday School" bumper sticker, and the chrome plated Christian fish emblem on the trunk. So, naturally, I assumed you had stolen the car !"
“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven."
Matthew 5:16

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HOW TO CATCH WILD PIGS?

2009-10-25T06:03:00.000-07:00

Author unknown

There was a Chemistry professor in a large college that had some exchange students in the class. One day while the class was in the lab the Prof noticed one young man (exchange student) who kept rubbing his back and stretching as if his back hurt.

The professor asked the young man what was the matter. The student told him he had a bullet lodged in his back. He had been shot while fighting communists in his native country who were trying to overthrow his country's government and install a new communist government.

In the midst of his story he looked at the professor and asked a strange question. He asked, 'Do you know how to catch wild pigs?'
The professor thought it was a joke and asked for the punch line.
The young man said this was no joke. "You catch wild pigs by finding a suitable place in the woods and putting corn on the ground. The pigs find it and begin to come everyday to eat the free corn. When they are used to coming every day, you put a fence down one side of the place where they are used to coming. When they get used to the fence, they begin to eat the corn again and you put up another side of the fence.
They get used to that and start to eat, again you continue until you have all four sides of the fence up with a gate in the last side. The pigs, who are used to the free corn, start to come through the gate to eat, you slam the gate on them and catch the whole herd.

Suddenly the wild pigs have lost their freedom. They run around and around inside the fence, but they are caught. Soon they go back to eating the free corn. They are so used to it that they have forgotten how to forage in the woods for themselves, so they accept their captivity.

The young man then told the professor that is exactly what he sees happening to America. The government keeps pushing us toward Communism/Socialism and keeps spreading the free corn out in the form of programs such supplemental income, tax credit for unearned income, tobacco subsidies, dairy subsidies, payments not to plant crops (CRP), welfare, medicine drugs, etc. while we continually lose our freedoms just a little at a time.
One should always remember 'There is no such thing as a free lunch!!' also 'You can never hire someone to provide a service for you cheaper then you can do it yourself.'
If you see that all of this wonderful government 'help' is the problem confronting the future of democracy in America, you might want to send this on to your friends. If you think the free ride is essential to your way of life you will probably delete this email, but God help you when the gate slams shut.

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New York mayor pours $85.2 million into 3rd-term campaign, breaking own record - World -

2009-10-24T08:15:00.001-07:00

Saturday, October 24, 2009

6:08 PM

NEW YORK — New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has spent US$85.2 million on his campaign to be elected for a third term.

The billionaire was well ahead of Democrat William Thompson Jr. in a poll released this week and has

been spending at a rate of more than $850,000 a day.

A finance report filed by his campaign for a Friday deadline covers Bloomberg's expenses since Sept. 29. He spent $20.4 million in that period, helping him break his $85 million election-spending record from 2005.

He spent $74 million on his first run in 2001.

GMANews.TV

MICHIGAN CHURCH WINS $70,000 IN LOTTERY

2009-08-29T05:34:00.000-07:00

08/14/2009 09:39 AM
GMANEWS.TV

HASLETT, Mich. – Divine intervention? Or just plain luck? No matter what the circumstances, a Michigan church is $70,000 richer courtesy of the Michigan Lottery. The Covenant Life Worship Center and its 25 members in Haslett, Mich. had one of the second-prize tickets in the Lucky 7s raffle held May 4.The $10 ticket was purchased at a convenience store in Haslett, five miles northeast of downtown Lansing. The lottery Web site says the odds of a single ticket winning $70,000 in Lucky 7s are one in 55,556. Michigan Lottery officials say the church will receive the full amount of the prize because it is a tax-exempt group.Pastor Marilyn Parmelee tells the Lansing State Journal that the prize money will go toward the church building fund, setting up a missionary fund and supporting local community service projects.

MySpace scoops up popular Facebook app ilike

2009-08-20T07:03:00.000-07:00

All Rights Reserved. 2009 © GMA Network Inc.

08/20/2009 08:06 AM

LOS ANGELES - Social networking hub MySpace said Wednesday it is acquiring iLike, a popular music application on rival Facebook, in the first move by new management to expand after a series of drastic cuts and writedowns.The $20 million agreement to purchase iLike confirmed rumors that had circulated this week.ILike, which has 55 million users, will remain headquartered in Seattle, and its management team will stay intact, with brothers Ali and Hadi Partovi in the top two slots. They founded the service in 2006 with $16.5 million in venture capital, mostly from Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc.MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta, who replaced co-founder Chris DeWolfe as MySpace chief executive in April, told reporters on a conference call that iLike technology will help MySpace users share songs, videos and games away from their MySpace home pages.For instance, iLike already has 10 million users on Facebook. It attaches itself to Apple Inc.'s iTunes music store with song recommendations, notifies fans of upcoming concerts and Twitter posts by their favorite artists and allows people to see what their friends are listening to. It began selling songs in the MP3 format on Friday."We believe what iLike has created isn't limited to just music and should extend to all the areas important to MySpace users, such as entertainment, video, and games," he said.Facebook, which ranked iLike among its top eight applications and the third most popular in its entertainment segment, said it did not expect the acquisition to affect its users.Van Natta said the iLike technology would complement its MySpace Music joint venture, a free music streaming and discovery platform it launched with major recording companies in September. The two services, however, will not be integrated right away.He noted that MySpace Music was "doing extremely well," with monthly visitors nearly tripled since launch to 12.1 million in June, according to Nielsen figures.MySpace is recovering from a serious of painful cuts after laying off 700 workers recently and breaking the lease on office space it no longer needed in west Los Angeles.Its parent company, News Corp., booked some $630 million in impairment and restructuring charges due to Fox Interactive Media, which houses MySpace, in the three months to June 30. News Corp. bought MySpace for $580 million in 2005.Fox Interactive Media revenue, the majority of which comes from MySpace, also fell 15 percent from a year ago in the last quarter to $192 million, dragged down by a 22 percent decline in ad revenue. - AP