Maybe God wants us to meet a few wrong people before meeting the right one so that when we finally meet the right person, we will know how to be grateful for that gift. When the door of happiness closes, another opens, but often times we look so long at the closed door that we don’t see the one which has been opened for us. The best kind of friend is the kind you can sit on a porch and swing with, never say a word, and then walk away feeling like it was the best conversation you’ve ever had.

It’s true that we don’t know what we’ve got until we lose it, but it’s also true that we don’t know what we’ve been missing until it arrives.

Giving someone all your love is never an assurance that they’ll love you back! Don’t expect love in return; just wait for it to grow in their heart but if it doesn’t, be content it grew in yours. It takes only a minute to get a crush on someone, an hour to like someone, and a day to love someone, but it takes a lifetime to forget someone.

Don’t go for looks; they can deceive. Don’t go for wealth; even that fades away. Go for someone who makes you smile because it takes only a smile to make a dark day seem bright. Find the one that makes your heart smile.

There are moments in life when you miss someone so much that you just want to pick them from your dreams and hug them for real!

Dream what you want to dream; go where you want to go; be what you want to be, because you have only one life and one chance to do all the things you want to do. May you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human, enough hope to make you happy.

Always put yourself in others’ shoes. If you feel that it hurts you, it probably hurts the other person, too.

The happiest of people don’t necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way.

Happiness lies for those who cry, those who hurt, those who have searched, and those who have tried, for only they can appreciate the importance of people who have touched their lives. Love begins with a smile, grows with a kiss and ends with a tear. The brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past, you can’t go on well in life until you let go of your past failures and heartaches.

When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling. Live your life so that when you die, you’re the one who is smiling and everyone around you is crying.

Please send this message to those people who mean something to you, to those who have touched your life in one way or another, to those who make you smile when you really need it, to those that make you see the brighter side of things when you are really down, to those who you want to let them know that you appreciate their friendship. And if you don’t, don’t worry, nothing bad will happen to you, you will just miss out on the opportunity to brighten someone’s day with this message.

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered; Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies; Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough.
Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God;
It was never between you and them anyway.

Once upon a time a big monk and a little monk were travelling together. They came to the bank of a river and found the bridge was damaged. They had to wade across the river. There was a pretty lady who was stuck at the damaged bridge and couldn’t cross the river. The big monk offered to carry the pretty lady across the river on his back. The lady accepted. The little monk was shocked by the move of the big monk. ” How can big disciple brother carry a lady when we are supposed to avoid all intimacy with females, ” thought the little monk. But he kept quiet.

The big monk carried the lady across the river and the small monk followed unhappily. When they crossed the river, the big monk let the lady down and they parted ways with her. All along the way for several miles, the little monk was very unhappy with the act of the big monk. He was making up all kinds of accusations about the big monk in his head. This got him madder and madder. But he still kept quiet. And the big monk had no inclination to explain his situation.

Finally, at rest-point many hours later, the little monk could not stand it any further, he burst out angrily at the big monk.” How can you claim yourself a devout monk, when you seize the first opportunity to touch a female, especially when she is very pretty. All your teachings to me make you a big hypocrite. ” The big monk looked surprised and said, ” I had put down the pretty lady at the river bank many hours ago, how come you are still carrying her along? ”

[ This very old Chinese zen story reflects the thinking of many people today.

We encounter many unpleasant things in our life, they irritate us and they make us angry. Sometimes, they cause us a lot of hurt, sometimes they cause us to be bitter or jealous.

But like the little monk, we are not willing to let them go away. We keep on carrying the baggage of the ” pretty lady ” with us. We let them keep on coming back to hurt us, make us angry, make us bitter and cause us a lot of agony.

Why?

Simply because we are not willing to put down or let go of the baggage of the ” pretty lady “. We should let go of the pretty lady immediately after crossing the river, immediately after the unpleasant event is over. This will immediately remove all our agonies. There is no need to be further hurt by the unpleasant event after it is over. It just that simple.

I had a very special teacher in high school many years ago whose husband unexpectedly died suddenly of a heart attack. About a week after his death, she shared some of her insight with a classroom of students. As the late afternoon sunlight came streaming in through the classroom windows and the class was nearly over, she moved a few things aside on the edge of her desk and sat down there. With a gentle look of reflection on her face, she paused and said, “Before class is over, I would like to share with all of you a thought that is unrelated to class, but which I feel is very important.

Each of us is put here on earth to learn, share, love, appreciate and give of ourselves. None of us knows when this fantastic experience will end. It can be taken away at any moment. Perhaps this is God’s way of telling us that we must make the most out of every single day. ”

Her eyes beginning to water, she went on, ” So I would like you all to make me a promise. From now on, on your way to school, or on your way home, ” find something beautiful to notice. ” It doesn’t have to be something you see – it could be a scent-perhaps of freshly baked bread wafting out of someone’s house, or it could be the sound of the breeze slightly rustling the leaves in the trees, or the way the morning light catches one autumn leaf as it falls gently to the ground.

Please look for these things, and cherish them. For, although it may sound trite to some, these things are ” the stuff ” of life. The little things we are put here on earth to enjoy. The things we often take for granted. We must make it important to notice them, for at any time… it can all be taken away.”

The class was completely quiet. We all picked up our books and filed out of the room silently. That afternoon, I noticed more things on my way home from school than I had that whole semester. Every once in a while, I think of that teacher and remember what an impression she made on all of us, and I try to appreciate all of those things that sometimes we all overlook.Take notice of something special you see on your lunch hour today. Go barefoot.Or walk on the beach at sunset.Stop off on the way home tonight to get a double-dip ice cream cone.

For as we get older, it is not the things we did that we often regret, but the things we didn’t do.

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

A story tells that two friends were walking through the desert. In a specific point of the journey, they had an argument, and one friend slapped the other one in the face. The one, who got slapped, was hurt, but without anything to say, he wrote in the sand: ” TODAY, MY BEST FRIEND SLAPPED ME IN THE FACE “. They kept on walking, until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath. The one who got slapped and hurt started drowning, and the other friend saved him.

When he recovered from the fright, he wrote on a stone: you wrote in the sand, and now you write on a stone? ” The other friend, smiling, replied: ” When a friend hurts us, we should write it down in the sand, where the winds of forgiveness get in charge of erasing it away, and when something great happens, we should engrave it in the stone of the memory of the heart, where no wind can erase it ”

Learn to write in the sand, when u have differences and hurt feelings with ur friend. Learn to write in stone when ur friend has done some thing really good to you.

Tess was a precocious eight-year-old when she heard her Mom and Dad talking about her little brother, Andrew. All she knew was that he was very sick and they were completely out of money. They were moving to an apartment complex next month because Daddy didn’t have the money for the doctor’s bills and our house. Only a very costly surgery could save him now and it was looking like there was no-one to loan them the money. She heard Daddy say to her tearful Mother with whispered desperation, ” Only a miracle can save him now.”

Tess went to her bedroom and pulled a glass jelly jar from its hiding place in the closet. She poured all the change out on the floor and counted it carefully. Three times, even. The total had to be exactly perfect. No chance here for mistakes. Carefully placing the coins back in the jar and twisting on the cap, she slipped out the back door and made her way 6 blocks to Rexall’s Drug Store with the big red Indian Chief sign above the door.

She waited patiently for the pharmacist to give her some attention but he was too busy at this moment. Tess twisted her feet to make a scuffing noise. Nothing. She cleared her throat with the most disgusting sound she could muster. No good. Finally she took a quarter from her jar and banged it on the glass counter. That did it! ” And what do you want? ” the pharmacist asked in an annoyed tone of voice. I’m talking to my brother from Chicago whom I haven’t seen in ages, “he said without waiting for a reply to his question. ” Well, I want to talk to you about my brother, ” Tess answered back in the same annoyed tone. ” He’s really, really sick… and I want to buy a miracle. ”

” I beg your pardon?” said the pharmacist. “His name is Andrew and he has something bad growing inside his head and my Daddy says only a miracle can save him now. So how much does a miracle cost? ”

“We don’t sell miracles here, little girl. I’m sorry but I can’t help you,”the pharmacist said, softening a little.

” Listen, I have the money to pay for it. If it isn’t enough, I will get the rest. Just tell me how much it costs. ”

The pharmacist’s brother was a well dressed man. He stooped down and asked the little girl, ” What kind of a miracle does you brother need? ” “I don’t know,” Tess replied with her eyes welling up. “I just know he’s really sick and Mommy says he needs an operation.

But my Daddy can’t pay for it, so ” I want to use my money “. ” How much do you have? ” asked the man from Chicago. ” One dollar and eleven cents, ” Tess answered barely audibly. ” And it’s all the money I have, but I can get some more if I need to. ” “Well, what a coincidence,” smiled the man. ” A dollar and eleven cents–the exact price of a miracle for little brothers. ” He took her money in one hand and with the other hand he grasped her mitten and said ” Take me to where you live. I want to see your brother and meet your parents. Let’s see if I have the kind of miracle you need. ” That well dressed man was Dr. Carlton Armstrong, a surgeon, specializing in neuro-surgery. The operation was completed without charge and it wasn’t long until Andrew was home again and doing well. Mom and Dad were happily talking about the chain of events that had led them to this place. ” That surgery, ” her Mom whispered. ” Was a real miracle. I wonder how much it would have cost? ” Tess smiled. She knew exactly how much a miracle cost…

One dollar and eleven cents…… plus the faith of a little child.

A miracle is not the suspension of natural law, but the operation of a higher law……

[ A TRUE STORY ]

The Ultimate Test John Blanchard stood up from the bench straightened his Army uniform, and studied the crowd of people making their way through Grand Central Station. He looked for the girl whose heart he knew, but whose face he didn’t, the girl with the rose. His interest in her had begun thirteen months before in a Florida library. Taking a book off the shelf he found himself intrigued, not with the words of the book, but with the notes Penciled in the margin.

The soft handwriting reflected a Thoughtful soul and insightful mind. In the front of the book, he discovered the previous owner’s name, Miss Hollis Maynell. With time and effort he located her address. She lived in New York City. He wrote her a letter introducing himself and inviting her to correspond. The next day he was shipped overseas for service in World War II. During the next year and one month the two grew to know each other through the mail. Each letter was a seed falling on a fertile heart. A romance was budding.

Blanchard requested a photograph, but she refused. She felt that if he really cared, it wouldn’t matter what she looked like.

When the day finally came for him to return from Europe, they scheduled their first meeting – 7:00 PM at the Grand Central Station in New York. ” You’ll recognize me, ” she wrote, ” by the red rose I’ll be wearing on my lapel. ” So at 7:00 he was in the station looking for a girl whose heart he loved, but whose face he’d never seen.

I’ll let Mr. Blanchard tell You what happened:
A young woman was coming toward me, her figure long and slim. Her blonde hair lay back in curls from her delicate ears; her eyes were blue as flowers. Her lips and chin had a gentle firmness, and in her pale green suit she was like springtime come alive.
I started toward her, entirely forgetting to notice that she was not wearing a rose. As I moved, a small, provocative smile curved her lips. ” Going my way, sailor? ” she murmured. Almost uncontrollably, I made one step closer to her, and then I saw Hollis Maynell. She was standing almost directly behind the girl. A woman well past 40, she had graying hair tucked under a worn hat. She was more than plump, her thick-ankled feet thrust into low-heeled shoes. The girl in the green suit was walking quickly away.

I felt as though I was split in two, so keen was my desire to follow her, and yet so deep was my longing for the woman whose spirit had truly companioned me and upheld my own. And there she stood. Her pale, plump face was gentle and sensible, her gray eyes had a warm and kindly twinkle. I did not hesitate. My fingers gripped the small worn blue leather copy of the book that was to identify me to her. This would not be love, but it would be something precious, something perhaps even better than love, a friendship for which I had been and must ever be grateful.

I squared my shoulders and saluted and held out the book to the woman, even though while I spoke I felt choked by the bitterness of my disappointment. “I’m Lieutenant John Blanchard, and you must be Miss Maynell. I am so glad you could meet me; may I take you to dinner?” The woman’s face broadened into a tolerant smile. “I don’t know what this is about, son,” she answered, ” but the young lady in the green suit who just went by, she begged me to wear this rose on my coat. And she said if you were to ask me out to dinner, I should tell you that she is waiting for you in the big restaurant across the street. She said it was some kind of test! ”

It’s not difficult to understand and admire Miss Maynell’s wisdom.
The true nature of a heart is seen in its response to the unattractive. “Tell me whom you love,” Houssaye wrote, “And I will tell you who you are. ”

Hi! wanna to share this meaningful & interesting message to u, hope u know your real love then …. Once upon a time, there was an island where all the feelings lived: Happiness, Sadness, Knowledge and all of the others,including Love. One day it was announced to the feelings that the island would sink, so they all prepared their boats and left. Love was the only one who stayed. Love wanted to stay with the island until it started sinking. When Love was almost sinking, he decided to ask for help.

Richness came by Love in a beautiful boat. Love said, ” Richness, can you take me with you?” Richness answered,” No, I can’t.. There is a lot of gold and silver in my boat. There is no place here for you. ”
Love decided to ask Vanity who was also passing by, “Vanity, please help me!”, ” I can’t help you Love. You are all wet and you may damage my boat, ” Vanity answered.
Sadness was close by so again Love asked for help, ” Sadness, let me go with you. ” ” Oh…Love, I am so sad that I prefer to go alone! ”
Happiness passed by Love too, but she was so happy that she did not listen when Love called her !!

Suddenly, there was a voice,” Come Love, I will take you. ” It was an elder. Love became so happy that he even forgot to ask the elder her name.

When they arrived on dry land, the elder went on her own way. Love asked Knowledge,another elder, the name of the elder who had helped him. ” It was Time, ” answered Knowledge.

“Time? But why did Time help me?” asked Love. ” Because only Time is capable of understanding how great Love is, ” answered Knowledge.

The moral of this wee story is:
” Take the time to know what Real Love is “.

A young man was getting ready to graduate from college. For many months he had admired a beautiful sports car in a dealer’s showroom, and knowing his father could well afford it, he told him that was all he wanted. As Graduation Day approached, the young man awaited signs that his father had purchased the car. Finally, on the morning of his graduation his father called him into his private study. His father told him how proud he was to have such a fine son, and told him how much he loved him.

He handed his son a beautiful wrapped gift box. Curious, but somewhat disappointed the young man opened the box and found a lovely, leather-bound Bible, with the young man’s name embossed in gold. Angrily, he raised his voice to his father and said, “With all your money you give me a Bible?” and stormed out of the house, leaving the Bible.

Many years passed and the young man was very successful in business. He had a beautiful home and wonderful family, but realized his father was very old,and thought perhaps he should go to him. He had not seen him since that graduation day.
Before he could make arrangements, he received a telegram telling him his father had passed away, and willed all of his possessions to his son. He needed to come home immediately and take care things.

When he arrived at his father’s house, sudden sadness and regret filled his heart.

He began to search his father’s important papers and saw the still new Bible, just as he had left it years ago. With tears, he opened the Bible and began to turn the pages.

His father carefully underlined a verse, Matt 7:11, “And if ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Heavenly father which is in heaven, give to those who ask Him?”. As he read those words, a Car Key dropped from the back of the Bible. It had a tag with the dealer’s name, the same dealer who had the sports car he had desired. On the tag was the date of his graduation, and the words…PAID IN FULL.

How many times do we miss God’s blessings because they are not packaged as we expected?

This may test your thinking. But really it will test your heart. If you can really open your heart to the possibilities …… You may find that you could answer this question in an uncommon way. One big company was hiring new staff, the question of the written exam was: “You are driving a car on one big stormy night, you are passing a bus stop, there are three people who are waiting anxiously for the bus;

# One old lady who is dying,
# One doctor who saved your life before,
# One guy/lady who is someone you have been dreaming to be with.

You can only take one passenger, which one will you choose?” Please explain your reason. Think about what your answer would be before you scroll down to read the following:

Scroll down………………… ………………..

I am not sure whether it is some kind of personality test, since every answer has its reason:

One old lady is going to die, anybody should obviously save her first, however, every person ends up dying eventually. So maybe you should take the doctor, because the doctor saved your life before, and this is the perfect chance to pay him back. At the same time, some people believe that you can always pay the doctor back in the future, but you may never be able to find the perfect lover once you pass up this chance.

Amongst the two hundred candidates who applied for that position, the one who was hired did not explain his answer, he only simply stated that:

” I’ll give the car keys to the doctor, let the doctor take the old lady to the hospital and I’ll stay and wait for the bus with the lady of my dreams! ”

Everyone I know thinks the above answer is the best answer, but there is no one (including myself) who thought of this answer first. Is it because we never want to give up any advantage we have held in our hands (the car! keys)? Maybe we also never considered that everyone can win.
Sometimes, we would gain more if we were able to give up our stubbornness, limitations, and advantages. What may seem like an advantage can be the one thing which prevents us from getting what our heart desires.