Throw out the non-essential numbers in your life: age, weight & height. Be thankful and be proud about it.

 

Keep only the cheerful friends around. The “grouches” pull u down. If you really need a grouch, there are probably a few dozen of your relatives to do the work.

 

Keep on learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, interior design, gardening …whatever. Just never let the brain idle.

 

Laugh often, long & loud… Laugh until you gasp for breath. Laugh so much that you can be tracked in the store by your “distinctive laughter”.

 

The tears happen… Endure, grieve, cry hard enough, & move on. The only person who is with us in our entire life is … ourselves.

 

Surround yourself w/ what you love, whether it is family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies … whatever. Your home is your refuge.

 

Cherish your health. If it is good – preserve it. If it is unstable – improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve – get help.

 

Don’t take guilt trips. Go to the mall, the next county, a foreign country… but not guilt.

 

Tell the people u love, that you love them at every opportunity.

 

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

 

I have learned that……

 

Your life can be changed in a matter of hours by people who don’t even know you.

 

You cannot make someone love you. All you can do is be someone who can be loved. The rest is up to them.

 

No matter how much I care, some people just don’t care back.

 

It is hard to determine where to draw the line between being nice and not hurting people’s feelings and standing up for what you believe.

 

It takes years to build up trust, and only seconds to destroy it.

 

Praying hard is essential,, pray with all of your heart and believe… Your faith will see you through the harshness of life.

 

Remember, a Faith not worth dying for, is not a faith worth living for.

Dear readers I want to share this story about how much God longs for our attention. I hope you get inspired much as I do –

A young & successful executive was traveling a bit too fast down a neighborhood street in his new Jaguar. As he passed, a brick smashed into the car’s side door. He slammed on the brakes and went to the spot where the brick had been thrown.

Angry, he grabbed the nearest kid & pushed him up against a parked car shouting, “What the hell was that all about? Who are u? Just what the hell are u doing? That’s a new car & that brick u threw is going to cost a lot of money. Why did u do it?”

The young boy was apologetic. “Please, please, I’m sorry but I didn’t know what else to do. I threw the brick because no one else would stop!” With tears dripping down his face, he pointed to a spot around a parked car. “He is my brother. He rolled off the curb & fell out of his wheelchair. I can’t lift him up. Would u please help me get him back into his wheelchair? He’s hurt & too heavy for me.”

Moved beyond words, he tried to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in his throat. He hurriedly lifted the handicapped boy back into the wheelchair. Then, he took out his fancy handkerchief & dabbed at the fresh scrapes & cuts. A quick look him seemed everything will be okay. “Thank you. May God bless you!” said the grateful child. Too shook up for words, he simply watched the boy push the wheelchair-bound brother down the sidewalk toward their home.

It was a long, slow walk back to the car. The damage was very noticeable but he never bothered to repair the dented side door to remind him of this message:

“Don’t go thru life so fast that someone has to throw a brick to get your attention! God whispers in our souls & speaks to our hearts. Sometimes when we don’t listen, some brick of trials may come our way to remember that there is God!”

“Let me explain the problem science has with Jesus Christ.” The atheist professor of philosophy pauses before his class and then asks one of his new students to stand.

“You’re a Christian, aren’t you, son?”

“Yes sir,” the student says.

“So you believe in God?”

“Absolutely!”

“Is God good?”

“Sure! God’s good.”

“Is God all-powerful? Can God do anything?”

“Yes.”

“Are you good or evil?”

“The Bible says I’m evil.”

The professor grins knowingly. “Aha! The Bible!” He considers for a moment.

“Here’s one for you. Let’s say there’s a sick person over here and you can cure him. You can do it. Would you help him? Would you try?”

“Yes sir, I would.”

“So you’re good…!”

“I wouldn’t say that.”

“But why not say that? You’d help a sick and maimed person if you could. Most of us would if we could. But God doesn’t.”

The student does not answer, so the professor continues. “He doesn’t, does he? My brother was a Christian who died of cancer, even though he prayed to Jesus to heal him How is this Jesus good? Hmmm? Can you answer that one?”

The student remains silent.

“No, you can’t, can you?” the professor says. He takes a sip of water from a glass on his desk to give the student time to relax.

“Let’s start again, young fella Is God good?”

“Err…yes,” the student says.

“Is Satan good?”

The student doesn’t hesitate on this one. “No.”

“Then where does Satan come from?”

The student : “From…God. .”

“That’s right. God made Satan, didn’t he? Tell me, son. Is there evil in this world?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Evil’s everywhere, isn’t it? And God did make everything, correct?”

“Yes.”

“So who created evil?” The professor continued, “If God created everything, then God created evil, since evil exists, and according to the principle that our works define who we are, then God is evil.”

Without allowing the student to answer, the professor continues: “Is there sickness? Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness? All these terrible things, do they exist in this world?”

The student: “Yes.”

“So who created them?”

The student does not answer again, so the professor repeats his question. “Who created them? There is still no answer. Suddenly the lecturer breaks away to pace in front of the classroom. The class is mesmerized.

“Tell me,” he continues onto another student. “Do you believe in Jesus Christ, son?”

The student’s voice is confident: “Yes, professor, I do.”

The old man stops pacing. “Science says you have five senses you use to identify and observe the world around you. Have you ever seen Jesus?”

“No sir. I’ve never seen Him”

“Then tell us if you’ve ever heard your Jesus?”

“No, sir, I have not.”

“Have you ever actually felt your Jesus, tasted your Jesus or smelled your Jesus? Have you ever had any sensory perception of Jesus Christ, or God for that matter?”

“No, sir, I’m afraid I haven’t.”

“Yet you still believe in him?”

“Yes.”

“According to the rules of empirical, testable, demonstrable protocol, science says your God doesn’t exist. What do you say to that, son?”

“Nothing,” the student replies. “I only have my faith.”

“Yes, faith,” the professor repeats. “And that is the problem science has with God. There is no evidence, only faith.”

The student stands quietly for a moment, before asking a question of his own. “Professor, is there such thing as heat?”

“Yes,” the professor replies. “There’s heat.”

“And is there such a thing as cold?”

“Yes, son, there’s cold too.”

“No sir, there isn’t.”

The professor turns to face the student, obviously interested. The room suddenly becomes very quiet. The student begins to explain.

“You can have lots of heat, even more heat, super-heat, mega-heat, unlimited heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat, but we don’t have anything called ‘cold’. We can hit up to 458 degrees below zero, which is no heat, but we can’t go any further after that. There is no such thing as cold; otherwise we would be able to go colder than the lowest -458 degrees. Every body or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy. Absolute zero (-458 F) is the total absence of heat. You see, sir, cold is only a word we use to describe the absence of heat. We cannot measure cold. Heat we can measure in thermal units because heat is energy. Cold is not the opposite of heat, sir, just the absence of it.”

Silence across the room. A pen drops somewhere in the classroom, sounding like a hammer.

“What about darkness, professor. Is there such a thing as darkness?”

“Yes,” the professor replies without hesitation. “What is night if it isn’t darkness?”

“You’re wrong again, sir. Darkness is not something; it is the absence of something. You can have low light, normal light, bright light, flashing light, but if you have no light constantly you have nothing and it’s called darkness, isn’t it? That’s the meaning we use to define the word. In reality, darkness isn’t. If it were, you would be able to make darkness darker, wouldn’t you?”

The professor begins to smile at the student in front of him. This will be a good semester. “So what point are you making, young man?”

“Yes Professor. My point is, your philosophical premise is flawed to start with, and so your conclusion must also be flawed.”

The professor’s face cannot hide his surprise this time. “Flawed? Can you explain how?”

“You are working on the premise of duality,” the student explains. “You argue that there is life and then there’s death; a good God and a bad God. You are viewing the concept of God as something finite, something we can measure. Sir, science can’t even explain a thought. It uses electricity and magnetism, but has never seen, much less fully understood either one. To view death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact that death cannot exist as a substantive thing. Death is not the opposite of life, just the absence of it.”

“Now tell me, professor. Do you teach your students that they evolved from a monkey?”

“If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process, young man, yes, of course I do”

“Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir?”

The professor begins to shake his head, still smiling, as he realizes where the argument is going. A very good semester, indeed.

“Since no one has ever observed the process of evolution at work and cannot even prove that this process is an on-going endeavour, are you not teaching your opinion, sir? Are you now not a scientist, but a preacher?”

The class is in uproar. The student remains silent until the commotion has subsided.

“To continue the point you were making earlier to the other student, let me give you an example of what I mean.”

The student looks around the room. “Is there anyone in the class who has ever seen the professor’s brain?” The class breaks out into laughter.

“Is there anyone here who has ever heard the professor’s brain, felt the professor’s brain, touched or smelled the professor’s brain? No one appears to have done so. So, according to the established rules of empirical, stable, demonstrable protocol, science says that you have no brain, with all due respect, sir. So if science says you have no brain, how can we trust your lectures, sir?”

Now the room is silent. The professor just stares at the student, his face unreadable.

Finally, after what seems an eternity, the old man answers. “I guess you’ll have to take them on faith.”

“Now, you accept that there is faith, and, in fact, faith exists with life,” the student continues. “Now, sir, is there such a thing as evil?”

Now uncertain, the professor responds, “Of course, there is. We see it everyday. It is in the daily example of man’s inhumanity to man. It is in the multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world. These manifestations are nothing else but evil.”

To this the student replied, “Evil does not exist sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God.

God did not create evil. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God’s love present in his heart. It’s like the cold that comes when there is no heat or the darkness that comes when there is no light.”

The professor sat down.