MORE QUOTABLE QUOTES

To be seen in this life, truly observed without judgment, is what it feels like to be loved.
Cicely Tyson

Nature, time and patience are three great physicians.
H.G. Bohn

Guard well your spare moments. They are like uncut diamonds. Discard them and their value will never be known. Improve them and they will become the brightest gems in a useful life.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

With ordinary talent and extraordinary perseverance, all things are attainable.
Thomas Fowell Buxton

Your greatest test is when you are to bless someone else while you are going through your own storms.
Rafael Garcia

Failure is not a sign of weakness. It is a sign that you are alive and growing.
Buzz Aldrin

Have no fear of perfection—you’ll never reach it.
Salvador Dalí

The beginning is always today.
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Don’t let what you can’t do stop you from doing what you can do.
John Wooden

Life really is that simple. That’s a headline we all need to read. All the others are simply noise.
Maria Shriver

Action is the antidote to despair.
Joan Baez

Skill and confidence are an unconquered army.
George Herbert

To me, every hour of the day and night is an unspeakably perfect miracle.
Walt Whitman

It is no good to walk anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching.
St. Francis of Assisi

What is right is not always popular and what is popular is not always right.
Albert Einstein

We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

I’ve been waiting my whole life for these moments. I plan to live them well.
Topher Kearby

Make peace with your broken pieces.
R.H. Sin

Human history is the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.
C.S. Lewis

Science takes things apart to see how they work. Religion puts things together to see what they mean.
Jonathan Sacks

Pain nourishes courage. You can’t be brave if you’ve only had wonderful things happen to you.
Mary Tyler Moore

We make our discontent bigger in the process rather than exclaiming the bigness of God.
Hannah Brenchner

My favoured temple is a humble heart.
Philip James Bailey

QUOTABLE QUOTES

It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.
Warren Buffett

The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing at the right place but to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.
Dorothy Neville

Life asks only that we flow with it, but we do not resist, that we do not crawl into corners and direct barriers.
Newton Dillaway

Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality.
Carl Sagan

Contrary to public opinion, the key to loving others does not lie in loving ourselves, but in loving God.
Alistair Begg

Life asks only that we flow with it, but we do not resist, that we do not crawl into corners and direct barriers.
Newton Dillaway

I would rather have the smile of heaven than the applause of the world.
D.L. Moody

Even when uncertainty is the only thing you’re certain of, there is hope and an opportunity to thrive through God.
Nona Jones

Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
Mary Oliver

In marriage, the kind of love that is useful is a love that has more to do with the right attitude or the right approach to the relationship rather than the kind of love that is concentrated on feelings.
Manis Friedman

In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.
Robert Frost

Those with a grateful mindset tend to see the message in the mess. And even though life may knock them down, the grateful find reasons, if even small ones, to get up.
Steve Maraboli

The gratification comes in the doing, not in the results.
James Dean

Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they’ve got a second. Give your dreams all you’ve got and you’ll be amazed at the energy that comes out of you.
William James

Keep your head high, keep your chin up, and most importantly, keep smiling, because life’s a beautiful thing and there’s so much to smile about.
Marilyn Monroe

Isn’t it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?
L.M. Montgomery

A strong positive attitude will create more miracles than any wonder drug.
Patricia Neal

All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.
Charles Schultz

No matter what the grief, it’s weight. We are obliged to carry it.
Dorianne Laux

The only tired I was, was tired of giving in.
Rosa Parks

Nobody has ever measured, not even poets, how much the heart can hold.
Zelda Fitzgerald

The Judge & the Boy

There was this was a fifteen year old boy. He was caught stealing bread from a store. On trying to escape from the hold of the guard, a shelf of the store was also broken.

The boy was brought before a judge who after hearing of the crime he was accused of asked the boy, “Did you really steal something, a loaf of bread and cheese?”

The boy responded by looking down, “Yes.” Judge: “Why?” Boy: “I needed it.”

Judge: “Couldn’t you have bought it?” Boy: “There was no money.”

Judge: “Take it from your family.” Boy: “There is only my mother in the house. She is sick and unemployed.”

Judge: “You don’t do anything?” Boy: “Used to wash a car. When I took a day off to take care of my mother, I was fired.”

Judge: “Don’t you ask someone for help?” Boy: “Had left the house since morning, went to about fifty people, but no one waa willing to help; so, I decided to take this step at the very end.”

When the arguments ended, the judge began to pronounce the verdict: “The theft and especially the stealing of bread by a hungry boy is a very shameful crime and we are all responsible for this crime.”

He continues, “Every person in the court, including me, is guilty and a perpetrator, so every person present here is fined ten dollars each. No one can get out of here without giving ten dollars.”

Saying this, the judge took ten dollars out of his own pocket and then picked up the pen and started writing name accordingly.

“In addition, I fine the store a thousand dollars for handing over a hungry child to the police. If the penalty is not deposited within 24 hours, the court will order to seal the store. Also, the police is fined the same amount for charging a hungry boy to court.”

“By giving the full amount of fine to this boy, the court asks for forgiveness from that boy.”

 After hearing the verdict, tears were pouring from the eyes of the people present in the court. The boy’s handcuffs were also removed. The boy was watching the judge again and again, who came out hiding his tears.

Are our society, systems and courts ready for such a decision? If a hungry person is caught stealing bread, then the people of that country should be ashamed.

How to Find Happiness

A teacher gave a balloon to every student, who had to inflate it, write their name on it and throw it in the hallway. The teacher then mixed all the balloons. The students were then given 5 minutes to find their own balloon. Despite a hectic search, no one found their balloon.

At that point, the teacher told the students to take the first balloon that they found and hand it to the person whose name was written on it. Within 5 minutes, everyone had their own balloon.

The teacher said to the students: “These balloons are like happiness. We will never find it if everyone is looking for their own. But if we care about other people’s happiness, we’ll find ours too.”

May your days be filled with happiness.

Wise Words

What can one person do? What difference does it make?

What will it matter in a little while that for a day we met and gave a word, a touch, a smile upon the way?

What will it matter whether hearts were brave, and lives were true, that you gave me the sympathy I craved, as I gave you?

These trifles, can it be they make or mar a human life?

Are souls as lightly waved as rushes are by storm or strife? Yes! Yes!

A look the failing heart may break, or make it whole, and just a word said for love’s sweet sake may save a soul!

The Prospective In-Laws

A young girl went to college. After 6 months she happily let her parents know she was engaged to a student who was studying to be a pastor and is bringing him home for the holidays.

After the introduction the father and the boy sat together and the father asked: ” How old are you?” Fiance: “19”

Father: “And where are you going to live?” Fiance: “God will provide.”

Father: “And where are you going to get money?” Fiance: “God will provide.”

Later that night the mother asked the father: “What do you think of him?” The father replied, “He seems to be a nice guy, he thinks I am God.”

Sowing seeds for others….

Fifteen years ago in March, on the 27th, I set foot on the soil of Arunachal Pradesh for the first time, steadfastly set on accomplishing my calling and providing the needs of my family.

In essence, it was a call to duty, and basically, the fulfillment of the calling of God. It was no small choice but an intricate one involving the relocation of my entire family about 500 km away from home with the grim reality of leaving everything behind, even the prospect of a job, to raise my kids amongst people hitherto unknown and eke out a living. It was a huge challenge, a daunting one at that!

Fortuitously, and by the design of God, we soon adapted to our new setting and God in His grace amply blessed the work we took charge of. What, however, we always felt amiss was the home-grown delicacies and vegetables which were not easily obtainable. My dear “angel” dad and mom (both now blissfully in the company of Jesus) helped in planting a number of tree beans. Tree beans is also known as parkia speciosa (bitter bean, twisted cluster bean, stinker or stink bean) and is a plant of the genus Parkia in the family Fabaceae. It bears long, flat edible beans with bright green seeds the size and shape of plump almonds which have a rather peculiar smell, characterized by some as being similar to natural gas.

Fifteen years on, in the will of God we have moved on but the small plants that we planted are now fully-grown tree beans, producing bundles and bundles of joy to those who savour its taste.

The lesson for us is simple. We may not always reap the fruit of our labour but let us not weary in doing good. There is much joy and happiness in the knowledge that others are reaping the fruit of your labour…

Barack Obama for President, oops…heaven or hell?

While walking down Pennsylvania Avenue one fine afternoon on his way back to the White House to sign executive orders banning certain types of ammunition and edible school lunches, President Barack Obama is tragically hit by a Prius and dies.

His soul arrives in heaven and he’s met by St. Peter at the Pearly Gates.

“Welcome to Heaven, Mr. Obama,” St. Peter says. “Before you settle in, it seems there’s a problem. We seldom see an American head of state around these parts, you see, so we’re not sure what to do with you.”

“No problem, just let me in,” Obama tells St. Peter.

“If only it were that easy, Mr. Obama,” St. Peter clucks. “I’d like to, I really would — but I have orders from higher-ups. What we’re going to do is spend one day in Hell and one day in Heaven. Then you can choose where you spend your eternity.”

“Excuse me, St. Peter,” Obama says. “I’m pretty sure I would prefer Heaven, and I’m pretty sure I deserve Heaven. I was the first African-American president, and I saved America through hope, change, transparency … ”

“What about Solyndra?”

“Look, we all make mistak–”

“Or how about Jonathan Gruber?”

“WE ALL MAKE MISTAKES, OKAY?!”

St. Peter sighed. “Well, regardless. I’m sorry, Mr. Obama, but rules are rules.” With that, he escorts Obama to the elevator to go down in to the depths of Avernus.

The doors open and Obama finds himself in the middle of his favorite golf course. In the distance is a club and in front of it are Frank Marshall Davis, Lyndon Baines Johnson and many of his Chicago compatriots who had passed on.

Furthermore, on the lawn chairs outside of the club, there were signs hung on the back that said the seats were reserved for several of his closest friends and allies, including Susan Rice, Bill Ayers and Rahm Emmanuel.

Everyone greets the deceased president and tells him what a wonderful job he did. Then, all of the Democrats begin talking about the great times they had getting rich off of those who voted for them.

The Devil comes by to meet Obama and orders lobster and caviar for everyone. They have a great time telling jokes and whiling away the hours drinking champagne. Finally, it’s time to go back up to Heaven.

St. Peter dropped Obama off in paradise, where he spends a good, if uneventful 24 hours strumming harps and spinning tales with Ronald Reagan and Abraham Lincoln on clouds. It’s fun, but not nearly as much his time in Hell.

When St. Peter comes back, he tells the president, “Well, there you have it. 24 hours in Hell, and 24 hours in Heaven. What’ll it be?”

“I know this sounds crazy,” Obama tells St. Peter. “However, it seems like Hell is better. I think I’ll go there.”

“As you wish,” St. Peter says. He sends him down on the elevator, and suddenly, he finds himself in the middle of a barren, scorched desert, covered in detritus and human waste. He sees everyone he was laughing with yesterday, dressed in rags and picking up trash in vain.

The Devil comes over to Obama and hands him a bag. “Get working, ye fool!” Satan says.

“I … I don’t get it,” Obama stammers. “Yesterday we were golfing and having a great time. What happened?”

The Devil lowers his head and clucks. “Silly Obama. You of all people should understand. Yesterday we were campaigning. Today, you voted for us!”

(H/T The Federalist Papers Project)

Why Perform Acts of Kindness?

by Jean E. Oathout
Writing devotionals for women at ChristianDevotions.us

Image: Unknown

“Why perform acts of kindness?”

Is there something “magical” in living this kind of life?

Why do some people seem to be able to be so kind to everyone, and others have such a difficult time of it?

Kindness is treating other people humanely, as you would want to be treated. The challenge is to do it with a joyful heart.

Joe Stowell says on Our Daily Bread 8/23/14- He (Jesus) reminded us that because of Him we are “the light of the world” (Matt. 5:14) and that our good deeds would be the power against the darkness for the glory of God (v16).

There is one force that the darkness cannot conquer—the force of loving acts of kindness done in Jesus’ name.

It is God’s people who turn the other cheek, go the extra mile, and forgive and even love their enemies who oppose them who have the power to turn the tide against evil.

So look for the privileged opportunity to perform acts of kindness today to bring the light of Christ to others.
Light up your world with an act of kindness.” (ODB)

Col. 3:12 tells us to put on kindness, among other things, as the elect of God, for we are holy and beloved.

2 Peter 1:7 tells us: “Add to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.” (love)

Isaiah 63:7 tells us of the Kindnesses of the LORD.

Diana Derringer shares from One Good Turn Deserves Another:
“A popular idea in recent years is the Random Act of Kindness Day. On that day each year, people do something good for others for no special reason. The day receives a great deal of publicity, and people feel good about it.

I appreciate those efforts. Yet, that’s just once a year. What keeps us from performing random acts of kindness every day? Our kind acts don’t have to be big. In fact, the small kindnesses often mean the most.

A greater challenge is to be kind to those who are unkind to us. Think about the difference in our world if we practiced that.

1. Some people might be so surprised they stop their cruel acts.
2. Other people might think we’re crazy and continue their unkind behavior.
3. A few might wonder what causes us to act that way and desire a similar life for themselves.

Why not give it a try and see what happens?

In a world filled with conflict, let’s be like a carousel and keep the good turns going.”

The Weaver

My life is but a weaving
between my Lord and me;
I cannot choose the colors
He worketh steadily.

Oft times He weaveth sorrow
And I, in foolish pride,
Forget He sees the upper,
And I the underside.

Not til the loom is silent
And the shuttles cease to fly,
Shall God unroll the canvas
And explain the reason why.

The dark threads are as needful
In the Weaver’s skillful hand,
As the threads of gold and silver
In the pattern He has planned.
–Author Unknown