To Have One, Be One
All of us need at least one or two close friends. A small boy defined a friend as "someone who knows all about you and likes you just the same." Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature." Henry Durbanville made this observation about friendship: "A friend is the first person to come in when the whole world goes out."
Honoring Our Parents
The year was 1727. The place was a small bookshop in Lichfield, England. A man who kept bursting into violent fits of coughing was packing books to sell in his market stall in Uttoxeter. Between coughs he asked his 18-year-old son to take the books that day. But the young man, deeply engrossed in the Latin classic he was reading, heard him but ignored the request. The stagecoach arrived, and the father stepped out into the pouring rain with his load of books to take the 20-mile ride to the market.
God Is Down-To-Earth
The more challenging life becomes, the more we long for a down-to-earth spirituality to help us with the challenge. We're skeptical of believers who are "so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good." Yet we seldom get the balance right.
Who Is Most Important?
During an operation, an experienced surgeon asked a young intern, "Who is the most important person in this operating room?"
Going Straight
How far would you travel to put things right with a brother who hadn't spoken to you in 10 years? Would you go 300 miles from Iowa to Wisconsin? On a riding lawn mower?
Love Listens
When we love others, we listen to them. Sure, it takes time and effort to focus on them and hear what they are saying. But when we do, it shows genuine concern and respect.
How To Amaze People
David Doubilet is a photojournalist whose pictures of a silent underwater world can turn even an ugly, bug-eyed sea creature into a lovely, luminescent work of art. Although he has received many honors for his work, he has also been criticized by environmentalists for not doing more "hard-edge" journalism. They want him to take pictures of dead fish, dirty beaches, and polluted oceans.
Start With One Step
"Be holy, for I am holy." Is there any command more difficult to obey? Probably not, yet there it is in God's Word (Leviticus 11:44; 1 Peter 1:16).
Grouped For Strength
Several years ago, former American prisoners of war were interviewed to determine what methods used by the enemy had been most effective in breaking their spirit. Researchers learned that the prisoners didn't break down from physical deprivation and torture as quickly as they did from solitary confinement or from being frequently moved around and separated from friends. It was further learned that the soldiers drew their greatest strength from the close attachments they had formed to the small military units to which they belonged.
