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WITandWISDOM(tm) - April 11, 2000
~~~~~~~ THOUGHTS: Success is 99 percent failure. - Soichiro Honda, Founder, Honda Motor Corporation Source: Bits & Pieces, Copyright (c) Economic Press, Inc., www.epinc.com via http://www.witandwisdom.org ~~~~~~~ SPECIAL THOUGHTS: You perhaps recall the story of the blacksmith who gave his heart to God. Though conscientious in his living, still he was not prospering materially. In fact, it seems that from the time of his conversion more trouble, affliction and loss were sustained than ever before. Everything seemed to be going wrong. One day a friend who was not a Christian stopped at the little gorge to talk to him. Sympathizing with him in some of his trials, the friend said, "It seems strange to me that so much affliction should pass over you just at the time when you have become an earnest Christian. Of course, I don't want to weaken your faith in God or anything like that. But here you are, God's help and guidance, and yet things seem to be getting steadily worse. I can't help wondering why it is." The blacksmith did not answer immediately, and it was evident that he had thought the same question before. But finally, he said "You see here the raw iron which I have to make into horse's shoes. You know what I do with it? I take a piece and heat it in the fire until it is red, almost white with the heat. Then I hammer it unmercifully to shape it as I know it should be shaped. Then I plunge it into a pail of cold water to temper it. Then I heat it again and hammer it some more. I do this until it is finished." "But sometimes I find a piece of iron that won't stand up under this treatment. The heat and the hammering and the cold water are too much for it. I don't know why it fails in the process, but I know it will never make a good horse's shoe." He pointed to a heap of scrap iron that was near the door of his shop. "When I get a piece that cannot take the shape and temper, I throw it out on the scrap heap. It will never be good for anything." He went on, "I know that God has been holding me in the fires of affliction and I have felt His hammer upon me. But I don't mind if only He can bring me to what I should be. And so, in all these hard things my prayer is simply this: Try me in any way you wish, Lord, only don't throw me on the scrap heap." By Lynell Waterman, In "Joy In The Morning" JoyInTheMorning@dte.net Source: Weekend Encounter, by Dick Innes, Copyright 2000, www.actsweb.org/subscribe.htm via http://www.witandwisdom.org ~~~~~~~ THIS & THAT: BRAIN TEASERS 1. How can you arrange for two people to stand on the same piece of newspaper and yet be unable to touch each other without stepping off the newspaper? 2. How many 3-cent stamps are there in a dozen? 3. A rope ladder hangs over the side of a ship. The rungs are one foot apart and the ladder is 12 feet long. The tide is rising at four inches an hour. How long will it take before the first four rungs of the ladder are underwater? 4. Which would you rather have, a trunk full of nickels or a trunk half full of dimes? 5. Steve has three piles of sand and Mike has four piles of sand. If they put them all together, how many do they have? 6. In which sport are the shoes made entirely of metal? 7. If the Vice President of the United States should die, who would be President? 8. How can you throw a golf ball with all your might and - without hitting a wall or any other obstruction--have the ball stop and come right back to you? 9. Find the English word that can be formed from all these letters: PNLLEEEESSSSS ~~~ ANSWERS: 1. Slide the newspaper half way under a closed door and ask the two people to stand on the bit of newspaper on their side of the door. 2. There are twelve (not four). 3. Actually, the ladder will rise with the ship! 4. Dimes are smaller than nickels, so choose the dimes! 5. If they put them all together, there will be one pile. 6. Horse racing. 7. The President. 8. Throw the ball straight up. 9. Sleeplessness Source: Mikey's Funnies, www.YouthSpecialties.com via http://www.witandwisdom.org ~~~~~~~ KEEP SMILING: This alphanumeric poem is from a book titled "Zero to Lazy Eight" by Alexander Humez, Nicholas Humez, and Joseph Maguire. The poem is based on the fact that "cipher" the name for "zero" which means "empty." U 0 a 0, but I 0 thee. O 0 no 0, but O 0 me. O let not my 0 a mere 0 go, But 0 my 0 I 0 thee so. Thus, translated, it would read as follows: You sigh for a cipher, but I sigh for thee. O sigh for no cipher, but O sigh for me. O let not my sigh for a mere cipher go, But sigh for my sigh, for I sigh for thee so. Source: Clean Hewmor, clean-hewmor-subscribe@welovegod.org via http://www.witandwisdom.org ~~~~~~~ TRIVIA: Why do we call gossip "scuttlebutt?" . . . Say this word out loud a couple of times in succession and it will sound like total nonsense. That's because the words from which it comes have nothing to do with present day life. Scuttle and butt hearken back to the olden days of sailing ships. The butt was a cask of fresh drinking water--a very important object on any ship. The scuttle was the hatch or hole on the deck of the ship near which the butt was placed. Sailors coming over for a drink tended to linger for a moment, exchanging the "latest" with whomever else was drinking. What they said became known as scuttlebutt. Today at work we gossip around the water cooler. Source: Webster's Third New International Dictionary Source: The Daily Trivia, trivia-on@mail-list.com via http://www.witandwisdom.org |