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WITandWISDOM(tm) - December 14, 2000 ~~~~~~~ THOUGHTS: "The best way to knock the chip off your neighbor's shoulder is to pat him on the back." - Author Unknown Source: Awesome Quotes, www.coolnewsletters.com via http://www.witandwisdom.org ~~~~~~~ SPECIAL THOUGHTS: When my son was 11 years old, he got a small job helping out with a traveling carnival while it was in our town. He didn't come home at lunch time, phoning instead to tell me he was fine and had found a few days work helping out at an exhibit. He turned up for supper as usual however after he finished work. I asked him how he had managed at lunch and he told me he had made some new friends at the carnival, some young men who were twin brothers, and their mom and dad. They had paid him a few dollars and invited him for lunch in return for helping them set up their exhibit and wanted him to return the next day to help with other chores. I was glad he had found new friends but a little apprehensive about the type of people that might be traveling in a carnival. "Oh Mom, these are just normal everyday people like anyone else. They just work at a carnival instead of in a store or something. Come down tomorrow and meet them yourself," he said. So the next day I went to the carnival and to the exhibit he had directed me to. The twin brothers turned out to be Siamese twins, joined at the chest. He hadn't thought this fact was noteworthy enough to mention. When I brought it to him he said, "Yes, I noticed that too. Do you know that their mom has to make all their clothes because it's so difficult to find anything to fit them? They're also really good cooks. Today, Joe, the one on the right, made me spaghetti for lunch." What others see first in a person (or persons) is not what a child considers important. Where I saw Siamese twins, he saw people having difficulty buying clothes that fit, and young men who were good cooks. It was a lesson I have thought about many times over the years. By Charlotte Mansfield Used by permission ~~~~~~~ THIS & THAT: During a dozen years as a pastor I was called upon to commit one wedding. A young couple came in off the street desiring to be married. We sat down in my office and wobbled our way through planning the ceremony. I wrote down their names on a card so I could, in my nervousness, marry them correctly. Unfortunately, I only wrote down their first names. Later at the ceremony, I could only use those names. (I guess I married every couple in the church with the identical first names.) After having finished the pre-marital discourse, we moved on to the sanctuary. I left the name card in the manual as a bookmark. Unfortunately, I placed it at the end of the wedding ceremony section. At the time of the wedding we assembled before the altar where I opened the manual to begin. Looking down at the first paragraph I began to ministerially and pontifically intone, "The Lord instituted this sacrament on the night he was betrayed . . ." By Asa Sparks (c) Copyright 2000 asasparks@mindspring.com ~~~~~~~ KEEP SMILING: When I was Christian Ed Director at Birmingham First. We had invited my secretary, Charleigh, and her family to our home for dinner. As we were sharing around the table after the meal, our three-year-old, Libbie, climbed up in Charleigh's lap. Libbie then said to Charleigh, "My Dad said you stuck your foot in your mouth. How did it taste?" By Asa Sparks (c) Copyright 2000 asasparks@mindspring.com ~~~~~~~ TRIVIA: British psychologist David Lewis has found proof that shopping is hazardous to men's health. Testing volunteers ages 22-79 by sending them out Christmas shopping, he recorded blood pressure rates "you'd expect to see in a fighter pilot going into combat." In the same test, only one in four women showed any significant signs of stress. - Bizarre From: The Oregonian, Copyright (c) November 30, 1999, www.oregonlive.com/oregonian/obuffer.ssf via http://www.witandwisdom.org Submitted by: Barbara Henry |