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WITandWISDOM(tm) - April 21, 2003 ISSN 1538-8794 ~~~~~~~ THOUGHTS: "Courage... is when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what." - Harper Lee Source: Quotes of the Day, mailto:rheamo@centurytel.net?subject=Subscribe_Quotes_of_the_Day ~~~~~~~ SPECIAL THOUGHTS: While preparing lunch in the kitchen one day, I overheard my husband discussing a Bible lesson with our teenage daughter. He read a verse that caused me to stop and listen. "If you help the poor, you are lending to the Lord - and he will repay you!" - Prov. 19:17 NLT. That's interesting, I thought. I'm sure I've read that before, but I've never really thought about it. Lending to the Lord. What does that mean! Every few days that verse rolled through my mind. I couldn't figure out why. When I received a letter from my son, I knew the reason. My son was away at school and had become attached to a family in the area. His letter told about his adventures of the week, but the lines that grabbed my attention were the ones in which he told about how this family's cupboards were almost bare, their money was gone, and payday wasn't for another two weeks. My son wrote: "Mom, if you have any ideas how to help, let me know." The words "If you help the poor, you are lending to the Lord" floated through my mind. Still unsure, I put the letter aside. Two days later I sat down to pay bills, not my favorite activity, especially since we had had repairs on both our vehicles at the same time that cost us more than $1,000. I stared at the credit card statement. I punched the numbers on my calculator. If I waited one more week - until I got my paycheck - I just might be able to pay it off completely and not have any finance charge. Then I remembered my son's letter, and the words "If you help the poor . . . " But Lord, I began to reason in my mind, I need this money to pay the car repair bill. It's not your money, but Mine., came the response. I gave it to you. But Lord, You want me to be a good steward and pay my bills, I returned. Remember, "If you help the poor, you are lending to the Lord." You want me to lend this money to You, Lord? Yes. And don't forget the rest of the verse: "He will repay you!" OK, Lord, I'll do it, I prayed. I'll trust You. It won't be the end of the world if my credit card carries a balance. I picked up my pen, wrote a check to the family along with a note thanking them for being kind to my son, and put it in the mail before I could change my mind. Early the next week I walked out to the mailbox. As I thumbed through the mail my hand stopped on an envelope. I do proofreading for a friend, and periodically he and his wife send me a check as a thank-you. I never know when one is coming. But that day there was an envelope from them. I tore it open, and tears came to my eyes. Inside was a check for four times the amount of the check I had sent to the family in need. I heard the words again: "He will repay you!" I had exactly what I needed to pay my car repair bill. When we picked my son up for Thanksgiving break, we received a thank-you note from the family we helped. I cried when I read their note. The mother told me how when her husband received his paycheck, he didn't know how he could pay tithe and still pay all their bills for the month. But he went ahead and paid his tithe, trusting the Lord to provide. A few days later the check I had sent arrived - written for the identical amount of tithe he had paid. The next month when again paying bills, I remembered this family. With Christmas coming they probably could use some extra money to buy something their children needed. I took out my calculator and punched some numbers, then again began to reason with the Lord in my mind. Lord, if I keep this money I know I'll have enough to get through the month and not run out. "If you help the poor, you are lending to the Lord - and he will repay you," came the response. Lord, can't somebody else help this time! I did my part, I reminded Him. Didn't you learn anything last month? Well, yeah, but do I have to learn more? Are you willing? All right, Lord. Help me learn to trust You more. I wrote another check to the family, knowing that if anything unexpected came up I wouldn't have any money for it. As the days went by the Lord continued to show me that when we lend to Him, He does indeed pay us back. By Christmas Day we had received gifts of cash and checks that totaled 10 times what we had lent to the Lord. I learned a lesson I'll never forget. The Lord is indeed true to His word. And I can hardly wait for my next opportunity to be a part of God's divine banking system. By Lorrie Dana, Indianola, Iowa Source: Adventist Review, ISSN 0161-1119, (c) February 2003, http://www.adventistreview.org/ Submitted by Nancy Simpson ~~~~~~~ THIS & THAT: From an essay be a child of ten asked to write on the subject of some beasts. The youngster's vision heads the introduction to the Milky Way, a history of Dairy Farm, Hongkong's first milk producers. Originally it was printed in Sir Ernest Gower's "The Complete Plain Words." The cow is a mammal. It has six sides - right, left, an upper and below. At the back it has a tail on which hangs a brush. With this it sends the flies away so that they do not fall into the milk. The head is for the purpose of growing horns and so that the mouth can be somewhere. The horns are to butt with, and the mouth Is to moo with. Under the cow hangs the milk. It is arranged for milking. When people milk, the milk, comes and there is never an end to the supply. How the cow does it I have not yet realized, but it makes more and more& The cow does not eat much, but what it eats, it eats twice, so that it gets enough. When it is hungry it moos, and when it says nothing it is because its inside is full up with grass. Source: Monday Fodder mailto:dgaufaaa@iohk.com?subject=Subscribe_Monday_Fodder ~~~~~~~ KEEP SMILING: The company my brother worked for had a phone system that rerouted after-hours calls. If any calls came in on a certain line while he was working late, Dave knew it would be a wrong number. It got to the point where as soon as the phone rang, Dave would pick up and say, "Psychic Hotline. I'm sorry, but you've dialed the wrong number." The caller would often reply with something like "But I didn't even ask to speak to anyone yet. How did you know I dialed the wrong ... Oh!" (Click.) Contributed by Wade Dean Source: Reader's Digest, Copyright (c) February 2000, http://www.readersdigest.com/ ~~~~~~~ TRIVIA: We smile now at a statement printed in Popular Mechanics, March 1949, but at the time it seemed reasonable: "A calculator on our first computer, the Eniac, is equipped with 18,000 vacuum tubes and weighs 30 tons, but computers of the future may have only 1,000 vacuum tubes and perhaps weigh only 1 ½ tons." Source: Adventist Review, ISSN 0161-1119, (c) September 13, 2001, http://www.adventistreview.org/ Submitted by Nancy Simpson |