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WITandWISDOM(tm) - February 3, 2006 ISSN 1538-8794 ~~~~~~~ THOUGHTS: You don't have to see the whole staircase; just the first step. - Martin Luther King, JR Source: Carol's Thought for Today, http://users.adelphia.net/~mrs.carol ~~~~~~~ SPECIAL THOUGHTS: "Dear Lord, could you please send two angels to protect my daddy? I don't mean to be selfish but, you see, he is six foot five. He may need the wings of both of them to completely cover him. Please let their wings shield him when the guns are fired and the rockets are shot. Let him know that he is protected and give him comfort. Amen." I asked my girls to pray this prayer every day while my husband was gone, and I repeated a similar prayer many times throughout the day. Two weeks after my husband's return from Baghdad, he told a story of how he returned to his trailer after midnight and felt that there was an intruder in his small living quarters. When his search revealed nothing, he prepared for bed with a great feeling of peace and comfort. One hour later he was awakened by the sound of rapid gunfire. Lying on his belly with his weapon drawn, he told us how he was never afraid. My daughter asked him how this was possible. My husband told her that he could feel someone in the room protecting him. Actually, he said, it felt more like two. My daughter's eyes grew wide as she looked at me and said quietly, "Daddy's angels." This was the first my husband had heard of our special prayer for him. By Tammy Ross (c) 2003 from Chicken Soup for the Military Wife's Soul by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Charles Preston and Cindy Pedersen. In order to protect the rights of the copyright holder, no portion of this publication may be reproduced without prior written consent. All rights reserved, http://isbn.nu/0757302653 ~~~~~~~ THIS & THAT: I was dining at a beachside seafood restaurant in San Diego which has mercifully long since gone out of business. After several iced teas (or probably more likely it was too many cervezas - oh to be young again on a summer day by the beach!) I journeyed to the back of the restaurant only to be confronted with a choice of "Clams" and "Oysters." Being a man and therefore incapable of asking for directions, I stood there debating the issue for a minute and thought that perhaps the "Oyster" bathroom might be for women because oysters give pearls, but not wanting to suffer the embarrassment of venturing into the wrong room, I waited for someone to come out so I would know which room to use. No luck, and while I was waiting three other people came up who, faced with the same daunting task, simply turned away and returned to their seats. Finally, unable to resist nature's increasingly desperate urging, I left the restaurant and used the bathroom at the gas station next door. On the way I passed one of the diners who had turned away while I waited. We nodded silently to each other in acknowledgement of our mutual confusion. To this day, I don't know which bathroom was the right one. Jim Lantry Submitted by B. B. ~~~~~~~ KEEP SMILING: A little seven-year-old boy prayed one night before bed for God to give him a baby sister. When he awakened the next morning, the youngster found that there was no baby. Undaunted, he prayed a second time for the same thing. Still no baby. Some months later, the boy and his father made a trip to the local hospital. When the two of them arrived, they stepped into a room in the maternity section and found the boy's mother holding a precious baby sister in her right arm, and yet another baby sister in her left! The proud father looked down into the eyes of his son and said, "Now, aren't you glad you prayed?" To which the little boy responded, "Yes, and aren't you glad I stopped when I did?" Source: Weekend Encounter, by Dick Innes, Copyright (c) ACTS International, 2004, http://www.actsweb.org/subscribe.htm ~~~~~~~ TRIVIA: Age Calculator Find out who is older and younger that you. Find out what happened at certain ages of your life. http://www.frontiernet.net/~cdm/age1.html Submitted by Steve Stuebe