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WITandWISDOM(tm) - April 3, 2006 ISSN 1538-8794 ~~~~~~~ THOUGHTS: Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is a delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead-end street. - Denis Waitley Source: Carol's Thought for Today, http://users.adelphia.net/~mrs.carol ~~~~~~~ SPECIAL THOUGHTS: James W. Moore of St. Luke’s United Methodist Church in Houston tells a story about one of his minister friends. His name is Tom and he does a fascinating thing each month. Even though he has an extremely busy schedule he still makes the time each month to go down to the homeless shelter in his city to work in their soup kitchen. After the homeless people have been fed, he then invites them to join him in a service of Holy Communion and many of them will come with him to the little chapel in the homeless shelter, and join in the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. They have shared soup together in the soup kitchen and then they come to share the bread and the cup together at the altar in the chapel. One day, Tom had an unforgettable experience in the communion service. As he was moving down the altar serving communion, he came to a man kneeling there who looked like he had been out on the streets for quite some time. The man looked up at Tom and whispered: "Skip me." "What? Pardon me?" Tom said. In a louder whisper, the man said again, "Skip me." "Why?" Tom asked. "Because," the man said, "I’m not worthy." Tom said: "Neither am I." Then Tom added: "I’ll tell you what. I’m going to serve communion to these other people. Then, I’m going to come back and serve communion to you and then I would like you to serve it to me." The man blinked and said to Tom: "Father, is that legal?" "Yes, it’s legal; it’s beautiful and that’s what we are going to do!" Tom answered. Tom went on down the altar and served all the other people kneeling there. Then he came back to the reluctant man and said: "What’s your name?" And the man said, "Josh." Tom placed the elements of the Lord’s Supper before him and said: "Josh, here is the Body of Christ and here is the Blood of Christ given for you. Eat this and drink this in the remembrance that Christ came for you and Christ died for you. Amen." Josh blinked back the tears in his eyes. and he received Holy Communion. Then, Tom knelt and handed Josh the trays of bread and wine and said: "Now, you serve me." Josh nervously took the trays and again he said: "Father, are you sure this is legal?" "Yes, it’s legal. Just do it." Josh’s eyes were darting from side to side as he looked over this shoulder and then the other. as if he expected (at any moment) the police, the FBI, the CIA or the Pope to come rushing in to arrest him. Finally, he held the trays toward Tom and as Tom received the Sacrament Josh muttered: "Body - Blood - for you, Hang in There!" Tom said later: "Of all the communion rituals I have ever heard, I don’t recall the words ’Hang in There’ in any of them. but at that moment for me, Holy Communion had never been more ’Holy.’ This cup and this bread is for EVERYONE who believes. Source: SermonCentral Weekly Newsletter, http://www.sermoncentral.com/newsletter_subscribe.asp ~~~~~~~ THIS & THAT: I was the nurse caring for the couple’s newborn first child after his cesarean birth. Since the mother was asleep under general anesthesia, the pediatrician and I took our tiny charge directly to the newborn nursery where we introduced the minutes-old baby to his daddy. While cuddling his son for the first time, he immediately noticed the baby’s ears conspicuously standing out from his head. He expressed his concern that some kids might taunt his child, calling him names like “Dumbo” after the fictional elephant with unusually large ears. The pediatrician examined the baby and reassured the new dad that his son was healthy - the ears presented only a minor cosmetic problem, which could be easily corrected during early childhood. The father was finally optimistic about his child, but was still worried about his wife’s reaction to those large protruding ears. “She doesn’t take things as easily as I do,” he worried. By this time, the new mother was settled in the recovery room and ready to meet her new baby. I went along with the dad to lend some support in case this inexperienced mother became upset about her baby’s large ears. The infant was swaddled in a receiving blanket with the head covered for the short trip through the chilly air-conditioned corridor. I placed the tiny bundle in his mother’s arms and eased the blanket back so that she could gaze upon her child for the first time. She took one look at her baby’s face and looked to her husband and gasped, “Oh, Honey! Look! He has your ears!” By Laura Vickery Hart (c) 2000 from Chicken Soup for the Nurse's Soul by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Nancy-Mitchell-Autio, R.N. and LeAnn Thieman, L.P.N. 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/1558749349 Visit us and read other sample stories and meet the authors. http://www.chickensoup.com Source: Beliefnet Chicken Soup, http://www.beliefnet.com/newsletter/step1.aspx ~~~~~~~ KEEP SMILING: A grandmother told about their big family 4th of July get together at Memorial Park. Mike and Debbie brought two of their grandchildren home with them for about a week. When their daughter told her son, Michael, 4, that he would be coming home with his grandparents he was a little confused. He was lucky enough to have five grandmothers since great-grandparents and great-great grandparents are still living. "Which Grandma and Grandpa?" he asked. His mom explained who Mike and Debbie were, and he said, "Oh, good, that's the Squeezy Grandma!" He referred to two of his other grandmas as "The Grandma With White Hair" and "The Grandma That Can Take Her Teeth Out!" Kids often get confused by the term grandparent and great-grandparent. More than one child, when asked if he or she were referring to a "great-grandparent" or simply a "grandparent" has given the quick response -- "They're all great!" Grace Witwer Housholder from Heartwarmers Source: Chapnotes, mailto:ChapnotesMail@aol.com?Subject=Subscribe ~~~~~~~ TRIVIA: Now is this neat or what??? On Wednesday of this week, at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00 in the morning and in the afternoon, the time and date will be 01:02:03 04/05/06. Submitted by Angelwings