Prior Date

Archive Index

Next Date

WITandWISDOM(tm) - April 21, 2006 ISSN 1538-8794 ~~~~~~~ THOUGHTS: You can't make someone else's choices. You shouldn't let someone else make yours. - Colin Powell Source: Molly's Quotes of the Day, mailto:molly.rhea@gmail.com?subject=Subscribe_Quotes_of_the_Day ~~~~~~~ SPECIAL THOUGHTS: In an article on "The Preacher as God's Steward," James Earl Massey writes: "There is a story Dr. George Washington Carver used to tell about himself . . . There was that day, he reported, when he had been meditating on life and nature. He moved from thought to prayer. He asked God, 'Mr. Creator [his way of addressing the Almighty], why did you make the universe?' God responded to the query, but it was an admonition to ask for something more in keeping with what his mind might more readily grasp. So Carver revised his question, scaled it down, and asked God why He had made humans. He was told inwardly that he still wanted to know too much. "Praying there in his laboratory with his eyes open -- his customary way -- Carver noticed some peanuts drying on a nearby shelf, and he asked God to tell him the purpose peanuts were created to serve. The Almighty seemed pleased, and told Carver that if he would busy himself to separate the peanut into its many elements, then he would learn much about its uses. So, using what he knew of chemistry and physics, Carver worked and separated the oils, gums, resins, sugars, starches, and acids found in the peanut. In separating the constituent elements of the peanut in this way, Carver was working on a problem and, over time, his 'solution' to the problem posed by the peanut uncovered or discovered or disclosed or invented new uses for the peanut -- 300 new uses, actually -- but the mystery of humans and the universe continued to haunt Carver's mind and spirit across the rest of his life. Dr. Carver rightly embraced the mystery of being human in this kind of world, aware that the mystery had embraced him!" Source: Preaching Now, http://www.preaching.com/newsletter/subscribe.html ~~~~~~~ THIS & THAT: Helping me sort clothes into "save" and "give away" piles, my six-year-old daughter came across a garter belt. "What's this?" she asked. "It's a garter belt," I said. Seeing that meant nothing to her, I added, "It's for holding up stockings." "Ah," she said, carefully placing it in the "save" pile, "we'll use it? next Christmas Eve." Source: Clean Humor Digest, http://www.jokesnstuff.net/digest ~~~~~~~ KEEP SMILING: It was Saturday, the day before Easter, and Joanne Hinch of Woodland Hills, California was sitting at the kitchen table coloring eggs with her three-year-old son Dan and her two-year-old daughter Debbie. She told her kids about the meaning of Easter and taught them the traditional Easter morning greeting and response, "He is risen...He is risen indeed!" The children planned to surprise their Dad, a Presbyterian minister, with that greeting as soon as he awoke the next morning. Easter arrived, little Dan heard his father stirring about in his bedroom, so the boy got up quickly, dashed down the hall and shouted the good news: "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, God's back!" Rev. Dr. David E. Leininger, "Laugh, Thomas, Laugh!" Source: Illustrations, http://www.cybersaltlists.org ~~~~~~~ TRIVIA: In 1973, archeologists uncovered a cache of date palm seeds in ancient Masada, Israel. Scientists estimated that the seeds were produced about 70 AD. The Romans called it Phoenix dactylifera -- "the date-bearing phoenix" -- because it never died and appeared to be reborn in the desert where all other plant life perished. The seeds were stored at Israel's Bar-Ilan University where they remained for the next thirty years. In November 2004, Dr. Sarah Sallon approached the university and asked for some of the seeds. "When we asked if we could try and grow some of them, they said, 'You're mad,' but they gave us three seeds," Sarah said. Sarah's friend, biologist Dr. Elaine Solowey also didn't have much faith that the seeds would germinate, but Elaine carefully prepared the seeds for planting. First she soaked the seeds in hot water to make them once again able to absorb liquids. Then she soaked them in a solution of nutrients followed by an enzymatic fertilizer made from seaweed. Tu B'shevat, a Jewish holiday known as the New Year for Trees, fell on January 25, 2005. Elaine chose that day to plant the seeds in new potting soil, hook them up to a drip irrigation system, and then she left them locked up. Elaine occasionally checked on the plants for a few weeks, and in March 2005, she noticed a sprout. By November 2005, the sprout had turned into a sapling that was 3 feet high with nine leaves. Nicknamed Methuselah, the seeds is oldest seed to ever germinate. By Peter Kennedy, Copyright 2005, Devotional E-Mail DEVOTIONS IN MARK mailto:pkennedy6@yahoo.com Source: Illustrator, http://www.answers2prayer.org