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WITandWISDOM(tm) - May 8, 2006 ISSN 1538-8794 ~~~~~~~ THOUGHTS: "The price of hating other human beings is loving one's own self less." - Eldridge Cleaver Source: Weekend Encounter, by Dick Innes, Copyright (c) ACTS International, 2004, http://www.actsweb.org/subscribe.php ~~~~~~~ SPECIAL THOUGHTS: About ten years ago, I found my mother sitting at the kitchen table. She was reading and chuckling in frustration, so I asked her what she was looking at. She told me that she'd been studying Proverbs for her devotions and that she'd just read chapter 31, which lists the qualities of a virtuous wife. She was frustrated because she realized she could never be the woman God describes there. We talked about it some more, and my mom finally arrived at a decision that still inspires me today: she decided to take on the challenge, one verse at a time. She said: "I'll work on the first item in the list. When I've got that one mastered, I'll move to the next one—hopefully I'll be a virtuous woman before I die." I recently checked in with her to see how she was progressing. She laughed and told me she was seven or eight items into the list but was currently stuck on, "Her children call her blessed." She said, "I might have to wait for all of them to grow out of their teens before I can accomplish that one." Last year, my sisters and I got together and made a Certificate of Completion in Proverbs 31 Training. We took every verse and came up with an example of when she had fulfilled that requirement. When the certificate was finished, it looked like a real diploma and listed her many accomplishments. We all signed it, including my dad. I read it out loud to her, and when I got to the last verse, "Her children call her blessed," one by one each of us said, "Mom, you are blessed." She cried and cried—she had finally reached her life's goal! Source: Preaching Today, http://www.preachingtoday.com/ ~~~~~~~ THIS & THAT: Daniel Webster's father left him and his brother Ezekiel alone one day and gave them specific instructions as to the work they were to accomplish. On his return, he found the task still undone, and severely questioned his sons about their idleness. "What have you been doing, Ezekiel?" he asked. "Nothing, sir." "Well, Daniel, what have you been doing?" "Helping Zeke, sir." Submitted by Lorraine ~~~~~~~ KEEP SMILING: My mom has a lead foot, so I was not surprised when a state trooper pulled us over as we were driving through Georgia. Hoping to get off with a warning, Mom tried to appear shocked when he walked up to the car. "I have never been stopped like this before," she said to the officer. "What do they usually do, ma'am," he asked, "shoot the tires out?" Source: The Reader's Digest, Copyright ©, All rights reserved., http://www.readersdigest.com/ Submitted by JT ~~~~~~~ TRIVIA: Sneakers The Cat Sneakers the cat is being reunited with his owner, hundreds of miles away from where the feline disappeared in 1996. The longhair black cat was given to Sacramento, California’s Animal Care Services last week, where an employee scanned him for a microchip, a routine procedure. The number on the chip was used to track down Allison MacEwan of Seattle, who said she placed newspaper ads and went door-to-door with fliers in a futile search fro her lost cat a decade ago. Officials on Wednesday said they aren’t sure how the cat wound up in Sacramento. MacEwan’s daughter was 4 years old when her cat disappeared, and officials said she is now looking forward to being reunited with him. Source: Peninsula Daily News, May 4, 2006, http://peninsuladailynews.com