by admin | Feb 23, 2012 | My Point, Soft Skills
Once upon a time the colors of the world started to quarrel. All claimed that they were the best. The most important. The most useful. The favorite.
Green said:
“Clearly I am the most important. I am the sign of life and of hope. I was chosen for grass, trees and leaves. Without me, all animals would die. Look over the countryside and you will see that I am in the majority.”
Blue interrupted:
“You only think about the earth, but consider the sky and the sea. It is the water that is the basis of life and drawn up by the clouds from the deep sea. The sky gives space and peace and serenity. Without my peace, you would all be nothing.”
Yellow chuckled:
“You are all so serious. I bring laughter, gaiety, and warmth into the world. The sun is yellow, the moon is yellow, the stars are yellow. Every time you look at a sunflower, the whole world starts to smile. Without me there would be no fun.”
Orange started next to blow her trumpet:
“I am the color of health and strength. I may be scarce, but I am precious for I serve the needs of human life. I carry the most important vitamins. Think of carrots, pumpkins, oranges, mangoes, and papayas. I don’t hang around all the time, but when I fill the sky at sunrise or sunset, my beauty is so striking that no one gives another thought to any of you.”
Red could stand it no longer he shouted out:
“I am the ruler of all of you. I am blood – life’s blood! I am the color of danger and of bravery. I am willing to fight for a cause. I bring fire into the blood. Without me, the earth would be as empty as the moon. I am the color of passion and of love, the red rose, the poinsettia and the poppy.”
Purple rose up to his full height:
He was very tall and spoke with great pomp: “I am the color of royalty and power. Kings, chiefs, and bishops have always chosen me for I am the sign of authority and wisdom. People do not question me! They listen and obey.”
Indigo spoke, more quietly than others, but with determination:
“Think of me. I am the color of silence. You hardly notice me, but without me you all become superficial. I represent thought and reflection, twilight and deep water. You need me for balance and contrast, for prayer and inner peace.”
And so the colors went on boasting, each convinced of his or her own superiority. Their quarreling became louder and louder. Suddenly there was a startling flash of bright lightening thunder rolled and boomed. Rain started to pour down relentlessly. The colors crouched down in fear, drawing close to one another for comfort.
In the midst of the clamor, God began to speak:
“You foolish colors, fighting amongst yourselves, each trying to dominate the rest. Don’t you know that you were each made for a special purpose, unique and different? Join hands with one another and come to me.”
Doing as they were told, the colors united and joined hands.
God continued:
“From now on, when it rains, each of you will stretch across the sky in a great bow of color as a reminder that you can all live in peace. The Rainbow is a sign of hope for tomorrow.” And so, whenever a good rain washes the world, and a Rainbow appears in the sky, let us remember to appreciate one another.
by admin | Feb 22, 2012 | My Point, Soft Skills
In ancient times, a king had a boulder placed on a roadway. Then he hid himself and watched to see if anyone would remove the huge rock. Some of the king’s wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by and simply walked around it.
Many loudly blamed the king for not keeping the roads clear, but none did anything about getting the big stone out of the way. Then a peasant came along carrying a load of vegetables. On approaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and tried to move the stone to the side of the road. After much pushing and straining, he finally succeeded. As the peasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticed a purse lying in the road where the boulder had been. The purse contained many gold coins and a note from the king indicating that the gold was for the person who removed the boulder from the roadway. The peasant learned what many others never understand.
Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve one’s condition.
Unknown Author
by admin | Feb 22, 2012 | My Point, Soft Skills
An atheist professor was teaching a college class and he told the class that he was going to prove that there was not a God. He said, “God if you are real, then I dare you to knock me off this platform. I’ll give you 15 minutes!”
Ten minutes went by and he kept taunting God, saying, “Here I am God, I’m still waiting” . He got down to the last couple of minutes and a BIG 240 pound football player happened to walk by the door and heard what the professor said. The football player walked in the class room and in the last minute, he walked up, hit the professor full force, and sent him flying off the platform.
The professor got up, obviously shaken and said, “Wow, where did you come from and why did you do that?”
The football player replied, “God was busy, so He sent me!”
Author Unknown
by admin | Feb 21, 2012 | My Point, Soft Skills
A young man had been to Tuesday night Bible Study. The Pastor had shared about listening to God and obeying the Lord. The young man couldn’t help but wonder, “Does God still speak to people?” After service he went out with some friends for coffee and pie and they discussed the message. Several of the people talked about how God had led them in different ways.
It was about ten o’clock when the young man started driving home. Sitting in his car, he just began to pray, “God…If you still speak to people, speak to me. I will listen, and I will do my best to obey.”
As he drove down the main street of his town, he had a strange thought — stop and buy a gallon of milk. He shook his head and said out loud, “God is that you?” He didn’t get a reply and started on toward home. But again, the thought, buy a gallon of milk.
The young man thought of Samuel and how he didn’t recognize the voice of God, and how little Samuel ran to Eli. “Okay, God, in case that’s you, I will buy the milk.” It didn’t seem like too hard a test of obedience. Besides, he could always use the milk.
He stopped and purchased the gallon of milk and started off toward home. As he drove passed Seventh street, he felt a strange urge — “Turn down that street.” This is crazy he thought, and drove on by the intersection. Again, he felt that he should turn down seventh street. At the next intersection, he turned around and headed down Seventh street. Half jokingly, he said out loud, “Okay, God, I will.”
He drove several blocks, then suddenly, he felt like he should stop. He pulled over to the curb and looked around. He was in semi-commercial area of town. It wasn’t the best but it wasn’t the worst of neighborhoods either. The businesses were closed and most of the houses looked dark, like the people were already in bed.
Again, he sensed something, “Go and give the milk to the people in the house across the street.” The young man looked at the house. It was dark and it looked like the people were gone or already asleep. He started to open the car door and then sat back in the car seat. “Lord, this is crazy. Those people are probably asleep and if I wake them up, they are going to be mad and I’ll just look stupid.”
Again, he felt he should take the milk to the house. Finally, he opened the car door. “Okay God, if this is your will, I’ll take the milk to the house, even if I end of looking like a stupid fool. I want to be obedient. But if they don’t answer right away, I am out of here.”
He walked across the street and rang the bell. He could hear some noise inside. A man’s voice yelled out, “Who is it? What do you want?” Then the door opened before the nervous young man could run away. The man was standing there in his jeans and T-shirt. He had a strange look on his face and didn’t seem happy to have a stranger at his door.
“What is it?” The young man handed him the milk. The man took the milk and rushed down a hall way speaking loudly in Spanish. Then from down the hall came a woman carrying the milk, headed towards the kitchen. The man was following her holding a baby. The baby was crying. The man had tears streaming down his face. While half crying, the man said: “We were just praying — my wife has no milk, and we had some big bills this month, so we ran out of money to buy milk for the baby. I was just praying and asking God to show me how to get some milk.” His wife in the kitchen yelled out, “I ask Him to send an Angel with some… milk. Are you an Angel?”
The young man reached for his wallet, and gave the man a few dollars — all he had. As the young man turned and walked back toward his car, tears were streaming down his face. God still answers prayers! Yes, and God talks to us too. Are you listening?
by admin | Feb 21, 2012 | My Point, Soft Skills
A long time ago, education and religion went hand in hand, therefore many of the teachers were holy men. There once was one who was highly known and respected in his small. village. He had four students, but seemed prouder about one in particular. His other three students sensed this, and therefore one day, questioned him about his apparent show of favoritism. Being old and wise, the teacher decided to give them a test which would help them find their own answers to their question.
He called all four students together and he gave each one a chicken. He then told them that he wanted each one of them to take their chicken to a place where nobody could see them. Then kill the chicken, hide it, and return to the school. All four students grabbed their chickens and departed, each in a different direction.
“Well.” It did not take long for the three students who had questioned the teacher, to return. As the day began to drift away, they started to laugh and make fun of the student who had not returned. “They said he was dumb for not being able to complete such a simple task and return.”
Finally, around midnight, the fourth student returned to the school, still carrying his chicken. This really made the other students laugh, and they asked the teacher, “How can this possibly be your favorite and most obedient student?” The teacher turned to the fourth student and said “explain why you are still carrying the chicken.”
He replied……“forgive me teacher, but I could not find a place to do as you asked, because everywhere I went, “God” was there watching me!
The teacher smiled, and left for bed.
by admin | Feb 21, 2012 | My Point, Soft Skills
While waiting to pick up a friend at the airport in Portland, Oregon, I had one of those life-changing experiences that you hear other people talk about -the kind that sneaks up on you unexpectedly. This one occurred a mere two feet away from me.
Straining to locate my friend among the passengers deplaning through the jetway, I noticed a man coming toward me carrying two light bags. He stopped right next to me to greet his family.
First he motioned to his youngest son (maybe six years old) as he laid down his bags. They gave each other a long, loving hug. As they separated enough to look in each other’s face, I heard the father say, “It’s so good to see you, son. I missed you so much!” His son smiled somewhat shyly, averted his eyes and replied softly, “Me, too, Dad!”
Then the man stood up, gazed in the eyes of his oldest son (maybe nine or ten) and while cupping his son’s face in his hands said, “You’re already quite the young man. I love you very much, Zach!” They too hugged a most loving, tender hug.
While this was happening, a baby girl (perhaps one or one-and-a-half) was squirming excitedly in her mother’s arms, never once taking her little eyes off the wonderful sight of her returning father. The man said, “Hi, baby girl!” as he gently took the child from her mother. He quickly kissed her face all over and then held her close to his chest while rocking her from side to side. The little girl instantly relaxed and simply laid her head on his shoulder, motionless in pure contentment.
After several moments, he handed his daughter to his oldest son and declared, “I’ve saved the best for last!” and proceeded to give his wife the longest, most passionate kiss I ever remember seeing. He gazed into her eyes for several seconds and then silently mouthed. “I love you so much!” They stared at each other’s eyes, beaming big smiles at one another, while holding both hands.
For an instant they reminded me of newlyweds, but I knew by the age of their kids that they couldn’t possibly be. I puzzled about it for a moment then realized how totally engrossed I was in the wonderful display of unconditional love not more than an arm’s length away from me.
I suddenly felt uncomfortable, as if I was invading something sacred, but was amazed to hear my own voice nervously ask, “Wow! How long have you two been married?” “Been together fourteen years total, married twelve of those.” he replied, without breaking his gaze from his lovely wife’s face. “Well then, how long have you been away?” I asked the man finally turned and looked at me, still beaming his joyous smile.”Two whole days!” Two days? I was stunned.
By the intensity of the greeting, I had assumed he’d been gone for at least several weeks – if not months. I know my expression betrayed me, I said almost offhandedly, hoping to end my intrusion with some semblance of grace (and to get back to searching for my friend), “I hope my marriage is still that passionate after twelve years!” The man suddenly stopped smiling.
He looked me straight in the eye, and with forcefulness that burned right into my soul, he told me something that left me a different person. He told me, “Don’t hope, friend… decide!” Then he flashed me his wonderful smile again, shook my hand and said, “God bless!”
With that, he and his family turned and strode away together. I was still watching that exceptional man and his special family walk just out of sight when my friend came up to me and asked, “What’cha looking at?” Without hesitating, and with a curious sense of certainty, I replied, “My future!”
