WEEKLY FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Need an inspirational thought...a chuckle or two... something to inspire you and get you through the day?  Well, you've come to the right place.  Check here at least weekly for new bits of inspiration.  Sometimes more than once per week...sometimes not...but check often so you don't miss anything.

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(Sunday, August 31)

TIGHTROPE TRUST

In the mid-nineteenth century, tightrope walker Blondin was going to perform his most daring feat yet.  He stretched a two-inch steel cable across Niagra Falls.  As he did, a large crowd gathered to watch.  He asked the onlookers, "How many of you believe that I can carry the weight of a human on my shoulders across this gorge?"

The growing crowd shouted and cheered, believing that he could perform this difficult feat.  Blondin picked up a sack of sand that weighed about 180 pounds and carried it across the Falls.  They both arrived on the other side safely.

Then Blondin asked, "How many of you believe that I can actually carry a person across the gorge?"  Again, the crowd cheered him on.

"Which one of you will climb on my shoulders and let me carry you across the Falls?"  Silence fell across the crowd.  Everyone wanted to see him carry a person across the gorge, but nobody wanted to put his or her life into Blondin's hands.

Finally a volunteer came forward willing to participate in this death-defying stunt.  Who was this person?  It was Blondin's manager, who had known the tightrope walker personally for many years.

As they prepared to cross the Falls, Blondin instructed his manager, "You must not trust your own feelings, but mine.  You will feel like turning when we don't need to turn.  And if you trust your feelings, we will both fall.  You must become part of me."  The two made it across to the other side safely.

Jesus gives us the same instruction when we are asked to trust Him in difficult circumstances:  "Don't trust your own feelings; trust Me to carry you through"

printed in Quiet Moments with God
a devotional book by Honor Books--Tulsa, OK

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(Saturday, August 30)
I didn't believe it...but it's true!!!!  TRY IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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(Friday, August 29)

I definitely like the way this person thinks!!!!!

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(Wednesday, August 27)

Just because I'm not saying anything
doesn't mean that I'm not grieving.
Words just cannot capture my loss--
at least not any words I know.
Why he was my best friend!
I'd been knowing him for nearly forty-five years.
How is a man supposed to put that into words?
And how is a man supposed to imagine a world
without such a friend?

Harold Ivan Smith stated that in writing his book, Grieving The Death Of A Friend, he had reexamined his attitudes on the stoic male and had come to the conclusion above.

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(Tuesday, August 26)

There are many reasons God saves you:  to bring glory to himself, to appease his justice, to demonstrate his sovereignty.  But one of the sweetest reasons God saved you is because he is fond of you.  He likes having you around.  He thinks you are the best thing to come down the pike in quite a while. . . .

If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it.  If he had a wallet, your photo would be in it.  He sends you flowers every spring and a sunrise every morning.  Whenever you want to talk, he'll listen.  He can live anywhere in the universe, and he chose your heart. . . .

Face it, friend.  He's crazy about you.

from A Gentle Thunder by Max Lucado

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(Monday, August 25)
Younger daughter is safely back at college!!!!!!

Don't let the fear of losing something become greater than the joy of loving it.

paraphrased from a comment made by one of the characters during an episode of "DOC" on the PAX network

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(Tuesday, August 19)
(I feel I need to pass this along since the Blaster is causing such problems now.  Besides, if I am in the target audience...was born 55 years ago yesterday <S>...I feel sure others reading this are in the same boat.)

this was received through email...original source unknown

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(Sunday, August 17)

One day an evangelist by the name of Jackov arrived in a certain village. He commiserated with an elderly man named Simmerman on the tragedies he had experienced and talked to him of the love of Christ.  Simmerman abruptly interrupted Jackov, and told him that he wished to have nothing to do with Christianity.  He reminded Jackov of the dreadful history of the church in his town…a history replete with plundering, exploiting, and indeed with killing innocent people.  “My own nephew was killed by them,” he said and angrily rebuffed any effort on Jackov’s part to talk about Christ.

“They wear those elaborate coats and caps and crosses,” he said “signifying a heavenly commission, but their evil designs and lies I cannot ignore.”   

Jackov, looking for an occasion to get Simmerman to change his line of thinking said, “Simmerman, can I ask you a question?  Suppose I were to steal your coat, put it on, and break into a bank.  Suppose further that the police sighted me running in the distance but could not catch up with me.  One clue, however, put them onto your tracks.  They recognized your coat.  What would you say to them if they came to your house and accused you of breaking into the bank?"  

“I would deny it,” said Simmerman.

“ ‘Ah, but we saw your coat,’ they would say,” retorted Jackov.

This analogy quite annoyed Simmerman who ordered Jackov to leave his home. 

Jackov continued to return to the village periodically just to befriend Simmerman, encourage him, and share the love of Christ with him.  Finally one day Simmerman asked, “How does one become a Christian?”

Jackov told him the simple steps of repentance for sin and of trust and the work of Jesus Christ, and gently pointed him to the shepherd of his soul.  Simmerman bent his knee on the soil with his head bowed and surrendered his life to Christ.  As he rose to his feet, wiping his tears, he embraced Jackov and said, “Thank you for being in my life,” and then he pointed to the heavens and whispered, “You wear His coat very well.”

Do yourself a favor and keep your eyes off the shortcomings of institutions…and people…and history’s dark spots.  Level your scrutiny at the person of Christ, and you will see the One who wears His Father’s coat VERY WELL.

from Can Man Live Without God by Ravi Zacharias
(transcribed from audio...spellings and punctuation not necessarily authentic)

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(Sunday, August 10)

THE WEATHERED OLD BARN

A stranger came by the other day with an offer that set me to thinking.  He wanted to buy the old barn that sits out by the highway.  I told him right off he was crazy.  He was a city type, you could tell by his clothes, his car, his hands, and the way he talked.  He said he was driving by and saw that beautiful barn sitting out in the tall grass and wanted to know if it was for sale.  I told him he had a funny idea of beauty.

Sure, it was a handsome building in its day.  But then, there's been a lot of winters pass with their snow and ice and howling wind.  The summer sun's beat down on that old barn till all the paint's gone, and the wood has turned silver gray.  Now the old building leans a good deal, looking kind of tired.  Yet, that fellow called it beautiful.

That set me to thinking.  I walked out to the field and just stood there, gazing at that old barn.  The stranger said he planned to use the lumber to line the walls of his den in a new country home he's building down the road.  He said you couldn't get paint like that.  Only years of standing in the weather, bearing the storms and scorching sun, only that can produce beautiful barn wood.

 It came to me then. We're a lot like that, you and I. Only it's on the inside that the beauty grows with us. Sure we turn silver gray too... and lean a bit more than we did when we were young and full of sap. But the Good Lord knows what He's doing. And as the years pass He's busy using the hard weather of our lives, the dry spells and the stormy seasons, to do a job of beautifying our souls that nothing else can produce. And to think how often folks holler because they want life easy!

They took the old barn down today and hauled it away to beautify a rich man's house. And I reckon someday you and I'll be hauled off to Heaven to take on whatever chores the Good Lord has for us on the Great Sky Ranch. 

And I suspect we'll be more beautiful then for the seasons we've been through here... and just maybe even add a bit of beauty to our Father's house. 

received online through email

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(Saturday, August 9)

Early one morning, a mother went in to wake up her son. "Wake up, son. It's time to go to school!"

"But why, Mom? I don't want to go."

Give me two reasons why you don't want to go."

Well, the kids hate me for one, and the teachers hate me too!"

Oh, that's no reason not to go to school. Come on now and get ready."

Give me two reasons why I should go to school" says the son.

Well, for one, you're 52 years old.  And for another, you're the Principal!"

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(Tuesday, August 5)

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(Sunday, August 3)

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     back to INSPIRATION!

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