Chicken Soup

[HisDaughter]

Malachi 3:3

Malachi 3:3 says: "He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver." This verse puzzled some women in a Bible study and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God.

One of the women offered to find out the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible Study.

That week, the woman called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn't mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining Silver. As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest so as to burn away all the impurities. The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot; then she thought again about the verse that says: "He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver." She asked the silversmith if it was true that, he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined. The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed.

The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, "How do you know when the silver is fully refined?"

He smiled at her and answered, "Oh, that's easy -- when I see my image in it." If today you are feeling the heat of the fire, remember that God has his eye on you and will keep watching you until He sees His image in you.

[nChrist]

The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, "How do you know when the silver is fully refined?"

He smiled at her and answered, "Oh, that's easy -- when I see my image in it." If today you are feeling the heat of the fire, remember that God has his eye on you and will keep watching you until He sees His image in you.

Good lesson!

[HisDaughter]

Erma Bombeck

Most women put off entertaining until the kids are grown.

My kids always perceived the bathroom as a place where you wait it out until all the groceries are unloaded from the car.
 
My second favorite household chore is ironing. My first being hitting my head on the top bunk bed until I faint.
 
My theory on housework is, if the item doesn't multiply, smell, catch fire, or block the refrigerator door, let it be. No one else cares. Why should you?
 
Never accept a drink from a urologist.
 
Never go to a doctor whose office plants have died. 

Never go to your high school reunion pregnant or they will think that is all you have done since you graduated.
 
Never have more children than you have car windows. 

Never lend your car to anyone to whom you have given birth.

[nChrist]

   I like them all. Thanks for the laughs.

[HisDaughter]

"Harry & Bess"

We will never see this happen again.
But maybe this is the way it should be.

Harry Truman was a different kind of President. He probably made as many, or more important decisions regarding our nation's history as any of the other 42 Presidents preceding him. However, a measure of his greatness may rest on what he did after he left the White House.

The only asset he had when he died was the house he lived in, which was in Independence Missouri . His wife had inherited the house from her mother and father and other than their years in the White House, they lived their entire lives there.

When he retired  from office in 1952, his income was a U.S. Army pension reported to have been $13,507.72 a year. Congress, noting that he was paying for his stamps and personally licking them, granted him an 'allowance' and, later, a retroactive pension of $25,000 per year.

After President Eisenhower was inaugurated, Harry and Bess drove home to Missouri by themselves. There was no Secret Service following them.

When offered corporate positions at large salaries, he declined, stating, "You don't want me. You want the office of the President, and that doesn't belong to me. It belongs to the American people and it's not for  sale."

Even later, on May 6, 1971, when Congress was preparing to award him the Medal of Honor on his 87th birthday, he refused to accept it, writing, "I don't consider that I have done anything which should be the reason for any award, Congressional or otherwise."

As president he paid for all of his own travel expenses and food.

Modern politicians have found a new level of success in cashing in on the Presidency, resulting in untold wealth. Today, many  in Congress also have found a way to become quite wealthy while enjoying the fruits of their offices. Political offices are now for sale. (sic. Illinois )

Good old Harry Truman was correct when he observed, "My choices in life were either to be a piano player in a whore house or a politician, and to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference!

[HisDaughter]

Six Boys And Thirteen Hands...

 
Each year I am hired to go to Washington , DC , with the eighth grade class from Clinton , WI , where I grew up, to videotape their trip. I greatly enjoy visiting our nation's capitol, and each year I take some special memories back with me. This fall's trip was especially memorable.

On the last night of our trip, we stopped at the Iwo Jima memorial. This memorial is the largest bronze statue in the world and depicts one of the most famous photographs in history -- that of the six brave soldiers raising the American Flag at the top of a rocky hill on the island of Iwo Jima , Japan , during WW II.

Over one hundred students and chaperones piled off the buses and headed towards the memorial. I noticed a solitary figure at the base of the statue, and as I got closer he asked, 'Where are you guys from?' 

I told him that we were from Wisconsin ...'Hey, I'm a cheese head, too! Come gather around, Cheese heads, and I will tell you a story.'

(James Bradley just happened to be in Washington, DC, to speak at the memorial the following day. He was there that night to say good night to his dad, who had passed away. He was just about to leave when he saw the buses pull up... I videotaped him as he spoke to us, and received his permission to share what he said from my videotape. It is one thing to tour the incredible monuments filled with history in Washington , DC , but it is quite another to get the kind of insight we received that night.)

When all had gathered around, he reverently began to speak. (Here are his words that night.)

'My name is James Bradley and I'm from Antigo, Wisconsin ... My dad is on that statue, and I just wrote a book called 'Flags of Our Fathers' which is #5 on the New York Times Best Seller list right now. It is the story of the six boys you see behind me. 

'Six boys raised the flag. The first guy putting the pole in the ground is Harlon Block. Harlon was an all-state football player. He enlisted in the Marine Corps with all the senior members of his football team.. They were off to play another type of game. A game called 'War.' But it didn't turn out to be a game. Harlon, at the age of 21, died with his intestines in his hands. I don't say that to gross you out, I say that because there are people who stand in front of this statue and talk about the glory of war. You guys need to know that most of the boys in Iwo Jima were 17, 18, and 19 years old - and it was so hard that the ones who did make it home never even would talk to their families about it. 

(He pointed to the statue)  'You see this next guy? That's Rene Gagnon from  New Hampshire . If you took Rene's helmet off at the moment this photo was taken and looked in the webbing of that helmet, you would find a photograph...a photograph of his girlfriend. Rene put that in there for protection because he was scared. He was 18 years old. It was just boys who won the battle of Iwo Jima ... Boys. Not old men.


'The next guy here, the third guy in this tableau, was Sergeant Mike Strank. Mike is my hero. He was the hero of all these guys. They called him the 'old man' because he was so old. He was already 24. When Mike would motivate his boys in training camp, he didn't say, 'Let's go kill some Japanese' or 'Let's die for our country.' He knew he was talking to little boys. Instead he would say, 'You do what I say, and I'll get you home to your mothers.'


'The last guy on this side of the statue is Ira Hayes, a Pima Indian from Arizona...Ira Hayes was one who walked off Iwo Jima...He went into the White House with my dad. President Truman told him, 'You're a hero'. He told reporters, 'How can I feel like a hero when 250 of my buddies hit the island with me and only 27 of us walked off alive?'

So you take your class at school, 250 of you spending a year together having fun, doing everything together. Then all 250 of you hit the beach, but only 27 of your classmates walk off alive. That was Ira Hayes. He had images of horror in his mind. Ira Hayes carried the pain home with him and eventually died dead drunk, face down at the age of 32 (ten years after this picture was taken).


'The next guy, going around the statue, is Franklin Sousley from Hilltop, Kentucky . A fun-lovin' hillbilly boy. His best friend, who is now 70, told me, 'Yeah, you know, we took two cows up on the porch of the Hilltop General Store. Then we strung wire across the stairs so the cows couldn't get down. Then we fed them Epsom salts. Those cows crapped all night.' Yes, he was a fun-lovin' hillbilly boy. Franklin died on Iwo Jima at the age of 19. When the telegram came to tell his mother that he was dead, it went to the Hilltop General Store. A barefoot boy ran that telegram up to his mother's farm. The neighbors could hear her scream all night and into the morning. Those neighbors lived a quarter of a mile away.

'The next guy, as we continue to go around the statue, is my dad, John Bradley, from Antigo, Wisconsin , where I was raised. My dad lived until 1994, but he would never give interviews. When Walter Cronkite's producers or the New York Times would call, we were trained as little kids to say 'No, I'm sorry, sir, my dad's not here. He is in Canada fishing. No, there is no phone there, sir. No, we don't know when he is coming back.' My dad never fished or even went to Canada . Usually, he was sitting there right at the table eating his Campbell 's soup. But we had to tell the press that he was out fishing. He didn't want to talk to the press.


'You see, like Ira Hayes, my dad didn't see himself as a hero. Everyone thinks these guys are heroes, 'cause they are in a photo and on a monument. My dad knew better. He was a medic. John Bradley from Wisconsin was a caregiver. In Iwo Jima he probably held over 200 boys as they died. And when boys died in Iwo Jima , they writhed and screamed, without any medication or help with the pain.


'When I was a little boy, my third grade teacher told me that my dad was a hero. When I went home and told my dad that, he looked at me and said, 'I want you always to remember that the heroes of Iwo Jima are the guys who did not come back. Did NOT come back.'

'So that's the story about six nice young boys. Three died on Iwo Jima , and three came back as national heroes. Overall, 7,000 boys died on Iwo Jima in the worst battle in the history of the Marine Corps. My voice is giving out, so I will end here. Thank you for your time.'

Suddenly, the monument wasn't just a big old piece of metal with a flag sticking out of the top. It came to life before our eyes with the heartfelt words of a son who did indeed have a father who was a hero. Maybe not a hero for the reasons most people would believe, but a hero nonetheless.

We need to remember that God created this vast and glorious world for us to live in, freely, but also at great sacrifice.


Let us never forget from the Revolutionary War to the current War on Terrorism and all the wars in-between that sacrifice was made for our freedom.


Remember to pray praises for this great country of ours and also pray for those still in murderous unrest around the world.


STOP and thank God for being alive and being free at someone else's sacrifice.

God Bless You and God Bless America ...

REMINDER: Everyday that you can wake up free, it's going to be a great day.

One thing I learned while on tour with my 8th grade students in DC that is not mentioned here is...that if you look at the statue very closely and count the number of 'hands' raising the flag, there are 13. When the man who made the statue was asked why there were 13, he simply said the 13th hand was the hand of God.

[HisDaughter]

Moses or Jonah

Whenever God calls upon you, is your reaction more like that of Moses or of Jonah?

We all know the story of Moses! When God called him through a burning bush to go and free his people, his reply was swift and bold: "Here I am Lord". He was readily available and although obviously afraid, he did what he was called to do.

Jonah, on the other hand, did what most of us probably would do. God asked him to do a job for him but Jonah's reply was a big 'No way!' as he ran in the opposite direction on a boat and God had to send a storm and a whale to get his attention until he eventually did what he was called to do.

Are you a Moses or a Jonah?

One man was travelling along the motorway in his car praying to God. As he approached a service station he heard a voice order him to pull over, find a coke machine, and to do a handstand against it. The man, utterly confused, fought with himself about whether to bother doing such a strange thing, and he began to do a Jonah as he drove straight past the station.

However, as he carried on the voice came again and the man slammed on his brakes, turned around, and drove back to the station. In he went and in the corner he saw a coke machine. He nervously looked around but everything was quiet and there were no witnesses to embarrass him. As he got on his hands, ready to flip himself up, a young man burst into tears.

The driver gets up, looks around, and sees a young man crying under some chairs. "What's wrong?" he asks the man.

"Well, you see that bridge over there?" the man replies, "I was just about to jump off it, but I gave God one last chance to prove his existence. I told him that if he existed he should send someone to this station and do a handstand against the coke machine. It was surreal I thought it could never happen unless God really did exist, and he sent you!"

The driver then shared his faith with the young man who never did get to jump off that bridge.

Imagine what would have happened to this man if the driver had done a Jonah and refused to follow God's call?

Please, whenever God calls you, be like Moses and listen to his voice. Be brave and trusting as God may well call upon you to do a handstand for Him!

[HisDaughter]

It's All About Your Attitude

A woman woke up one morning, looked in the mirror,

and noticed she had only three hairs on her head. 

'Well,' she said, 'I think I'll braid my hair today.'

So she did, and she had a fine day.


The next morning she woke up, looked in the mirror,
and saw that she had only two hairs on her head.
'Hmm,' she said, 'I think I'll part my hair down the middle today.'

So she did, and she had a grand day.

The next morning she woke up, looked in the mirror,
and discovered that she had only one hair on her head.
'Well,' she said, 'today I'm going to wear my hair in a pony tail.'


So she did, and she had a fun, fun day.

The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror,

and saw that she didn't have a single hair on her head.
'YAY!' she exclaimed.  'I don't have to fix my hair today!'

[nChrist]

    Thanks - I needed that laugh!

[HisDaughter]

Quiz  for People Who Know  Everything

This  is a quiz for people who know everything!  I  found out in a hurry that I didn't.  These are  not trick questions.  They are straight  questions with straight  answers


1.   Name the one sport in which neither the spectators  nor the participants know

the score or the leader  until the contest  ends.   

2.   What famous North American landmark is constantly  moving backward?

3.   Of all vegetables, only two can live to produce on  their own for several growing seasons.  All  other vegetables must be replanted every year.   What are the only two perennial  vegetables?

4.   What fruit has its seeds on the  outside?   

5.   In many liquor stores, you can buy pear brandy, with  a real pear inside the bottle. 

The pear is  whole and ripe, and the bottle is genuine; it hasn't  been cut in any way. 

How did the pear get  inside the bottle?

6.   Only three words in standard English begin with the  letters " dw" and they are all

common words.   Name two of  them.

7.   There are 14 punctuation marks in English  grammar.  Can you name at least half of  them?   

8.   Name the only vegetable or fruit that is never sold  frozen, canned, processed, cooked,

or in any other  form except fresh.

9.   Name 6 or more things that you can wear on your feet  beginning with the letter  "S."   


 

Answers  To Quiz:
1.   The one sport in which neither the spectators nor  the participants know the score

or the leader until  the contest ends    Boxing

2.   North American landmark constantly moving backward.  Niagara Falls (The rim is worn

down about two  and a half feet each year because of the millions of  gallons of water

that rush over it every  minute.)

3.   Only two vegetables that can live to produce on  their own for several growing seasons.   

Asparagus and rhubarb.

4.   The fruit with its seeds on the outside.   Strawberry.

5.   How did the pear get inside the brandy bottle?   It grew inside the bottle..  The bottles are 

placed over pear buds when they are small, and are  wired in place on the tree.  The bottle

is left  in place for the entire growing season. When the  pears are ripe, they are snipped

off at the  stems.

6.   Three English words beginning with dw.    Dwarf, dwell and  dwindle.

7.   Fourteen punctuation marks in English grammar.   Period, comma, colon, semicolon,

dash, hyphen,  apostrophe, question mark, exclamation point,  quotation mark, brackets,

parenthesis, braces, and  ellipses.

8.   The only vegetable or fruit never sold frozen,  canned, processed, cooked, or in any

other form but  fresh.  Lettuce..

9.   Six or more things you can wear on your feet  beginning with "S".
   Shoes, socks, sandals, sneakers, slippers, skis,  skates, snowshoes, stockings,  stilts.

The only one I got was Strawberry!

[nChrist]

    I don't know much.

[HisDaughter]

WHEN YOU THOUGHT I WASN'T LOOKING

A message every adult should read, because children are watching you and doing as you do, not as you say.


When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you hang my first painting on the refrigerator, and I immediately wanted to paint another one.

When you thought I wasn't looking I saw you feed a stray cat, and I learned that it was good to be kind to animals.

When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you make my favorite cake for me and I learned that the little things can be the special things in life.

When you thought I wasn't looking I heard you say a prayer, and I knew there is a God I could always talk to and I learned to trust in God.

When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you make a meal and take it to a friend who was sick, and I learned that we all have to help take care of each other.

When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you give of your time and money to help people who had nothing and I learned that those who have something should give to those who don't.

When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you take care of our house and everyone in it and I learned we have to take care of what we are given.

When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw how you handled your responsibilities, even when you didn't feel good and I learned that I would have to be responsible when I grow up.

When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw tears come from your eyes and I learned that sometimes things hurt, but it's all right to cry.

When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw that you cared and I wanted to be everything that I could be.

When you thought I wasn't looking, I learned most of life's lessons that I need to know to be a good and productive person when I grow up.

When you thought I wasn't looking, I looked at you and wanted to say, "Thanks for all the things I saw when you thought I wasn't looking.'"

[nChrist]

Very Nice! - Thanks for sharing.

[HisDaughter]

Why Women Cry

A little boy asked his mother "Why are you crying?"
"Because I'm a woman", she told him. "I don't understand", he said. His mum just hugged him and
said, "And you never will"...

The little boy grew up and became a man, still wondering why women cry. Finally he put in a call to God; and when God got on the phone, the man said, "God, why do women cry so easily?"

God said: "When I made the woman she had to be special. I made her shoulders strong enough to carry the weight of the world; yet gentle enough to give comfort. I gave her an inner strength to endure childbirth and the rejection that many times comes from her children.

I gave her a hardness that allows her to keep going when everyone else gives up, and take care of her family through sickness and fatigue without complaining.

I gave her the sensitivity to love her children under any and all circumstances, even when her child has hurt her very badly. I gave her strength to carry her husband through his faults and fashioned her from his rib to protect his heart. I gave her wisdom to know that a good husband never hurts his wife, but sometimes tests her strengths and her resolve to stand beside him unfalteringly. And finally, I gave her a tear to shed. This is hers exclusively to use whenever it is needed. "You see, the beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the figure that she carries, or the way she combs her hair. The beauty of a woman must be seen in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her
heart - the place where love resides."

[nChrist]

Beautiful! - Thanks for sharing.