I am a 61 year old, father of two boys and have been happily married for 33 years. I have been a Physical Education teacher and coach for 38 years and have loved EVERY minute of it. I enjoy making people laugh and feel good about themselves. It’s fun collecting inspiring and heartwarming stories.from people. So, if you have a good story…let me know! I hope you enjoy my page!! :)
Remember:
Everyone is fighting a battle that you know nothing about.
Be kind.
Always.
When I was a kid, my Mom liked to make breakfast food for dinner every now and then. I remember one night in particular when she had made breakfast after a long, hard day at work. On that evening so long ago, my Mom placed a plate of eggs, sausage and extremely burned biscuits in front of my dad. I remember waiting to see if anyone noticed!
All my dad did was reach for his biscuit, smile at my Mom and ask me how my day was at school. I don’t remember what I told him that night, but I do remember watching him smear butter and jelly on that ugly burned biscuit. He ate every bite of that thing…never made a face nor uttered a word about it!
When I got up from the table that evening, I remember hearing my Mom apologize to my dad for burning the biscuits. And I’ll never forget what he said, “Honey, I love burned biscuits every now and then.”
Later that night, I went to kiss Daddy good night and I asked him if he really liked his biscuits burned. He wrapped me in his arms and said, “Your Mom put in a hard day at work today and she’s real tired. And besides–a little burned biscuit never hurt anyone!”
As I’ve grown older, I’ve thought about that many times. Life is full of imperfect things and imperfect people.
I’m not the best at hardly anything, and I forget birthdays and anniversaries just like everyone else. But what I’ve learned over the years is that learning to accept each other’s faults and choosing to celebrate each others differences is one of the most important keys to creating a healthy, growing, and lasting relationship.
And that’s my prayer for you today…that you will learn to take the good, the bad, and the ugly parts of your life and lay them at the feet of God. Because in the end, He’s the only One who will be able to give you a relationship where a burnt biscuit isn’t a deal-breaker!
We could extend this to any relationship. In fact, understanding is the base of any relationship, be it a husband-wife or parent-child or friendship!
“Don’t put the key to your happiness in someone else’s pocket–keep it in your own.”
So, please pass me a biscuit, and yes, the burned one will do just fine.
Be kinder than necessary because everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.
“Life without God is like an unsharpened pencil–it has no point”
Everyone has a bad day. Sometimes our bad days can stretch into a week or more. We can become disheartened and discouraged. What we need at times like these, are reminders that some people may have it a lot worse and harder than what you are experiencing. So, here are a few quick stories that I found on Puffin.com that may allow you to realize…that things could be worse.
Fire authorities in California found a corpse in a burned out section of forest while assessing the damage done by a forest fire. The deceased male was dressed in a full wet suit, complete with scuba tanks on his back, flippers, and face mask. A postmortem revealed that the person died not from burns, but from massive internal injuries. Dental records provided a positive identification.
Investigators set about to determine how a fully clad diver ended up in the middle of a forest fire. It was revealed that on the day of the fire, the person went for a diving trip off the coast some 20 miles from the forest. The fire-fighters, seeking to control the fire as quickly as possible, called in a fleet of helicopters with very large dip buckets. Water was dipped from the ocean and then flown to the forest fire and emptied. You guessed it. One minute our diver was making like Flipper in the Pacific, the next he was doing the breast stroke in a fire dip bucket 300 feet in the air.
Apparently he extinguished exactly 5’10” of the fire. Some days it just doesn’t pay to get out of bed – This article was taken from the California Examiner, March 20, 1998
STILL THINK YOU ARE HAVING A BAD DAY?
A man was working on his motorcycle on his patio and his wife was in the kitchen. The man was racing the engine on the motorcycle when it accidentally slipped into gear. The man, still holding onto the handle bars, was dragged through the glass patio doors and along with the motorcycle dumped onto the floor inside the house. The wife, hearing the crash, ran into the dining room and found her husband lying on the floor, cut and bleeding, the motorcycle lying next to him, and the shattered patio door. The wife ran to the phone and summoned the ambulance. Because they lived on a fairly large hill, the wife went down the several flights of stairs to the street to escort the paramedics to her husband.
After the ambulance arrived and transported the man to the hospital, the wife righted the motorcycle and pushed it outside. Seeing that gas was spilled on the floor, the wife got some paper towels, blotted up the gasoline, and threw the towels in the toilet. The man was treated and released to come home. Upon arriving home, he looked at the shattered patio door and the damage done to his motorcycle.
He became despondent, went to the bathroom, sat down on the toilet and smoked a cigarette. After finishing the cigarette, he flipped it between his legs into the toilet bowl, while seated. The wife, who was in the kitchen, heard the loud explosion and her husband screaming.
She ran into the bathroom and found her husband lying on the floor. His trousers had been blown away and he was suffering burns on the buttocks, the back of his legs, and his groin. The wife again ran to the phone to call the ambulance. The very same paramedic crew was dispatched and the wife met them at the street. The paramedics loaded the husband on to the stretcher and began carrying him to the street. While they were going down the stairs to the street accompanied by the wife, one of the paramedics asked the wife how the husband had burned himself. She told them and the paramedics started laughing so hard, one of them slipped and tipped the stretcher, dumping the husband out. He fell down the remaining stairs and broke his arm – Taken from a Florida Newspaper.
STILL HAVING A BAD DAY?
Just remember, it could be worse…..
1. The average cost of rehabilitating a seal after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska was $80,000. At a special ceremony, two of the most expensively saved animals were released back into the wild amid cheers and applause from onlookers. A minute later, in full view, a killer whale ate them both.
2. A woman came home to find her husband in the kitchen, shaking frantically with what looked like a wire running from his waist towards the electric kettle. Intending to jolt him away from the deadly current she whacked him with a handy plank of wood by the back door, breaking his arm in two places. Until that moment he had been happily listening to his Walkman.
3. Two animal rights protesters were protesting at the cruelty of sending pigs to a slaughterhouse in Bonn Germany. Suddenly the pigs, all two thousand of them, escaped through a broken fence and stampeded, trampling the two hapless protesters to death.
And finally…
4. Iraqi terrorist, Khay Rahnajet, didn’t pay enough postage on a letter bomb. It came back with “return to sender” stamped on it. Forgetting it was the bomb he opened it and was blown to bits.
I have been truly blessed and honored. I very humbly accept the “Sunshine Award” which recognizes bloggers whose writings “light up the dark corners of our minds” from my fellow writer at Two Rights Attempting To Make A Left! It never ceases to amaze me how many people have thought enough of my blog to nominate me for these kinds of awards.
I never thought in my wildest imagination that I would be the recipient of these honors. It is with the same humbleness and humility than when I received an award the first time.
I am now going to share the Sunshine Award to some of my friends on other sites but before I do, here are the rules for this award…
(1) Thank the person who gave you the award in your blog post.
(2) Do the Q&A below.
(3) Pass on the award to 10 – 12 deserving and inspiring bloggers, inform them and link to their blogs.
———————–
The Questions…
Favorite color? Purple
Favorite animal? A Crab ( I am from the shore you know) J
Favorite number? 44
Favorite nonalcoholic drink? Mountain Dew
Favorite alcoholic drink? Spaten Oktoberfest
Facebook or Twitter? Facebook…I can’t figure out Twitter
I would like to take this time to thank my dear friend at motherofnine9 for her thoughtfulness in nominating me for the ABC Award. She has a tremendous site and, in my opinion, is one of the premier bloggers on the web…I would highly recommend that you check out her site!
Here are the rules, if you accept this nomination
ADD the ABC logo to your blog. (You can find the logo above, I just copied and pasted it from my nomination.)
ABC about yourself using one word or phrase.
Nominate however many blogs you wish.
Let the recipient know via a link in their comments.
——————-
A: Aaron. My youngest son
B: Baseball. My favorite sport
C: Corn on the Cob. YUMMY!!!
D: Doughnuts. Especially the chocolate frosted kind J
E: End of the school year….’nuff said.
F: Foot long hot dogs…Coney Island style!
G: German. My family heritage
H: Home Runs. What I used to hit very well…when I was YOUNGER L
I: Ice Cream!!
J: Jesus: I love that guy!
K: Kooshi. The name of one of my pet cats when I was in high school.
L. Luke. My oldest son
M: Margaret. My wife
N: Nebraska. I have never been there
O: Octagon. The shape of the STOP sign in front of my house
P: Ping Pong: Great sport
Q: Queen…as in DAIRY QUEEN…GOOD STUFF!
R: Rich. My name
S: Steak: I am certainly a steak lover!
T: Thanksgiving. One of my favorite holidays of the year
U. USA! USA!
V: Velcro. This stuff is great!
W: Watermelon. You can’t have a good BBQ picnic without this tasty treat!
X: X-Rays. I don’t want to experience one of those again.
Z: Zebra. I could never figure it out…are they black horses with white stripes or white horses with black stripes.
200 Blogs!! I can’t believe that I posted my 200th blog!! I never thought that I would even be able to get 50. Time sure flies when you enjoy what you do!!!
When anxiety’s got you in its grip, it’s hard to avoid worrying. But there’s a technique that can help. I call it “breathing prayer.”
By Julia Attaway, New York, New York
Can we talk anxiety? You know what I mean: that roiling inner whirlwind, the blinding, gut-wrenching, confusion-making state of being that takes over our hearts and minds from time to time.
When anxiety’s got you in its grip, it’s hard to avoid worrying about tomorrow. It’s difficult to adopt a Jeremiah 29:11 attitude. Sometimes it seems all we can do is shove our fears heavenward and hope God takes them away. I think there’s a better way.
Anxiety works on a very primitive level. It has a physical component which we can counteract by applying a physical remedy. Several years ago I learned that there’s actually a right way to breathe to reduce anxiety and stress. The Harvard Health Blog calls it breath control. The technique has certain similarities with prayerful meditation, and since it’s completely compatible with faith, I personally call it “breathing prayer.”
Try this: Close your eyes and inhale slowly, imagining pulling the Spirit in so fully that it fills every pore of your body. Make sure your stomach expands; you want to be pregnant with peace. Exhale slowly through your nose.
You can pray while you do this (though if you’re anxious when you start, you probably won’t think of it until after a few breaths, when your head starts to clear). Simple prayers work best:
While inhaling
While exhaling
Come Holy Spirit…
fill my heart
Lord Jesus…
grant me your peace
Lord Jesus…
I love you
If you practice when you’re not in the throes of wild anxiety, it will be easier to pray this way when you are. But “breathing prayer” is a good addition to any regular prayer time. Anything that clears the head and calms the body frees us up to hear God better. And that’s what prayer is all about.
I came across this little story about the famous artist Michelangelo written by Tom Russell (inspirational stories.com) that expressed a reminder to us how strong inspiration can be. When we are truly focused on things that we really want to do in our lives… we can do ANYTHING that we dream of doing.
The artist Michelangelo often stirred up the opposition of the contemporary artists of his day. Many of them envied his magnificent abilities. One example was the architect Bramante.
Pope Julius retained Michelangelo to build him a splendid tomb. Michelangelo gladly accepted the project and spent eight months in a marble pit personally cutting and selecting the most perfect stones. When he returned, he found the pope had second thoughts. Bramante had turned Pope Julius against the project. The Pope cancelled it.
Later the idea for another special project entered the Pope’s mind. Bramante saw the project as a time consuming trap for which there would be little public recognition. Bramante recommended Michelangelo for the job.
The great artist saw the trap. He knew what Bramante was up to. He wished to turn the project down but did not want to refuse the Pope’s request. So Michelangelo went to work. He spent many years doing the slow and tedious labor the project required. It was the Sistine Chapel.
The inspiration that flowed through Michelangelo can likewise flow through any human being. That is what the inspiration wants to do. It cannot be stopped. It is a living, powerful river that easily circumvents all obstacles.
Michelangelo collected his inner forces for a complete victory. Likewise, we must not fear to face the trickery of some people and expose it for what it is. This is not negative, but intelligent protection and spiritual perception.
Did you know that an eagle knows when a storm is approaching long before it breaks?
The eagle will fly to some high spot and wait for the winds to come. When the storm hits, it sets its wings so that the wind will pick it up and lift it above the storm. While the storm rages below, the eagle is soaring above it.
The eagle does not escape the storm. It simply uses the storm to lift it higher. It rises on the winds that bring the storm.
When the storms of life come upon us – and all of us will experience them – we can rise above them by setting our minds and our belief toward God. The storms do not have to overcome us. We can allow God’s power to lift us above them.
God enables us to ride the winds of the storm that bring sickness, tragedy, failure and disappointment in our lives. We can soar above the storm.
Remember, it is not the burdens of life that weigh us down…it is how we handle them.
Quick Question for Everyone….has anyone out their noticed a big drop-off in the number of “visitors per day”on their blog page? I certainly have. Please let me know what your story is.
Thanks! 🙂