Socks and Shoes
A little boy about 10 years old was standing before a shoe store on the roadway, barefooted, peering through the window, and shivering with cold. A lady approached the boy and said, “My little fellow, why are you looking so earnestly in that window?” “I was asking God to give me a pair of shoes,” was the boy’s reply.
The lady took him by the hand and went into the store and asked the clerk to get half a dozen pairs of socks for the boy. She then asked if he could give her a basin of water and a towel. He quickly brought them to her. She took the little fellow to the back part of the store and, removing her gloves, knelt down, washed his little feet, and dried them with a towel.
By this time the clerk had returned with the socks. Placing a pair upon the boy’s feet, she purchased him a pair of shoes. She tied up the remaining pairs of socks and gave them to him. She patted him on the head and said, “No doubt, my little fellow, you feel more comfortable now?”
As she turned to go, the astonished lad caught her by the hand, and looking up in her face, with tears his eyes, answered the question with these words: “Are you God’s Wife?”
Author Unknown
Don’t judge others before you know them
“A 24 year old boy seeing out from the train’s window shouted…
‘Dad, look the trees are going behind!’
Dad smiled and a young couple sitting nearby, looked at the 24 year old’s childish behavior with pity, suddenly he again exclaimed…
‘Dad, look the clouds are running with us!’
The couple couldn’t resist and said to the old man…
‘Why don’t you take your son to a good doctor?’
The old man smiled and said…’I did and we are just coming from the hospital, my son was blind from birth, he just got his eyes today.’
Every single person on the planet has a story. Don’t judge people before you truly know them. The truth might surprise you.”
Damaged souls still have worth
“A shop owner placed a sign above his door that said: ‘Puppies For Sale.’
Signs like this always have a way of attracting young children, and to no surprise, a boy saw the sign and approached the owner; ‘How much are you going to sell the puppies for?’ he asked.
The store owner replied, ‘Anywhere from $30 to $50.’
The little boy pulled out some change from his pocket. ‘I have $2.37,’ he said. ‘Can I please look at them?’
The shop owner smiled and whistled. Out of the kennel came Lady, who ran down the aisle of his shop followed by five teeny, tiny balls of fur.
One puppy was lagging considerably behind. Immediately the little boy singled out the lagging, limping puppy and said, ‘What’s wrong with that little dog?’
The shop owner explained that the veterinarian had examined the little puppy and had discovered it didn’t have a hip socket. It would always limp. It would always be lame.
The little boy became excited. ‘That is the puppy that I want to buy.’
The shop owner said, ‘No, you don’t want to buy that little dog. If you really want him, I’ll just give him to you.’
The little boy got quite upset. He looked straight into the store owner’s eyes, pointing his finger, and said;
‘I don’t want you to give him to me. That little dog is worth every bit as much as all the other dogs and I’ll pay full price. In fact, I’ll give you $2.37 now, and 50 cents a month until I have him paid for.’
The shop owner countered, ‘You really don’t want to buy this little dog. He is never going to be able to run and jump and play with you like the other puppies.’
To his surprise, the little boy reached down and rolled up his pant leg to reveal a badly twisted, crippled left leg supported by a big metal brace. He looked up at the shop owner and softly replied, ‘Well, I don’t run so well myself, and the little puppy will need someone who understands!'”
A Short History of the American Flag
“Our flag carries American ideas, American history, and American feelings,” Henry
Ward Beecher declared in 1861 to a group of Union soldiers. “It is not a painted rag. It is
a whole national history. It is the Constitution. It is the government.”1
It wasn’t always so. Though iconic today—it is hard to imagine World War II without
also picturing the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima, or to think about 9/11 without also
seeing the New York firefighters hoisting the red, white, and blue above the ruins of the
World Trade Center—the American flag has a long and storied history. Its story in many
ways mirrors that of the nation it represents. The flag has grown and evolved with the
American colonies, first as the colonies became “these United States of America,” and
then as the nation grew to welcome new states. To study the flag, then, is to be reminded
of the history and ideals of the nation.
Birth of the American Flag
Even before they declared their independence from Great Britain in 1776, American
colonists created their own flags to provide a symbol for their opposition to British
policies. In the mid-1760s, the Sons of Liberty—best known as the instigators of the
Boston Tea Party in 1773—rallied around white flags with the word “liberty” spelled out
in large capital letters. Other flags displayed a rattlesnake, a motif inspired by Benjamin
Franklin’s remark in 1751 that a rattlesnake would make an appropriate gift for the
colonists to send to England. The Gadsden flag (so named for its creator, Christopher
Gadsden), for example, consisted of a drawing of a coiled rattler with the words “Don’t
Tread on Me” underneath, while other flags simply re-created the cartoon Franklin
himself had penned during the French and Indian War, showing a segmented snake and
the words “Join, or Die.” Another popular anti-British symbol—especially in New
England—was the pine tree, which comes from the 1629 seal of the Massachusetts Bay
Colony and was subsequently used on the 1686 flag of New England. That banner,
present at the Battle of Bunker Hill in June 1775, consists of a red background, with the
Cross of St. George and a pine tree shown in the upper left-hand corner.
None of these revolutionary-era flags, however, became emblematic in all of the
colonies as the American flag. Indeed, throughout the Revolutionary War the American
1 Henry Ward Beecher,
Noah in the 21st Century
And we thought we had problems! If Noah had lived in the United States in the last ten years, the story may have gone something like this:
And the Lord spoke to Noah and said, "In one year, I am going to make it rain and cover the whole earth with water until all flesh is destroyed. But I want you to save the righteous people and two of every kind of living thing on earth. Therefore, I am commanding you to build an Ark." In fear and trembling, Noah took the plans and agreed to build the ark. "Remember," said the Lord, "you must complete the Ark and bring everything aboard in one year."
Exactly one year later, fierce storm clouds covered the earth and all the seas of the earth went into a tumult. The Lord saw that Noah was sitting in his front yard weeping. "Noah!" He shouted. "Where is the Ark?" "Lord, please forgive me," cried Noah. "I did my best, but there were big problems."
"First, I had to get a permit for construction, and your plans did not meet the building codes. I had to hire an engineering firm and redraw the plans. Then I got into a fight with OSHA over whether or not the Ark needed a sprinkler system and approved floatation devices. Then, my neighbor objected, claiming I was violating zoning ordinances by building the Ark in my front yard, so I had to get a variance from the city planning commission."
"Then, I had problems getting enough wood for the Ark because there was a ban on cutting trees to protect the Spotted Owl. I finally convinced the U.S. Forest Service that I really needed the wood to save the owls. However, the Fish and Wildlife Service won't let me take the 2 owls. The carpenters formed a union and went on strike. I had to negotiate a settlement with the National Labor Relations Board before anyone would pick up a saw or hammer. Now, I have 16 carpenters on the Ark, but still no owls."
"When I started rounding up the other animals, an animal rights group sued me. They objected to me taking only two of each kind aboard. This suit is pending. Meanwhile, the EPA notified me that I could not complete the Ark without filing an environmental impact statement on your proposed flood. They didn't take very kindly to the idea that they had no jurisdiction over the conduct of the Creator of the Universe. Then, the Army Corps of Engineers demanded a map of the proposed flood plain. I sent them a globe."
"Right now, I am trying to resolve a complaint filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that I am practicing discrimination by not taking atheists aboard. The IRS has seized my assets, claiming that I'm building the Ark in preparation to flee the country to avoid paying taxes. I just got a notice from the state that I owe them some kind of user tax and failed to register the Ark as a 'recreational water craft.' And finally, the ACLU got the courts to issue an injunction against further construction of the Ark, saying that since God is flooding the earth, it's a religious event and therefore unconstitutional. I really don't think I can finish the Ark for another five or six years."
Noah waited.
The sky began to clear, the sun began to shine, and the seas began to calm. A rainbow arched across the sky. Noah looked up hopefully, "You mean you're not going to destroy the earth, Lord?"
"No," He said sadly. "I don't have to. The government already has."
- Author Unknown -
