One - Don't miss the boat. 
  Two - Remember that we are all in the same boat. 
  Three - Plan ahead. It wasn't raining when Noah built the Ark. 
  Four - Stay fit. When you're 600 years old, someone may ask you to do something really big. 
  Five - Don't listen to critics; just get on with the job that needs to be done. 
  Six - Build your future on high ground. 
  Seven - For safety's sake, travel in pairs. 
  Eight - Speed isn't always an advantage. The snails were on board with the cheetahs. 
  Nine - When you're stressed, float a while. 
  Ten - Remember, the Ark was built by amateurs; the Titanic by professionals. 
  Eleven - No matter the storm, there's always a rainbow waiting. 
 

In the city of Chicago, one cold, dark night, a blizzard  was  setting in. A little boy was selling newspapers on the corner, the people were in  and out of the cold. The little boy was so cold that he wasn't trying to sell many papers. He walked up to a policeman and said, "Mister,  you wouldn't happen to know where a poor boy could find a warm place to sleep  tonight would you? You see, I sleep in a box up around the corner there and down the alley and it's awful cold in there at night.   Sure would be nice to have a warm place to stay."  The policeman looked down at the little boy  and said, "You go down the street to that big white house and you knock on  the door.  When they come out the door you just say John  3:16 and they will  let you in." 

So he did, he walked up the steps to the door,  and knocked on  the door and a lady answered.  He looked up and said,  "John 3:16." 

The lady said "Come on in, Son." She took him in and she sat him down in a split bottom rocker in front of a great big old fireplace and she went off. He sat there for a while, and thought to himself  "John 3:16....I don't  understand it, but it sure makes a cold boy warm." Later she came  back and asked him "Are you hungry?"  He said, "Well, just a little.   I haven't eaten in a couple of days and  I guess I could stand a little  bit of  food."  The lady took him in the kitchen and sat him down to a table full of wonderful food. He ate and ate until he couldn't eat any more.  Then he thought to  himself "John 3:16... Boy, I sure don't  understand it, but it sure  makes a  hungry boy full." 

She took him upstairs to a bathroom to a huge bathtub  filled with warm water and he sat there and soaked for a while.  As  he  soaked, he thought to himself, "John 3:16... I sure don't  understand  it, but  it sure makes a dirty boy clean. You know, I've not had a bath, a  real bath,  in  my whole life. The only bath I ever had was when I  stood in front  of  that big old fire hydrant as they flushed it out. "The lady came in and got him, and took him to a room and tucked him into a big old  feather  bed  and  pulled the covers up around his neck and kissed him goodnight and  turned out the lights. As he laid in the darkness and looked out the window at  the snow  coming down on that cold night he thought to himself, "John 3:16... I don't  understand it, but it sure makes a tired boy rested." 

The next morning she  came back up and took him down again to that same big table full of food  After he ate she took him back to that same big old split bottom rocker in  front of the fireplace and she took a big old Bible and sat down in   front of  him and she looked up at and she asked, "Do you understand John 3:16?"  He  said, "No, Ma'am, I don't. The first time I ever heard it  was last  night  when the policeman told me to use it."  She opened the Bible to John   3:16,  and she began to explain to him about Jesus. Right there in front  of   that  big old fireplace he gave his  heart and life to Jesus. He sat there and thought, "John 3:16.  I don't understand it,  but it but it sure makes a lost boy feel safe." 

You know, I have to confess I don't understand it either, how God would be willing to send His Son to die for me, and how Jesus would agree to do such a thing.  I don't understand it either, but it sure does make life worth  living. 

Author Unknown 
 

Paul Harvey Writes: 

We tried so hard to make things better for our kids that we made them worse. For my grandchildren, I'd like better. [To them I say...] 
 

I'd really like for you to know about hand me down clothes and homemade ice cream and leftover meatloaf sandwiches. I really would. 

I hope you learn humility by being humiliated, and that you learn honesty by being cheated. 

I hope you learn to make your own bed and mow the lawn and wash the car. 
And I really hope nobody gives you a brand new car when you are sixteen. 

It will be good if at least one time you can see puppies born and your old dog put to sleep. 

I hope you get a black eye fighting for something you believe in. 

I hope you have to share a bedroom with your younger brother. And it's all right if you have to draw a line down the middle of the room, but when he wants to crawl under the covers with you because he's scared, I hope you let him. 

When you want to see a movie and your little brother wants to tag along, I hope you'll let him. 

I hope you have to walk uphill to school with your friends and that you live in a town where you can do it safely. 

On rainy days when you have to catch a ride, I hope you don't ask your driver to drop you two blocks away so you won't be seen riding with someone as uncool as your Mom. 

If you want a slingshot, I hope your Dad teaches you how to make one instead of buying one. 

I hope you learn to dig in the dirt and read books. 

When you learn to use computers, I hope you also learn to add and subtract in your head. 

I hope you get teased by your friends when you have your first crush on a girl, and, when you talk back to your mother that you learn what ivory soap tastes like. 

May you skin your knee climbing a mountain, burn your hand on a stove and stick your tongue on a frozen flagpole. 

I don't care if you try a tobacco once, but I hope you don't like it. 
And if a friend offers you dope or a joint, I hope you realize he is not your friend. 

I sure hope you make time to sit on a porch with your Grandpa and go fishing with your Uncle. 

May you feel sorrow at a funeral and joy during the holidays. 

I hope your mother punishes you when you throw a baseball through your neighbor's window and that she hugs you and kisses you at Christmas time when you give her a plaster mold of your hand. 

These things I wish for you ~ tough times and disappointment, hard work and happiness. To me, it's the only way to appreciate life. 

Send this to your friends who mean something to you. 

We secure our friends not by accepting favors but by doing them. 

Paul Harvey 

Grizzly bear droppings have bells in them and smell like pepper spray.

I thought you might like this one!! 

Excerpt from "A Bend in the Road" by Dr. David Jeremiah. (who recently went through treatment for cancer) 

"I must confess that one particular animal fascinates me. I consider this creature to be among the oddest God ever created. He's called a giraffe. He is a strange and homely creature in appearance; his movements seem awkward and peculiar. And then there's the matter of giraffe child birth. What? You say you haven't read many books on giraffe birth? Well, I'm here to enlighten you. Gary Richmond wrote an article on giraffe calves that caught my attention, and I hope you'll indulge me as I pass on some facts from it. 

Gary had been invited to a zoo where a captive giraffe was about to give birth. He said, "'The moment we had anticipated was not a disappointment. A calf, a plucky male, hurled forth, falling ten feet and landing on his back. The mother giraffe gives birth to its young standing up, and the distance from the birth canal to the ground is about ten feet.' " 

Are you still reading? Think of this-ten feet is approximately the appropriate height for dunking a basketball, plus about four extra inches. So the calf fell out of its mother ten feet above the ground, and landed on its back. It lay there for a few minutes, and then, according to the story, it scrambled over to get its legs underneath it so that it could take a look around and check out the world it had just entered. 

Gary Richmond continued his account. The mother lowered her head to see the baby, then she moved until she was towering directly above the calf. About a minute passed, then came the shocking surprise. The mother giraffe swung her great, long leg outward and booted her baby through the air. The calf sprawled head over heels across the ground, puzzled and protesting. Gary was astounded to witness that display. He turned to the zoologist and said, "What's that all about?" The zoologist replied, "She wants him to get up-and if he doesn't get up, she's going to do it again." Gary continues, sure enough the process was repeated again and again. And the struggle to rise was momentous, and as the baby grew tired of trying, the mother would again stimulate its effort with a hearty kick. 

Amidst the cheers of the animal care staff, the calf stood up finally for the first time. Wobbly, for sure, but there it stood on its little spindle legs. Then we were struck silent when the mother kicked it off its feet again. Gary's zoologist friend was the only person present who wasn't astonished by the mother's brutal treatment of her newborn calf. "She wants it to remember how it got up, " he explained. "That's why she knocked it down again." To remember how it got up. 

Doesn't God nurture us in just the same rough way sometimes? And if we're ignorant as to His methods and purposes, the actions can seem cold and even cruel. We finally struggle to our feet. We must not forget how we got to where we are. Have you ever felt that God kicked you when you were down? Perhaps, you've received one blow after another, and you've wondered if you should even try to get up again. One of the reasons for some of the challenges in our lives is that God is toughening us up, preparing us for warfare against forces intent on destroying us. I wouldn't be honest if I didn't admit to feeling kicked and abused at times, all the while hearing the voice that says, " ' Get up. Get moving. Get with it! And don't forget how you got up.'" 

Love, 

Sue