Sometimes I think about all the problems everybody has and how sometimes we really feel trapped and lost.
We dont know where to turn or who to turn to. We run circles and worry and cry. Sometimes we just need to be lifted up and we need to BELIEVE that there is still hope and good somewhere nearby no matter how things are going now. Dont be discouraged and never give up or forget that everything happens for a reason and in the end everything will work out.
A little girl marched home, slamming the door behind her. She was excited by the looks of it as she made her way to her older brother, who sat at the kitchen table reading. Jumping up eagerly onto the seat across from him, she leaned forward on her elbows hoping he would ask how school was. He didn't. Her little hand came down onto his book, covering the pages. With a lazy glance he looked up at her. "Yes?"
"I need a book."
"You know where they are," he replied, moving her hand off the book.
"It's not one we have. You need to take me to the library. Take me now." He raised an eyebrow so she kindly added a please.
"Why?" Despite himself he wanted to know why she was so eager and demanding so suddenly. She began an extensive story, telling her borther about the new kid at school who was deaf. She wanted to befriend him and needed a book on sign language.
He smiled, nodded his head and took her.
Years later he stands beside her at her wedding watching her sign.."I Do."
Bob Richards, the former pole-vaulting champion, shares a moving story about a skinny young boy who loved football with all his heart. Practice after practice, he eagerly gave everything he had, but, being half the size of the other boys, he got absolutely nowhere. At every game, this hopeful athlete sat on the bench and had hardly ever played.
This teenager lived alone with his father, and the two of them had a very special relationship. Even though the son was always on the bench, his father was always in the stands cheering. He never missed a game.
This young man was the smallest of the class when he entered high school. His father continued to encourage him, but also made it clear that he did not have to play football if he didn't want to. But the young man loved football and decided to hang in there. He was determined to try his best at every practice, and perhaps he'd get to play when he was a senior.
All through high school he never missed a practice nor a game, but remained a bench-warmer all four years. His faithful father was always in the stands, always with words of encouragement for his son.
When the young man went to college, he decided to to try out for the football team as a "walk-on." Everyone was sure he would never make the cut, but he did. The coach admitted that he kept him on the roster because he always put his heart and soul into every practice, and at the same time, provided the other members with spirit and hustle they badly needed.
The news that he survived the cut thrilled him so much that he rushed to the nearest phone and called his father. His father shared his excitement and was sent season tickets for all the college games.
This persistent young athlete never missed practice during his four years at college, but he never got to play in a single game.
It was the end of his senior football season, and as he trotted onto the practice field before the big playoff game, the coach met him with a telegram. The young man read the telegram and he became deathly silent. Swallowing hard, he mumbled to his coach, "My father died this morning. Is it all right if I miss practice today?" The coach put his arm gently around the his shoulder and said, "Take the rest of the week off, son. And don't even plan to come back to the game on Saturday."
Saturday arrived, and the game was not going well. In the third quarter, when the team was ten points behind, a silent young man quietly slipped into the empty locker room and put on his football gear. As he ran onto the sidelines, the coach and players were astounded to see their faithful teammate back so soon. "Coach, please let me play. I've just got to play today." said the the young man. The coach pretended not to hear hear him. There was no way he wanted his worst player to play in this close playoff game. But the young man persisted, and finally, feeling sorry for the kid, the coach gave in. "All right," he said, "you can go in."
Before long the coach and players could not believe their eyes. This little unknown, who had never played before, was doing everything right. The opposing team could not stop him. He ran, he passed, he blocked, and he tackled like he was a star. His team began to triumph. The score was tied. In the closing seconds of the game, this kid intercepted a pass and ran all the way for the winning touchdown. The fans broke loose. His teammates hoisted him onto their shoulders. Such cheering you never heard. Finally, after the stands emptied, the team had showered and left the locker room, the coach noticed that this young man was sitting quietly in the corner all alone. The coach came up to him and said, "Kid, I can't believe it. You were fantastic! Tell me - what got into you? How did you do it?"
He looked at the coach with tears in his eyes, and said, "Well, you knew that my dad died, but did you know that my dad was blind?" The young man swallowed hard and forced a smile. "Dad came to all my games, but today was the first time he could see me play, and I wanted to show him I could do it."
A small and poor village close to the coast had always been blessed with good feelings of friendship and happiness. Unlike their neighboring towns, the village had no wealth. Instead they had something better than money. While the wealthy only concerned themselves with how much more money they could make the villagers concerned themselves with more important matters.
Each day the villagers would wake up early to work as best as they could to feed their families with any scraps of money they could receive. But never did they regret this lifestyle. Everyone was perfectly happy even with the small amount of money and the few loaves of bread they ate a week. All the villagers knew one another and were practically one big family. Children were thinner than they should have been but they were happier, always running around laughing and playing. Everybody felt blessed until a child fell ill.
With only a weak mother to support him there was little hope for the boy. He was thinner than all the other village kids and his mother, who’d given all her food to her son was even worse. Both on the brink of death but neither ready to give up. Every day his mother rose early and went to work in the fields in the sweltering sun with only the intention of feeding her son, completely neglecting that she hadn’t eaten in several days. One day, with the image of her son in mind, she fell to her knees, her eyes shutting before she hit the ground.
Several men and woman ran to her side. Her heart was slowing down considerably and her breathing had grown shallow. She whispered her sons name and apologized as a single tear fell from her eye and she laid to rest. The entire village gathered together in the village square, each bringing a bit of food or money along. Together all the men and women gathered bringing anything they could spare. A little girl followed and hearing the adults mention that they hadn’t gathered enough and that it wasn’t possible. It was hopeless. The little girl ran home, coming back with her hands clasped tightly. She cried before the adults and told them she had all they needed. She unclasped her hands. In her palm sat in white baby dove. Its eyes had barely opened and it was almost pink from being a newborn but one thing was very clear and visible, the dove had a broken wing. The adults all looked confused and the girl smiled walking out with the bird.
She took it to the ill little boy and handed it to him. With a smile she promised as long as he carried it he’d get better, everything would get better.
The little girl worked alongside the adults in the fields and anything she made she contributed to the already growing pile of money and food. Each day she carried food to the boy but he only grew worse with time. The little girl also seemed to be growing weaker from all the hard labor she refused to stop doing. The boy shared a bit of his bread with the dove each day and day by day the food seemed to be just enough.
The adults, with help from the little girl, refused to let the boy die and so kept working and contributing money. The girl grew weaker and weaker working hard labor in the sun and giving her food to the boy until finally after a long day’s work she contributed her money to the rest of the money they’d all been saving up. She counted it and with a grin took it all. She started feeling dizzy and sick but despite that she ran to the closest town and headed straight to the shop. With all the money that had been raised she bought what the little boy needed, a small jar of medicine, something the villagers didn’t know much about and never had the money to buy.
Finally she got to the boy just in time and made him take it. She smiled and sat on his bedside as he fell asleep with the dove lying beside him. The girl touched the birds wing and smiled. When the boy woke up the girl was gone, he was better and the bird was flying around to its hearts content, chirping in joy.
In that single moment the boy heard a whisper: “The bird’s name is Hope”
Have you ever been saved from embarrassment by a kindly soul who absorbs the ridicule? These are the kind of people who are friends for life. Check this story out.
There is a nine-year-old kid sitting at his desk and all of a sudden, there is a puddle between his feet and the front of his pants are wet. He thinks his heart is going to stop because he cannot possibly imagine how this has happened.
It’s never happened before, and he knows that when the boys find out he will never hear the end of it. When the girls find out, they’ll never speak to him again as long as he lives.
The boy believes his heart is going to stop, he puts his head down and prays — “Dear God, this is an emergency! I need help now! Five minutes from now I’m dead meat.”
He looks up from his prayer and here comes the teacher with a look in her eyes that says he has been discovered.
As the teacher is walking toward him, a classmate named Susie is carrying a goldfish bowl that is filled with water. Susie trips in front of the teacher and inexplicably dumps the bowl of water in the boy’s lap.
The boy pretends to be angry, but all the while is saying to himself, “Thank you, Lord! Thank you, Lord!”
Now all of a sudden, instead of being the object of ridicule, the boy is the object of sympathy. The teacher rushes him downstairs and gives him gym shorts to put on while his pants dry out. All the other children are on their hands and knees cleaning up around his desk. The sympathy is wonderful. But as life would have it, the ridicule that should have been his has been transferred to someone else – Susie.
She tries to help, but they tell her to get out. “You’ve done enough, you klutz!” Finally, at the end of the day, as they are waiting for the bus, the boy walks over to Susie and whispers, “You did that on purpose, didn’t you?”
Susie whispers back, “I wet my pants once too.”
With a timid voice and idolizing eyes, the little boy greeted his father as he returned from work, "Daddy, how much do you make an hour?"
Greatly surprised, but giving his boy a glaring look, the father said: "Look, son, not even your mother knows that. Don't bother me now, I'm tired."
"But Daddy, just tell me please!? How much do you make an hour," the boy insisted.
The father finally giving up replied: " Twenty dollars per hour."
"Okay, Daddy? Could you loan me ten dollars?" the boy asked.
Showing restlessness and positively disturbed, the father yelled:
"So that was the reason you asked how much I earn, right?? Go to sleep and don't bother me anymore!"
It was already dark and the father was meditating on what he had said and was feeling guilty. Maybe he thought, his son wanted to buy something.
Finally, trying to ease his mind, the father went to his son's room.
"Are you asleep son?" asled the father.
"No, Daddy. Why?" replied the boy partially asleep.
"Here's the money you asked for earlier," the father said.
"Thanks, Daddy!" rejoiced the son, while putting his hand under his pillow and removing some money.
"Now I have enough! Now I have twenty dollars!" the boy said to his father, who was gazing at his son, confused at what his son just said. "Daddy could you sell me one hour of your time?"
