The Piano Lesson

Wishing to encourage her young son's progress on the piano, a mother took the small boy to a Paderewski concert. After they were seated, the mother bewildered by the wonders of the concert hall, the little boy rose and eventually explored his way through a door marked "NO ADMITTANCE."

When the house lights dimmed and the concert was about to begin, the mother returned to her seat and discovered that her son was missing. Suddenly, the curtains parted and spotlights focused on the impressive steinway on stage. In horror, the mother saw her little boy sitting at the keyboard, innocently picking out "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star."

At that moment, the great piano master made his entrance, quickly moved to the piano, and whispered in the boy's ear, "Don't quit. Keep playing". Then leaning over, Paderewski reached down with his left hand and began filling in a bass part. Soon his right arm reached around to the other side of the child and he added a running obbligato.

Together, the old master and the young novice transformed a frightening situation into a wonderful creative experience. The audience was mesmerized.

That's the way it is with God. What we can accomplish on our own is hardly noteworthy. We try our best, but the result's aren't exactly graceful flowing music. But with the hand of the Master, our life's work truly can be beautiful

Next time you set out to accomplish great feats, listen carefully. You can hear the voice of the Master, whispering in your ear, "Don't quit. Keep playing." Feel His loving arms around you. Know that His strong hands are playing the concerto of your life.

Remember, God doesn't call the equipped; He equips the called. And He'll always be there to love and guide you on to great things.

The Joke Time

       One day, there was a lion who called for a meeting with the animals. He said, “Each of you will tell a joke. But everyone must laugh or I’ll eat the one who told the joke.”

       The monkey, who knew he was very funny, went up first and told his joke. When he reached the punchline, everyone cracked up. Everyone that is, except one animal: The turtle. He didn’t laugh.
       The lion shook his head. He pounced on the monkey and ate him in one gulp. All the animals gasped. The lion called out, “Next!”
       The parrot believed he was really funny so he stepped in front and told his joke. When he reached his punchline, all the animals laughed. Except the turtle!
       And to everyone’s horror, the lion gobbled up the parrot.
       All the animals were angry at the turtle! But they couldn’t say anything in front of the lion.
       “Next!” the lion said.
       The giraffe stepped up, trembling. He started telling his joke when the turtle began to laugh really hard!
       The animals looked at him wondering what he was doing.
       The lion asked the turtle, “What’s wrong with you? Giraffe hasn’t reached his punchline yet!”
       The turtle said, “Haha! I can’t help it. The monkey’s joke was sooooo funny!”

Give Love, But Don’t Expect An Instant Response

Let’s say you’re a father.
And you’ve not really been spending time with your kids.
But because of the ritual, you’ve decided to hangout with them. However, you find out that your kids don’t want to hangout with you!
It’ll be frustrating. But don’t give up.
Your kids are turtles. In due time, your children will “get it” and respond to your love.    

The Shoe Box

     A man and woman had been married for more than 60 years. They had shared everything. They had talked about everything. They had kept no secrets from each other except that the little old woman had a shoebox in the top of her closet that she had cautioned her husband never to open or ask her about.

     For all these years, he had never thought about the box, but one day the little old woman got very sick and the doctor said she would not recover.

     In trying to sort out their affairs, the little old man took down the shoebox and took it to his wife's bedside. She agreed that it was time that he should know what was in the box. When he opened it, he found two crocheted dolls and a stack of money totalling $95,000.

     He asked her about the contents. "When we were to be married', she said 'my grandmother told me the secret of a happy marriage was to never argue. She told me that if I ever got angry with you, I should just keep quiet and crochet a doll'.

     The little old man was so moved; he had to fight back tears. Only two precious dolls were in the box. She had only been angry with him two times in all those years of living and loving.  He almost burst with happiness.

 

  'Honey', he said, 'that explains the doll, but what about all of this money? Where did it come from?'

'Oh', she said, 'that's the money I made from selling the dolls'.


A Prayer
Dear Lord,
I pray for Wisdom to understand my man;
Love to forgive him;
and Patience for his moods;
because Lord, If I pray for Strength, 
I'll beat him to death because I don't have the freaking time to crochet.

Broken Dreams

As little children bring their broken toys
with tears for us to mend.

I brought my broken dreams to God
Because He is my friend.
But instead of leaving Him
in peace to work alone.
I tried ways which were my own
At last, I snatched them back and cried:
"How could you be so slow?"
"My child", he said. "You never did let go".

The Obstacle in our Path

In ancient times, a King had a boulder placed on a roadway. Then he hid himself and watched to see if anyone would remove the huge rock. Some of the king's wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by and simply walked around it. Many loudly blamed the king for not keeping 

the roads clear, but none did anything about getting the stone out of the way. Then a peasant came along carrying a load of vegetables. Upon approaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and tried to move the stone to the side of the road. After much pushing and straining, he finally succeeded. After the peasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticed a purse lying in the road where the boulder had been. The purse contained many gold coins and a note from the king indicating that the gold was for the person who removed the boulder from the roadway. The peasant learned what many of us never understand. Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve our condition.

The Spider Web

An evil man, about to die, meets an angel at the gates to Hell. The angel says to him: “It is enough for you to have done one good thing in your life, and that will help you.” “Think hard,” the angel said. The man remembers that one time, as he was walking through a forest; he saw a spider in his path and detoured so as not to step on it. The angel smiles and a spider web come down from the sky, allowing the man to ascend to Paradise. Others among the condemned take advantage of the web, and begin to make the climb. But the man turns on them and begins to push them off, fearing that the web will break.

At that moment, it breaks, and the man is once again returned to Hell. “What a pity,” the man hears the angel say. “Your concern with yourself turned the only good thing you ever did into evil”.

Lesson: Your selfishness hurts you in the end.

Narcissus

The Alchemist picked up a book that someone in the caravan had brought. Leafing through the pages, he found a story about Narcissus.

The Alchemist knew the legend of Narcissus, a youth who knelt daily beside a lake to contemplate his own beauty. He was so fascinated by himself that, one morning, he fell into the lake and drowned. At the spot where he fell, a flower was born, which was called the narcissus.

But this was not how the author of the book ended the story.

He said that when Narcissus died, the goddesses of the forest appeared and found the lake, which has been fresh water, transformed into a lake of salty tears.

“Why do you weep?” the goddesses asked.

“I weep for Narcissus”, the lake replied.

“Ah, it is no surprise that you weep for Narcissus”, they said, “for though we always pursued him in the forest, you alone could contemplate his beauty close at hand”.

“But.. was Narcissus beautiful?” the lake asked.

“Who better that you to know that?” the goddesses said in wonder. “After all, it was by your banks that he knelt each day to contemplate himself!”

The lake was silent for some time. Finally, it said:

“I weep for Narcissus, but I never noticed that Narcissus was beautiful. I weep because each time he knelt beside my banks, I could see in the depths of his eyes, my own beauty reflected.”