I shook it. I knocked it gently, sideways on the top of the desk.
I licked a piece of paper and wrote carefully in the moisture
I can't tell you why this workds, but it usually does.) I
repeated each procedure without results. Then I carried the
pen to the sink, took it apart, and carefully flushed out the
point. Refilling it, I sat down to write.
How like me I thought with exasperation.
I have mugs full of pens on my desk:ballpoints, felt tips,
ink pens, even pencils. But for very fine writing, such as
notes in the margin of my Bible, I used a radiographic pen.
This pen has a needle-fine point and uses India ink, which
will not seep through or smear on the thin India paper.
How often when God has needed me I have been clogged up(too
busy or inumdated with things the necessary giving way to
the unnecessary). Or I've gone dry. When that happens,
I need a "shaking up", or I need special cleansing. And
I need to be filled and refilled and filled again.
There have been times when God has patiently and carefully
done just that. There have been other times when He has had
to pass me over and pick a pen that was usable.
But unlike a pen, I do have a choice. I can decide
whether or not I reamin usable.
By Ruth Graham Bell
God is never beyond Our Reach
by Helen Steiner Rice
No one ever sought for the Father
And found He was not there
And no burden is to heavy
To be lightened by prayer
No problem is to intricate
And no sorrow that we face
Is to deep and devastating
To be softened by His grace
No trials and tribulations
Are beyond what we can bear
If we share them with our Father
As we talk to Him in prayer-
And men of every color
Every race and every creed
Have but to seek the Father
In their deepest hour of need-
God ask for no credentials,
He accepts us with our flaws,
He is kind and understanding
And He welcomes us because
We are His erring children
And He loves us every one,
And freely and completely
Forgives all that we have done,
Asking only if we're ready
To follow where He leads-
Content in that His wisdom
He will answer all our needs.
The Coffee Cups
A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life. Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups -
porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive,
some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the coffee.
When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said:
"If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up,
leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to
want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems
and stress. Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the
coffee. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even
hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the
cup, but you consciously went for the best cups... And then you began
eyeing each other's cups.
Now consider this: Life is the coffee; the jobs, money and position in
society are the cups They are just tools to hold and contain Life, and
the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of life
we live. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee God has provided us."
God brews the coffee, not the cups.......... Enjoy your coffee!
"The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make
the best of everything." Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. Leave the rest to God
