As we think of what Lord has done for us, we can echo that fire tender’s sentiments. Jesus stepped from heaven to earth, from the worship of angels to the mocking of cruel men, from glory to humiliation. To provide our salvation, Jesus took upon Himself the form of a servant, and “became obedient to the point of death, even the death on the cross” (Philippians 2:8)*. Our creator became our Savior. He deserves our heartfelt worship and humble adoration.

“God’s highest Gift should awaken our deepest gratitude”.

taken from Our Daily Bread, Dec 20, 2011

Tears were welling up in her eyes. In front of her was a bowl filled to its brim with Curd Rice. Sindu is a nice  child, quite intelligent for her age. She has just turned eight. She particularly detested Curd Rice. My mother and  my wife are orthodox, and believe firmly in the ‘cooling effects’ of Curd Rice! I cleared my throat, and picked up the bowl.

‘Sindu, darling,why don’t you take a few mouthful of this Curd Rice? Just for Dad’s sake, dear. Sindu softened a bit, and wiped her tears with the back of her hands.

‘OK, Dad. I will eat – not just a few mouthfuls, but the whole lot of this.

But, you should…’ Sindu hesitated. ‘Dad, if I eat this entire curd Rice, will you give me whatever I ask for?’….
Oh sure, darling’… ‘Promise?’…’Promise’.

I covered the pink soft hand extended by my daughter with mine, and clinched the deal.

‘Ask Mom also to give a similar promise’, my daughter insisted.  My wife put her hand on Sindu’s, muttering ‘Promise’.

Now I became a bit anxious.

‘Sindu dear, you shouldn’t insist on getting a computer or any such expensive items. Dad does not have that kind of  money right now. OK?’ ’No, Dad. I do not want anything expensive’. Slowly and painfully, she finished eating the
whole quantity.

I was silently angry with my wife and my mother for forcing my child eat something that she detested. After the ordeal was through, Sindu came to me with her eyes wide with expectation. All our attention was on her.

‘Dad, I want to have my head shaved off, this Sunday!’ was her demand.

‘Atrocious!’ shouted my wife, ‘A girl child having her head shaved off? Impossible!’ ‘Never in our family!’ my mother rasped. ’She has been watching too much of television. Our culture is getting totally spoiled with these TV programs!’

Sindu darling, why don’t you ask for something else? We will be sad seeing you with a clean-shaven head.’

‘No, Dad. I do not want anything else’, Sindu said with finality. ’Please, Sindu, why don’t you try to understand
our feelings?’  I tried to plead with her. ’Dad, you saw how difficult it was for me to eat that Curd Rice’.

Sindu was in tears. ‘And you promised to grant me whatever I ask for.

Now, you are going back on your words. Was it not you who told me the story of King Harishchandra, and its moral
that we should honor our promises no matter what?’

It was time for me to call the shots. ’Our promise must be kept.’ ’Are you out your mind?’ chorused my
mother and wife.  ’No. If we go back on our promises, she will never learn to honor her own.

Sindu, your wish will be fulfilled.’

With her head clean-shaven, Sindu had a round-face, and her eyes looked big and beautiful.

On Monday morning, I dropped her at her school. It was a sight to watch my hairless Sindu walking towards her  classroom. She turned around and waved. I waved back with a smile. Just then, a boy alighted from a car, and
shouted, ‘Sinduja, please wait for me!’

What struck me was the hairless head of that boy.
‘May be, that is the in-stuff’, I thought.

‘Sir, your daughter Sinduja is great indeed!’ Without introducing  herself, a lady got out of the car, and continued,’ That boy who is walking along with your daughter is my son  Harish. He is suffering from…leukemia.’ She paused to muffle her sobs.

Harish could not attend the school for the whole of the last month. He lost all his hair due to the side effects of  the chemotherapy. He refused to come back to school fearing the unintentional but cruel teasing of the schoolmates.

‘Sinduja visited him last week, and promised him that she will take care of the teasing issue.

But, I never imagined she would sacrifice her lovely hair for the sake of my son! Sir, you and your wife are blessed to have such a noble soul as your daughter.’

I stood transfixed. And then, I wept. ‘My little Angel, you are teaching me how self-less real love is!’

*The happiest people on this planet are not those who live on their own terms but are those who change their terms for the ones whom they love..*

Love Touch And Inspire your FRIENDS “The life is short, the vanities of world are transient but they alone live who
live for others; the rest are more dead than alive.

E-mail forward…

Pacing about the preacher’s study, the young man ranted about his problem. Finally he clenched his fist and shouted, “I’ve begged God to say something to help me. Tell me, Preacher, why doesn’t God answer?”

The old preacher, who sat across the room, spoke something in reply – something so hushed it was indistinguishable. The young man stepped across the room. “What did you say?” he asked.

The preacher repeated himself, but again in a tone as soft as a whisper. So the young man moved closer until he was leaning on the preacher’s chair. “Sorry,” he said. “I still didn’t hear you.”

With their heads bent together, the old preacher spoke once more. “God sometimes whispers,” he said, “so we will move closer to hear Him.”

This time the young man heard and he understood. We all want God’s voice to thunder through the air with the answer to our problem. But God’s is the still, small voice…the gentle whisper.

Perhaps there’s a reason. Nothing draws human focus quite like a whisper. God’s whisper means I must stop my ranting and move close to Him, until my head is bent together with His. And then, as I listen, I will find my answer. Better still, I find myself closer to God.

Author Unknown

Instead of choosing one of his directors or his children, he decided to do something different.

He called all the young executives in his company together.

“It is time for me to step down and choose the next CEO,” he said.

”I have decided to choose one of you.”

The young executives were shocked, but the boss continued.  ”I am going to give each one of you a seed today – a very special seed.

I want you to plant the seed, water it, and come back here one year from today with  what you have grown from the seed I have given you.  I will then judge  the plants that you bring, and the one  I choose will be the next CEO.”

One man, named Jim, was there that day and he, like the others, received a seed.

He went home and excitedly, told his wife the story.  She helped him get a pot, soil and compost and he planted the seed.

Every day, he would water it and watch to see if it had grown.

After about three weeks, some of the other executives began to talk about their seeds and the plants that were beginning to grow.  Jim kept checking his seed, but nothing ever grew.

Three weeks, four weeks, five weeks went by, still nothing. By now, others were talking about their plants, but Jim didn’t have a plant and  he felt like a failure.

Six months went by – still nothing in Jim’s pot. He just knew he had killed his seed.
Everyone else had trees and tall plants, but he had nothing. Jim didn’t say anything to his colleagues, however.  He just kept watering and fertilizing the soil – he so wanted the seed to grow.

A year finally went by and all the young executives of the company brought their plants to the CEO for inspection. Jim told his wife that he wasn’t going to take an empty pot. But she asked him to be honest about what happened.

Jim felt sick at his stomach. It was going to be the most embarrassing moment of his life,
but he knew his wife was right.

He took his empty pot to the board room. When Jim arrived, he was amazed at the variety of plants grown by the other executives. They were beautiful–in all shapes and sizes.

Jim put his empty pot on the floor and many of his colleagues laughed.

A few felt sorry for him!

When the CEO arrived, he surveyed the room and greeted his young executives.

Jim just tried to hide in the back.

“My, what great plants, trees, and flowers you have grown,” said the CEO.

“Today one of you will be appointed the next CEO!”

All of a sudden, the CEO spotted Jim at the back of the room with his empty pot.
He ordered the financial director to bring him to the front.

Jim was terrified. He thought, “The CEO knows I’m a failure!
Maybe he will have me fired!”

When Jim got to the front, the CEO asked him what had happened to his seed.

Jim told him the story.

The CEO asked everyone to sit down except Jim. He looked at Jim, and then announced to the young executives, “Here is your next Chief Executive! His name is Jim!”

Jim couldn’t believe it. Jim couldn’t even grow his seed. How could he be the new CEO the others said?

Then the CEO said, “One year ago today, I gave everyone in this room a seed.

I told you to take the seed, plant it, water it, and bring it back to me today.
But I gave you all boiled seeds; they were dead – it was not possible for them to grow.

All of you, except Jim, have brought me trees and plants and flowers.

“When you found that the seed would not grow, you substituted another seed for the one I gave you.  Jim was the only one with the courage and honesty to bring me a pot with my seed in it. Therefore, he is the one who will be the new Chief Executive!”

Moral:

• If you plant honesty, you will reap trust
• If you plant goodness, you will reap friends.
• If you plant humility, you will reap greatness.
• If you plant perseverance, you will reap contentment
• If you plant consideration, you will reap perspective.
• If you plant hard work, you will reap success.
• If you plant forgiveness, you will reap reconciliation.

So, be careful what you plant now; it will determine what you will reap later.

Shared by DOMINGO MARIANO through e-mail

Psalms 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God: 

Before refrigerators, people used ice-houses to preserve their food. Ice-houses had thick walls, no windows, and a tightly fitted door. In winter, when streams and lakes were frozen, large blocks of ice were cut from the frozen waters, hauled to the ice-houses, and covered with sawdust. Often these ice-blocks would last well into the summer.
One man lost a valuable watch while working in an ice-house. He searched diligently for it, carefully raking through the sawdust, but didn’t find it. His fellow workers also looked, but their efforts, too, proved futile. A small boy who heard about the fruitless search slipped into the ice-house during the noon hour and soon emerged with the watch. Amazed, the men asked him how he found it.

“I closed the door,” the boy replied, “lay down in the sawdust, and kept very still. Soon I heard the watch ticking.” (story taken from “Directions” by James Hamilton)

So often life can become so hectic that it becomes hard to find time to sit still and just listen to what the Lord is saying. But Jesus often secluded himself, so that He could commune intimately with His Father.

In these days and in this hour it’s so imperative that we spend time in our own prayer closets, so we can clearly hear what our Father is saying to us, through His still small voice. If we do, we may find some wonderful and valuable things that others have missed.

The question isn’t whether God will speak, but whether we will take the time to be quiet and still enough to hear His voice. Let’s be sure to take that time to hear what He’s saying to us!

“Worthy Devotions” – WB Journal

He now longed to reach home to see his mother’s face and bid her his last adieu. But, he had to accept the fact that his sinking health would not permit him to reach his distant homeland.

So, the mighty conqueror lay prostrate and pale, helplessly waiting to breathe his last. He called his generals and said, “I will depart from this world soon, I have three wishes, please carry them out without fail.”

With tears flowing down their cheeks, the generals agreed to abide by their king’s last wishes.

1) “My first desire is that”, said Alexander, “My physicians alone must” carry my coffin.”

2) After a pause, he continued, “Secondly, I desire that when my coffin is being carried to the grave, the path leading to the graveyard be strewn with gold, silver and precious stones which I have collected in my treasury”.

3) The king felt exhausted after saying this. He took a minute’s rest and continued. “My third and last wish is that both my hands be kept dangling out of my coffin”.

The people who had gathered there wondered at the king’s strange wishes. But no one dared bring the question to their lips.. Alexander’s favorite general kissed his hand and pressed them to his heart.

“O king, we assure you that all your wishes will be fulfilled. But tell us why do you make such strange wishes?”

At this Alexander took a deep breath and said:

“I would like the world to know of the three lessons I have just learnt. Lessons to be learnt from last 3 wishes of King Alexander…

I want my physicians to carry my coffin because people should realize that no doctor on this earth can really cure any body. They are powerless and cannot save a person from the clutches of death.

So let not people take life for granted.

The second wish of strewing gold, silver and other riches on the path to the graveyard is to tell People that not even a fraction of gold will come with me. I spent all my life Greed of Power, earning riches but cannot take anything with me.

Let people realize that it is a sheer waste of time to chase wealth.

And about my third wish of having my hands dangling out of the coffin, I wish people to know that I came empty handed into this world and empty handed I go out of this world”.

With these words, the king closed his eyes. Soon he let death conquer him and breathed his last. . . .

LESSONS TO LEARN:

• Remember, your Health is in your own hands, look after it.

• Wealth is only meaningful if you can share and also enjoy while you are still alive, kicking & healthy.

• What you do for yourself, dies with you.

• But what you do for others will live forever.

• Leave the Legacy behind.

an e-mail forward

They have been identified as: Bin Sleepin, Bin Arguin, Bin Fightin, Bin Complainin and Bin Missin.

Their leader, Lucifer Bin Workin, trained these groups to destroy the Body of Christ.

The plan is to come into the church disguised as Christians and to work within the church to Discourage, Disrupt and Destroy.

However, there have been reports of a sixth group, a tiny cell known by the name Bin Prayin.

Bin Prayin is actually the only effective counter terrorism force in the church.

Unlike other terrorist cells, the Bin Prayin team does not blend in with whoever and whatever comes along.
Bin Prayin does whatever is needed to uplift and encourage the Body of Christ.

We have noticed that the Bin Prayin cell group has different characteristics than the others.

They have Bin Watchin, Bin Waitin, Bin Fastin and Bin Longin for their Master, JESUS CHRIST to return.

NO CHURCH IS EXEMPT!
(However, you can spot them if you’ve bin lookin and bin goin.)

Source: E-mail forward

He passed the first interview; the director did the last interview, made the last decision.

The director discovered from the CV that the youth’s academic achievements were excellent all the way, from the secondary school until the postgraduate research, never had a year when he did not score.

The director asked, “Did you obtain any scholarships in school?” the youth answered “none”.

The director asked, “Was it your father who paid for your school fees?” The youth answered, “My father passed away when I was one year old, it was my mother who paid for my school fees.

The director asked, “Where did your mother work?” The youth answered, “My mother worked as clothes cleaner. The director requested the youth to show his hands. The youth showed a pair of hands that were smooth and perfect.

The director asked, “Have you ever helped your mother wash the clothes before?” The youth answered, “Never, my mother always wanted me to study and read more books. Furthermore, my mother can wash clothes faster than me.

The director said, “I have a request. When you go back today, go and clean your mother’s hands, and then see me tomorrow morning.*

The youth felt that his chance of landing the job was high. When he went back, he happily requested his mother to let him clean her hands. His mother felt strange, happy but with mixed feelings, she showed her hands to the kid.

The youth cleaned his mother’s hands slowly. His tear fell as he did that. It was the first time he noticed that his mother’s hands were so wrinkled, and there were so many bruises in her hands. Some bruises were so painful that his mother shivered when they were cleaned with water.

This was the first time the youth realized that it was this pair of hands that washed the clothes everyday to enable him to pay the school fee. The bruises in the mother’s hands were the price that the mother had to pay for his graduation, academic excellence and his future.

After finishing the cleaning of his mother hands, the youth quietly washed all the remaining clothes for his mother.

That night, mother and son talked for a very long time.

Next morning, the youth went to the director’s office.

The Director noticed the tears in the youth’s eyes, asked: ” Can you tell me what have you done and learned yesterday in your house?”

The youth answered, ” I cleaned my mother’s hand, and also finished cleaning all the remaining clothes’

The Director asked, ” please tell me your feelings.”

The youth said, Number 1, I know now what appreciation is. Without my mother, there would not the successful me today. Number 2, by working together and helping my mother, only I now realize how difficult and tough it is to get something done. Number 3, I have come to appreciate the importance and value of family relationship.

The director said, ” This is what I am looking for to be my manager. I want to recruit a person who can appreciate the help of others, a person who knows the sufferings of others to get things done, and a person who would not put money as his only goal in life. You are hired.

Later on, this young person worked very hard, and received the respect of his subordinates. Every employee worked diligently and as a team. The company’s performance improved tremendously.

A child, who has been protected and habitually given whatever he wanted, would develop “entitlement mentality” and would always put himself first. He would be ignorant of his parent’s efforts. When he starts work, he assumes that every person must listen to him, and when he becomes a manager, he would never know the sufferings of his employees and would always blame others. For this kind of people, who may be good academically, may be successful for a while, but eventually would not feel sense of achievement. He will grumble and be full of hatred and fight for more. If we are this kind of protective parents, are we really showing love or are we destroying the kid instead?*

You can let your kid live in a big house, eat a good meal, learn piano, watch a big screen TV. But when you are cutting grass, please let them experience it. After a meal, let them wash their plates and bowls together with their brothers and sisters. It is not because you do not have money to hire a maid, but it is because you want to love them in a right way. You want them to understand, no matter how rich their parents are, one day their hair will grow gray, same as the mother of that young person. The most important thing is your kid learns how to appreciate the effort and experience the difficulty and learns the ability to work with others to get things done.

- Author Unknown

This story was shared by Mrs. Rita James on Asha Kiran Special Needs School Annual day celebrations on 19th Nov 2010. Also received the e-mail forward from Mr. Peter S.C. Pothan.

10 Little Christians standing in line

1 disliked the preacher, then there were 9

9 little Christians stayed up very late

1 overslept Sunday, then there were 8

8 little Christians on their way to Heaven

1 took the low road and then there were 7

7 little Christians chirping like chicks

1 disliked music, then there were 6

6 little Christians seemed very much alive

1 lost his interest then there was 5

5 little Christians pulling for Heaven’s Shore

1 stopped to rest, then there were 4

4 little Christians each busy as a bee

1 got his feelings hurt, then there were 3

3 little Christians knew not what to do

1 joined the sporty crowd, then there were 2

2 little Christians, our rhyme is nearly done Differed with each other, then there was 1

1 little Christian can’t do much ’tis true Brought his friend to Bible study — then there were 2

2 earnest Christians, each won one more

That doubled the number, then there were 4

4 sincere Christians worked early and late Each won another then there were 8

8 splendid Christians if they doubled as before In just so many Sundays, we’d have 1,024

In this little jingle, There is a lesson true,

You belong either to the building Or to the wrecking crew!

~ Author Unknown ~

Vivek Pradhan was not a happy man.. Even the plush comfort of the air-conditioned compartment of the Shatabdi express could not cool his frayed nerves. He was the Project Manager and still not entitled to air travel. It was not the prestige he sought; he had tried to reason with the admin person, it was the savings in time. As Project Manager , he had so many things to do!!

He opened his case and took out the laptop, determined to put the time to some good use.

‘Are you from the software industry sir?’ the man beside him was staring appreciatively at the laptop. Vivek glanced briefly and mumbled in affirmation, handling the laptop now with exaggerated care and importance as if it were an expensive car.

‘You people have brought so much advancement to the country, Sir. Today everything is getting computerized.’

‘Thanks,’ smiled Vivek, turning around to give the man a look.  He always found it difficult to resist appreciation. The man was young and stockily built like a sportsman….. He looked simple and strangely out of place in that little lap of luxury like a small town boy in a prep school. He probably was a railway sportsman making the most of his free traveling pass.

‘You people always amaze me,’ the man continued, ‘You sit in an office and write something on a computer and it does so many big things outside.’

Vivek smiled deprecatingly. Naiveness demanded reasoning not anger. ’It is not as simple as that my friend. It is not just a question of writing a few lines. There is a lot of process that goes behind it.’

For a moment, he was tempted to explain the entire Software Development Life-cycle but restrained himself to a single statement. ’It is complex, very complex.’

‘It has to be. No wonder you people are so highly paid,’ came the reply.

This was not turning out as Vivek had thought. A hint of belligerence crept into his so far affable, persuasive tone.

‘Everyone just sees the money. No one sees the amount of hard work we have to put in. Indians have such a narrow concept of hard work. Just because we sit in an air-conditioned office, does not mean our brows do not sweat. You exercise the muscle; we exercise the mind and believe me that is no less taxing.’

He could see, he had the man where he wanted, and it was time to drive home the point.

‘Let me give you an example. Take this train. The entire railway reservation system is computerized. You can book a train ticket between any two stations from any of the hundreds of computerized booking centers across the country.

Thousands of transactions accessing a single database, at a time concurrently; data integrity, locking, data security. Do you understand the complexity in designing and coding such a system?’

The man was awestruck; quite like a child at a planetarium. This was something big and beyond his imagination.

‘You design and code such things?’

‘I used to,’ Vivek paused for effect, ‘but now I am the Project Manager.’

‘Oh!’ sighed the man, as if the storm had passed over, ’so your life is easy now.’

This was like the last straw for Vivek. He retorted, ‘Oh come on, does life ever get easy as you go up the ladder. Responsibility only brings more work. Design and coding! That is the easier part. Now I do not do it; but I am responsible for it and believe me, that is far more stressful. My job is to get the work done in time and with the highest
quality.

To tell you about the pressures, there is the customer at one end, always changing his requirements, the user at the other, wanting something else, and your boss, always expecting you to have finished it yesterday.’

Vivek paused in his diatribe, his belligerence fading with self-realization. What he had said, was not merely the outburst of a wronged man, it was the truth. And one need not get angry while defending the truth.

‘My friend,’ he concluded triumphantly, ‘you don’t know what it is to be in the Line of Fire’.

The man sat back in his chair, his eyes closed as if in realization.

When he spoke after sometime, it was with a calm certainty that surprised Vivek.

‘I know sir….. I know what it is to be in the Line of Fire……’

He was staring blankly, as if no passenger, no train existed, just a vast expanse of time. ‘There were 30 of us when we were ordered to capture Point 4875 in the cover of the night. The enemy was firing from the top. There was no knowing where the next bullet was going to come from and for whom.

In the morning when we finally hoisted the tri-colour at the top; only 4 of us were alive.’

‘You are …??’

‘I am Subedar Sushant from the 13 J&K Rifles on duty at Peak 4875 in Kargil. They tell me I have completed my term and can opt for a soft assignment.

But, tell me sir, can one give up duty just because it makes life easier? On the dawn of that capture, one of my colleagues lay injured in the snow, open to enemy fire while we were hiding behind a bunker.

It was my job to go and fetch that soldier to safety. But my captain sahib refused me permission and went ahead himself.

He said that the first pledge he had taken as a Gentleman Cadet was to put the safety and welfare of the nation foremost followed by the safety and welfare of the men he commanded… ….his own personal safety came last, always and every time.’

‘He was killed as he shielded and brought that injured soldier into the bunker.. Every morning thereafter, as we stood guard, I could see him taking all those bullets, which were actually meant for me. I know sir….I know, what it is to be in the Line of Fire.’

Vivek looked at him in disbelief not sure of how to respond. Abruptly, he switched off the laptop.

It seemed trivial, even insulting to edit a Word document in the presence of a man for whom valour and duty was a daily part of life; valour and sense of duty which he had so far attributed only to epic heroes.

The train slowed down as it pulled into the station, and Subedar Sushant picked up his bags to alight.

‘It was nice meeting you sir.’

Vivek fumbled with the handshake.

This hand… had climbed mountains, pressed the trigger, and hoisted the tri-colour. Suddenly, as if by impulse, he stood up at attention and his right hand went up in an impromptu salute….

It was the least he felt he could do for the country.

PS: The incident he narrated during the capture of Peak 4875 is a true-life incident during the Kargil war in which among the 30 dead was  about whom the Subedar is seen here mentioning.  Capt. Vikram Batra who immortalized “Yeh Dil maange more”  sacrificed his life while trying to save one of the men he commanded, as victory was within sight.

For this and various other acts of bravery, he was awarded the Param Vir Chakra, the nation’s highest military award.

Live humbly, there are great people around us, let us learn!