Illustrations

Marquis de Lafayette was a French officer who provided invaluable assistance to George Washington and the struggling American army. After the war was over, he returned to France and resumed his life as a farmer of many estates. In 1783, the harvest was a terrible one, and there were many who suffered as a result. Lafayette’s farms were unaffected by the devastating crop failures. One of his workers offered what seemed to be good advice to Lafayette, “The bad harvest has raised the price of wheat.

The story is told about a lady who called American Airlines and asked the reservation clerk, “How long does it take to get from Dallas-Fort Worth to Frankfort, Germany?” The clerk had to wait a moment for the information to come up on her computer screen, so she said, “Just a minute.” The caller responded, “Thanks very much,” and hung up! Most of the things that really matter in life do not happen in “just a minute.”

Source: Unknown

One day Abraham Lincoln’s Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, came to him with a wrathful letter written to a Major-General who had accused him of favoritism. Stanton read Lincoln the letter which was full of sharp retorts and the President told him it was a good letter that the general deserved.

While Stanton, much gratified, was folding up the letter and putting it into its envelope, the President asked him, “What are you going to do with it now?”

“Why, send it, of course,” replied Stanton, looking blank.

“Don’t do it,” said Lincoln.

A mother walked into her teenage son’s makeshift weight room and watched him work out on the bench press. After seeing him move through several heavy repetitions, she asked, “Why is it you can lift nearly two hundred pounds, but you can’t pick up your clothes?”

Source: Unknown

A middle school teacher asked her class to write imaginative definitions of a friend. These were the descriptions she received:

“A friend is a pair of open arms in a society of armless people.”

“A friend is a warm bedroll on a cold and frosty night.”

“A friend is a mug of hot coffee on a damp cloudy day.”

“A friend is a beautiful orchard in the middle of the desert.”

“A friend is a hot bath after you have walked 20 miles on a dusty road.”

Source: Unknown

Submitted by the homiletics class of West Coast Baptist College

When James Calvert went out as a missionary to the cannibals of the Fiji Islands, the ship captain tried to turn him back, saying, “You will lose your life and the lives of those with you if you go among such savages.” To that, Calvert replied, “We died before we came here.”

Source: The Mission-Minded Family, Ann Dunagan

Submitted by the homiletics class of West Coast Baptist College

The story is told about a pilot who always looked down intently on a certain valley in the Appalachians when the plane passed overhead. One day his co-pilot asked, “What’s so interesting about that spot?” The pilot replied, “See that stream? Well, when I was a kid I used to sit down there on a log and fish. Every time an airplane flew over, I would look up and wish I were flying... Now I look down and wish I were fishing.”

A married couple had a quarrel and ended up giving each other the silent treatment. Two days into their mute argument, the man realized he needed his wife’s help. In order to catch a flight to Chicago for a business meeting, he had to get up at 5 a.m.

Not wanting to be the first to break the silence, he wrote on a piece of paper, “Please wake me at 5 a.m.”

“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”—Bernard Shaw

Fifty-six men signed the Declaration of Independence. Their conviction resulted in untold sufferings for themselves and their families. Of the fifty-six, five were captured by the British and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons in the Revolutionary Army. Another had two sons captured. Nine of the fifty-six fought and died from wounds or hardships of the war.