Illustrations

When the great painter Benjamin West was a young boy he decided to draw a picture of his sister. He got out bottles of ink and succeeded in making a mess. When his mother got home she said, “What a beautiful picture,” and kissed him. Later in life he said, “That kiss made me a painter.”

Source: Unknown

After a tough and discouraging day at work, Melvin plopped himself on the couch and began wallowing in self-pity. He moaned to his wife, “Nobody cares about me. In fact, the whole world hates me.” Without even looking up from her work, Melvin’s wife replied, “That’s not true, honey. The whole world couldn’t possibly hate you because most of them don’t even know you.”

Source: Houston Chronicle, November 29, 2006

The Duke of Wellington, the British military leader who defeated Napoleon at Waterloo, was not an easy man to serve under. He was brilliant, demanding, and not one to shower his subordinates with compliments. Yet even Wellington realized that his methods left something to be desired. In his old age a young lady asked him what, if anything, he would do differently if he had his life to live over again. Wellington thought for a moment, then replied. “I’d give more praise.”

Source: Bits and Pieces, March 31, 1994

One morning Marion Gilbert opened her door and was surprised to see a small dog she had never seen before with her paper in its mouth. Delighted with his “delivery service,” she gave him some treats. The next morning she was horrified to see the same dog sitting in front of her door, wagging his tail, surrounded by eight newspapers. She spent the rest of that morning returning the papers to their owners.

Source: The Reader’s Digest, Volume 1444

“In one of my assignments as a young infantry officer, I was sent to the 48th Infantry near Frankfort, Germany. In those days our prize weapon was a huge 280-mm atomic cannon. Guarded by infantry platoons, these guns were hauled around the forests on trucks to keep the Soviets from guessing their location.

One day Captain Tom Miller assigned my platoon to guard a 280. I alerted my men, loaded my .45 caliber pistol and jumped into my jeep. I had not gone far when I realized that my .45 was gone.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn was a prisoner in a Soviet prison in Siberia. He became so weak and discouraged that he wished he would die. The guards would beat and usually kill anyone that stopped working. He decided to stop working so that the guards would kill him. As soon as he did so, another Christian drew a cross where Alexander could see it.

Alexander said that he was encouraged by remembering that God gives hope and courage. He decided to continue working because of a Christian who cared too much to let him give up.

An eight-year-old Israeli boy was stuck floating overnight in the Dead Sea after his father left him there by mistake. Fortunately, the high salt content in the water keeps swimmers afloat or he probably would have drowned. The ordeal lasted six hours!

Rescue workers said the boy, Shneur Zalman Friedman, from Jerusalem, was in the sea with his father and two brothers on Thursday evening when currents swept him away from shore, without anyone noticing.

During an edition of the news program 60 Minutes, Dan Rather interviewed Jack Welch, the outspoken former CEO of General Electric. At the end of the interview, Rather asked Welch, “What’s the toughest question you have ever been asked?”

Welch replied, “Do you think you’ll go to Heaven?”

“Saving faith may thus be defined as voluntary turning from all hope and grounds based on self merit, and assuming an attitude of expectancy toward God, trusting Him to do a perfect saving work based only on the merit of Christ.”

Source: True Evangelism, Lewis Sperry Chafer

Some say that the music they listen to does not affect them. It would be hard to convince the Kuntz family of this. Fifteen year old Richard Kuntz was listening to a Manson album when he committed suicide by shooting himself. His father says Richard was a major Manson fan and his favorite song contained calls to commit suicide.

Source: World Magazine, November 22, 1997