KEEP PLAYING

KEEP PLAYING

The folklore surrounding pianist Ignace Paderewski includes this story. A mother, wishing to encourage her son's progress at the piano, bought tickets for a Paderewski performance. 

They had seats near the front of the concert hall. 

The mother found a friend to talk to and the boy slipped away. 

When eight o'clock came around, the spotlights came on, and only then did they notice the boy at the piano bench innocently playing out "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star."

The master appeared on the stage and quickly moved to the keyboard. 

"Don't quit. Keep playing, " he whispered to the boy. 

Leaning over, Paderewski reached down with his left hand and began filling in a bass part. Soon his right arm reached around the other side, encircling the child, to add a running obbligato. Together, the old master and the young novice held the crowd spellbound.

In our lives, unpolished though we may be, it is the Master who surrounds us and whispers in our ear, "Don't quit. Keep playing." And as we do, he arguments and supplements until a work of amazing beauty is created. 

Source : Tonic for the Heart in 1000 bottles Volume 1

Darrel L. Anderson

THE LEGEND OF THE CANDLE

THE LEGEND OF THE CANDLE

One evening a man took a small candle from a box and began to climb a long winding stairway. "Where are we going?" asked the candle. "we're going up higher than the house to show ships the way to the harbour." "But no ship in the harbour could ever see my light," said the candle. "It is so very small." 

"If your light is small," the man said, "just keep burning brightly and leave the rest to me."

when they reached the top of the lighthouse, they came to a large lamp. then he took the little candle and lit the lamp. Soon the great polished reflectors behind the lamp sent beams of lights out across miles of sea. 

We are God's light! Our job is to keep on shining and our effectiveness is in His hands. 

• Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. (Mt. 5:16)
• I am the light of the world.whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of the life. (Jn. 8:12)

Source: Tonic for the Heart in 1000 bottles Vol. 1 

- Purnell Bailey

SELF - SACRIFICE

SELF - SACRIFICE

Once when a fierce battle was being fought in the Netherlands, Sir Philip Sidney, the British Commander was severely wounded in the battle field. he was fast losing blood. feeling extremely thirsty he asked for a glass of water. 

As Sir Philip Sidney held the glass of water to his lips, he noticed a badly, wounded soldier looking longingly at it, his wide eyes showing all signs of the agony of death. Moved with COMPASSION for the dying soldier, he told the soldiers to offer the water to him saying, "His need is greater than mine."

• To recognize another's need and to sacrifice your own basic needs are truly praiseworthy. 
• To forget our own pain at someone else's agony and to console them in the mark of a selfless existence. 
• Moved with COMPASSION, Jesus touched the eyes. Immediately they regained their sight and followed him. (Mt (20:34)

LOVE

LOVE

1. True Love grows by sacrifice and the more thoroughly the soul rejects natural satisfaction, the stronger and more detached its tenderness becomes.   - St Theresa of Lisieux

2. Love cures people - both the ones who give it and the ones who receive it.   - Karl A. Menninger

3. Whenever you are confronted with an opponent. Conquer him/her with Love.  - Mahatma Gandhi

4. I Love you, not for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you.    - Roy Croft

5. Love is patient and kind; Love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude.   - (1 Cor) Bible

6. Love may be blind, but it can sure find its way around in the dark.     -Source Unknown

7. To Love is to place our happiness in the happiness of another. 

   -   Gottfried Wilhelm Von Leibniz

8. True Love is like ghosts, which everybody talks about and few have seen.     - Francois De La Rochefoucauld

9. Love is the master key which opens the gates of happiness.   

   - Oliver Wendell Holmes

10. Love and a cough cannot be hid.      - George Hebert

TRUTH

TRUTH 

1. You never find yourself until you face the truth.      - Pearl Bailey

2. Time is precious, but truth is more precious than time.  

      - Benjamin Disraeli

3. Truth is beautiful, without doubt; but so are lies. 

       - Ralph Waldo Emerson

4. Truth is a thing immortal and perpetual, and it gives to us a beauty that fades not away in time.     - Max Fuller

5. Truth is a torch that shines through the fog without dispelling it. 

           - Claude A. Helvetius

6. Always tell the truth  - it's the easiest thing to remember.     

      - David Mamet

7. Everyone wishes to have truth on his/her side, but not everyone wishes to be on the side of truth.     - Richard Whately

8. Between truth and the search for it, I choose the second.  

      - Bernard Berenson

9. All great truths are simple in final analysis, and easily understood; if they are not, they are not great truths.     - Napoleon Hill 

10. Truth is a fruit which should not be plucked until it is ripe.  

         - Voltaire

ANGER

ANGER

1. My dear brothers and sister, take a  note of this: 

"Everyone should be quick to Listen, 

Slow to speak and slow to become angry,

for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life 

that God desires."

- James 1:19-20

2. Anger is a momentary madness, so control your passion or it will control you.                       - Horace

3. anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured. 

- Source Unknown

4. When you meet up with a disagreeable person, never allow yourself to be upset. Say to yourself, if a dowdy like that can stand himself all his life, surely I can stand him for a few minutes.                - Source Unknown

5. Anger begins with folly, and ends with Repentance. 

                                            -H.G Bohn    

6. The greatest remedy for anger is delay.       -  Seneca

7. There are two things a person should never be angry at, what they can help, and what they cannot.     -Proverb

8. Man should forget his anger, before he lies down to sleep.   

     - Thomas De Quincey

9. Whatever is begun in anger, ends in shame. 

       - Benjamin Franklin

10. The angry man will defeat himself in battle as well as in life. 

        - Samurai maxim

EXAMPLE SPEAKS LOUDEST

EXAMPLE SPEAKS LOUDEST

Some young Christians were attending an international summer camp. One of the projects set before them was to discuss and explore ideas for spreading the Gospel in the world.

The discussing was wide and varied. It included the use of television and radio programmes, newspaper articles, notices in magazines, and so on. Finally, when they were out of ideas an African girl stood up and gave her opinion:

“In my country when we think that a pagan village is ready for Christianity, we don’t send them books and missionaries. We send them a good Christian family. The family’s example is a more powerful proclamation of the gospel than all the books in the world.

v     “You shall be my witnesses,” says Jesus (Acts 1:8)

v     “By this shall men know that you are my disciples, if you love one another?” (John 13:35)

v     The witness value of Christianity is central. A Christian is in the business of attracting, not promoting.