The Spirit of Christmas Giving Several years ago a thirteen-year-old boy who attended Mohawk Central School at Paines Hollow in New York heard an appeal for contributions to Santa Claus Anonymous, a group that provides gifts for unfortunate children that otherwise would go without Christmas presents. The boy struggled to save a few pennies for…
Author: Alan Holden
Gifts
Your Gifts Are Not Your Own You have your gifts not so much for your own sake as for the sake of others. You are like an apple tree that produces fruit, not for its own consumption, but for the consumption of others. Your gifts are given so you can bless others by ministering to…
Frustration
Work Undone What the reason of the any laboriously drags into a heap, the wind of accident will collect in one breath. –Friedrich von Schiller Pithy Words On an office poster: “One day I shall burst my buds of calm and blossom fully into hysteria.” Free, Indeed! The warranty on a new color TV set…
Friends
The Business of Friendship The main business of friendship is to sustain and make bearable each other’s burdens. We may do more of that as friends than we do anything else. –Eugene Kennedy The Depth of Friendship One could not but be moved by the story of the soldier who asked his officer if he…
Freedom
Bondage, Real or Imagined Harry Houdini, the famed escape artist from a few years back, issued a challenge wherever he went. He could be locked in any jail cell in the country, he claimed, and set himself free in short order. Always he kept his promise, but one time something went wrong. Houdini entered the…
Forgiveness
Limited Forgiveness A pastor’s son and his mom had been to a shopping mall and the boy had acted badly, wanting this and that, running off, etc. As they were driving home, he could sense her displeasure and said, “When we ask God to forgive us when we are bad, He does, doesn’t He?” His…
Folly
Always Read the Instructions A man was at a banquet listening to a well-known and much-admired political leader making a speech. He was seated next to the speaker’s wife. He had noticed that the speaker was immaculately attired—he even had fancy monograms on his socks. But when he looked a little closer, he saw that…
Flexibility
Going with the Flow The winds and waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators. –Edward Gibbon Booker T’s Flexibility Booker T. Washington arrived in a city to make a speech. His train was late and he was in a hurry. He dashed out of the station to the cabstand, but the cabby…
Flattery
The Certain Cure Flattery is the best cure for deafness. –Paul Eldridge Finding Out the Truth Rule number two in public speaking: After a flattering introduction, never tell the audience you don’t deserve it. They’ll find out soon enough. Flattery of a Tyrant In ancient Greece, the politically crafty philosopher Aristippus had learned to get…
Fear
Summer Scene When little Jimmy returned home from summer camp, his parents asked him if he had been homesick. He replied, “Not me, but some of the kids were who had dogs.” Cautious Investment One day in July, a farmer sat in front of his shack, smoking his corncob pipe. Along came a stranger who…