Intentions

Quotes

•      You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do. – Henry Ford

•      It’s always easy the night before to get up early the next morning.

•      The child who is eager to help around the house is usually too young to do it.

Sources unknown

Spokane Fire

On June 13, 1889, the Spokane newspaper printed an editorial pleading for the establishment of a fire department. Seattle had recently been ravaged by fire, and the paper desired to prevent the same calamity from happening in Spokane. Nothing, however, was done.

Two months later Spokane burned to the ground.

Source unknown

Goldfish

At their school carnival, our kids won four free goldfish (lucky us!), so out I went Saturday morning to find an aquarium.

The first few I priced ranged from $40 to $70. Then I spotted it—right in the aisle: a discarded 10-gallon display tank, complete with gravel and filter—for a mere five bucks. Sold! Of course, it was nasty dirty, but the savings made the two hours of clean-up a breeze.

Those four new fish looked great in their new home, at least for the first day. But by Sunday one had died. Too bad, but three remained. Monday morning revealed a second casualty, and by Monday night a third goldfish had gone belly up.

We called in an expert, a member of our church who has a 30-gallon tank. It didn’t take him long to discover the problem: I had washed the tank with soap, an absolute no-no. My uninformed efforts had destroyed the very lives I was trying to protect.

Sometimes in our zeal to clean up our own lives or the lives of others, we unfortunately use “killer soaps”—condemnation, criticism, nagging, fits of temper. We think we’re doing right, but our harsh, self-righteous treatment is more than they can bear.

– Richard L. Dunagin

Source unknown

Drop of Blood

During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln said that he could get any number of men who were “willing to shed their last drop of blood.” The problem, said Lincoln, was that he found it difficult to get anyone willing to shed that first drop!

MBI’s Today In The Word, November, 1989, p. 9.

Artificial Leg

Alexander de Seversky, U.S. aviator and engineer, was once visiting a fellow flyer in the hospital. The young man had just lost his leg; de Seversky, who had had an artificial leg for some time, tried to cheer him up.

“The loss of a leg is not so great a calamity,” he said. “If you get hit on a wooden leg, it doesn’t hurt a bit! Try it!” The patient raised his walking stick and brought it down hard on de Seversky’s leg.

“You see,” he said cheerfully. “If you hit an ordinary man like that, he’d be in bed for five days!” With that he left his friend and limped into the corridor, where he collapsed in excruciating pain. It seems the young man had struck de Seversky on his good leg!

Today in the Word, October 29, 1992