1. God grades on the cross, not the curve.
2. Are you wrinkled with burden? Come on in for a
faith lift.
3. Don't wait for 6 strong men to take you to church.
4. A family altar can alter a family.
5. We don't change the message -- the message
changes us.
6. This Church is 'prayer-conditioned'.
7. When God ordains, He sustains.
8. Plan ahead -- it wasn't raining when Noah built the ark!
9. The perfect church -- for those who aren't!
10. Coincidence is when God chooses to remain
anonymous!
11. Wisdom has two parts: Having a lot to say and not
saying it.
12. Hem your day with prayer and it will be less apt to
unravel at the edges.
13. A clean conscience makes a soft pillow.
14. Nothing ruins the truth like stretching it.
15. He who is good at making excuses is seldom good
for anything else.
16. A fellow who says it can't be done is likely to be
interrupted by someone doing it.v
17. Kindness is difficult to give away because it keeps
coming back.
18. Worry is the darkroom in which "negatives" are
developed.
19. Give Satan an inch and he'll be a ruler.
20. Forbidden fruits create many jams.
21. Deciding not to choose is still making a choice.
22. God doesn't call the qualified, he qualifies the called.
23. Give God what's right, not what's left!
24. 'Pray' is a four-letter word that you can say anywhere.
--Weekend-Encounter, ACTS International.
Several times my daughter had telephoned to say, "Mother, you must come
see the daffodils before they are over." I wanted to go, but it was a
two-hour drive from Laguna to Lake Arrowhead. "I will come next Tuesday,
" I promised, a little reluctantly, on her third call.
Next Tuesday dawned cold and rainy. Still, I had promised, and so I drove
there. When I finally walked into Carolyn's house and hugged and greeted
my grandchildren. I said, "Forget the daffodils, Carolyn! The road is
invisible in the clouds and fog, and there is nothing in the world except
you and these children that I want to see bad enough to drive another
inch!"
My daughter smiled calmly," We drive in this all the time, Mother." "Well,
you won't get me back on the road until it clears - and then I'm heading
for home!", I assured her. "I was hoping you'd take me over to the garage
to pick up my car." "How far will we have to drive?" "Just a few blocks,"
Carolyn said, "I'll drive. I'm used to this."
After several minutes I had to ask, "Where are we going? This isn't the
way to the garage!" "We're going to my garage the long way," Carolyn
smiled," by way of the daffodils." "Carolyn," I said sternly, "please turn
around." "It's all right, Mother. I promise you will never forgive
yourself if you miss this experience." After about twenty minutes we
turned onto a small gravel road and I saw a small church. On the far side
of the church I saw a hand-lettered sign "Daffodil Garden." We got out of
the car and each took a child's hand, and I followed Carolyn down the
path. Then we turned a corner of the path, and I looked up and gasped.
Before me lay the most glorious sight. It looked as though someone had
taken a great vat of gold and poured it down over the mountain peak and
slopes. The flowers were planted in majestic, swirling patterns, great
ribbons and swaths of deep orange, white, lemon yellow, salmon pink,
saffron, and butter yellow. Each different-colored variety was planted as
a group so that it swirled and flowed like its own river with its own
unique hue. Five acres of flowers.
"But who has done this?" I asked Carolyn. "It's just one woman," Carolyn
answered. "She lives on the property. That's her home." Carolyn pointed to
a well-kept A-frame house that looked small and modest in the midst of all
that glory. We walked up to the house. On the patio we saw a poster:
"Answers to the Questions I Know You Are Asking" was the headline. The
first answer was a simple one: "50,000 bulbs," it read. The second answer
was, "One at a time, by one woman. "Two hands, two feet, and very little
brain." The third answer was, "Began in 1958."
There it was. The Daffodil Principle. For me that moment was a
life-changing experience. I thought of this woman whom I had never met,
who, more than thirty-five years before, had begun-one bulb at a time-to
bring her vision of beauty and joy to an obscure mountain top. Still, just
planting one bulb at a time, year after year, had changed the world. This
unknown woman had forever changed the world in which she lived. She had
created something of ineffable magnificence, beauty, and inspiration.
The principle her daffodil garden taught is one of the greatest principles
of celebration: learning to move toward our goals and desires one step at
a time--often just one baby-step at a time--learning to love the doing,
learning to use the accumulation of time. When we multiply tiny pieces of
time with small increments of daily effort, we too will find we can
accomplish magnificent things. We can change the world.
"It makes me sad in a way," I admitted to Carolyn. "What might I have
accomplished if I had thought of a wonderful goal thirty-five years ago
and had worked away at it 'one bulb at a time' through all those years.
Just think what I might have been able to achieve!"
My daughter summed up the message of the day in her direct way.
"Start now," she said.
--Author unknown.
A Fun, Faith 'n Funny Bone Feature 
