Blessed

My oldest girl is 5, a very impressionable age. I think sometimes I worry too much about how to "properly" teach her things, especially about God, how to pray and the like.

Today we were "racing" each other. She loves to race and today we were racing to see who could clean a room the fastest. Really, in this case, "cleaning" is a relative term used to describe the actual act of picking up toys and clothes off the floor. She wanted to clean the TV room and she directed me to clean her room. She's a genius, I tell ya.

So, just as we were beginning our race, I ran and my pinky toe caught the corner of the baby gate. Man, did it hurt! She asked what was wrong and I told her I cracked my toe, saying that because my toe actually did pop, just as fingers crack when you squeeze them the right way.

As soon as those words left my mouth, I regretted my choice of "cracked" because that's how she describes my dad's amputated toes. When she first saw them (well after the surgery... a year or two maybe) she asked what made his toes crack off.

My girl immediately ran to her bed and prayed for her Mommy's toes. I hadn't even asked her to pray for me, but she sprang into action. Her prayer was quick and urgent.

What made me giggle was when she said, "God, please touch her and if it still hurts, touch her again."

She doesn't really need to be taught, does she? At 5, she understands prayer, urgent prayer (praying right then and there) and that sometimes, we've just got to keep praying until it's better. Those are lessons we could all learn again and again.

Only time for this, then I'm off for more pricing...

COFFEE … AND THE CUP YOU DRINK IT FROM

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.

Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said, “If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups. And then you began eyeing each other’s cups.

“Now consider this: Life is the coffee; the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of life we live. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee God has provided us.”

Remember: God brews the coffee, not the cups. So, enjoy your coffee!

The happiest people don’t have the best of everything; they just make the best of everything.

Therefore … (1) Live simply. (2) Love generously. (3) Care deeply. (4) Speak kindly. (5) Believe firmly. (6) Trust completely in the perfect providence of God … because all belongs to Him, including you and me.