“A wise person does at once, what a fool does at last. Both do the same thing; only at different times.” – Baltasar Gracian
I’m Going to Have a Wife
At Sunday school they were teaching how God created everything, including human beings. Little Tommy, a child in the kindergarten class, seemed especially intent when they told him how Eve was created out of one of Adam’s ribs.
Later in the week his mother noticed him lying down as though he were ill, and asked, “Tommy, what’s the matter?” Little Tommy responded, “I have a pain in my side. I think I’m gonna have a wife.”
Refining Silver
Malachi 3:3 says: “He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.” This verse puzzled some women in a Bible study and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God. One of the women offered to find out the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible Study.
That week, the woman called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn’t mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining silver. As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up.
He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities. The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot; then she thought again about the verse that says: “He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver.”
She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined. The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed.
The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, “How do you know when the silver is fully refined?” He smiled at her and answered, “Oh, that’s easy – when I see my image in it.”
Thank God for the Optimists
“It takes mental toughness to be an optimist. Cynics and pessimists are cowards because they are eternally engaged in emotional self-preservation to the point of paranoia. They live in a state of fear and scarcity in an effort to over protect themselves from the challenges of life. Optimists await the same challenges in a mindset of love and abundance. Faith, gratitude, and vision are their watchwords. The optimist believes in his/her ability to handle anything that life delivers. They choose to focus on the sun and cope with the rain. Thank God for the optimists. They are the saviors of the world.” – Steve Siebold