A Prayer For My Son

Here’s a prayer written by Gen. Douglas MacArthur.

Build me a son, O Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak, and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid; one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble and gentle in victory.

Build me a son whose wishes will not take the place of deeds; a son who will know Thee — and that to know himself is the foundation stone of knowledge.

Lead him, I pray, not in the path of ease and comfort, but under the stress and spur of difficulties and challenge. Here let him learn to stand up in the storm; here let him learn compassion for those who fail.

Build me a son whose heart will be clear, whose goals will be high; a son who will master himself before he seeks to master other men; one who will reach into the future, yet never forget the past.

And after all these things are his, give him, I pray, enough of a sense of humor, so that he may always be serious, yet never take himself too seriously. Give him humility, so that he may always remember the simplicity of true greatness, the open mind of true wisdom, and the meekness of true strength.

Then I, his father, will dare to whisper, “I have not lived in vain.”

The "Coat Hanger". A story to bring you a smile ;-)

  A woman was at work when she received a phone call that her small daughter was very sick with a fever.  She left her work and stopped by the pharmacy to get some medication.  She got back to her car and found that she had locked her keys in the car.  She didn't know what to do, so she called home and told the baby sitter what had happened. 

The baby sitter told her that the fever was getting worse.  She said, "You might find a coat hanger and use that to open the door."  The woman looked around and found an old rusty coat hanger that had been left on the ground, possibly by someone else who at some time had locked their keys in their car.  She looked at the hanger and said, "I don't know how to use this."  She bowed her head and asked God to send her help.  

Within five minutes a beat up old motor cycle pulled up, with a dirty, greasy, bearded man who was wearing an old biker skull rag on his head.  The woman thought, "This is what you sent to help me?" But, she was desperate, so she was also very thankful. The man got off of his cycle and asked if he could help.  She said, "Yes, my daughter is very sick. I stopped to get her some medication and I locked my keys in my car. I must get home to her.. Please, can you use this hanger to unlock my car?"  He said, "Sure." He walked over to the car, and in less than a minute the car was opened.  

She hugged the man and through her tears she said, "Thank You So Much! You are a very nice man."  The man replied, "Lady, I am not a nice man. I just got out of prison today. I was in prison for car theft and have only been out for about an hour."  The woman hugged the man again and with sobbing tears cried out loud, "Oh, thank you God! You even sent me a Professional!!!" 

 

Is GOD  GOOD  or what?     

~DEATH~ WHAT A WONDERFUL WAY TO EXPLAIN IT...

A sick man turned to his doctor as he was preparing to  

Leave the examination room and said,  

'Doctor, I am afraid to die.  

Tell me what lies on the other side.'  

Very quietly, the doctor said, 'I don't know..'  

'You don't know?  You're, a Christian man,  

and don't know what's on the other side?'  

The doctor was holding the handle of the door;  

On the other side came a sound of scratching and whining,  

And as he opened the door, a dog sprang into the room  

And leaped on him with an eager show of gladness.  

Turning to the patient, the doctor said,  

'Did you notice my dog?  

He's never been in this room before.  

He didn't know what was inside.  

He knew nothing except that his master was here,  

And when the door opened, he sprang in without fear.  

I know little of what is on the other side of death,  

But I do know one thing...  

I know my Master is there and that is enough.'  

ERB Steam Surveys And Solutions: Steam Trap Services...More than just Surveying

ERB Steam Surveys And Solutions: Steam Trap Services...More than just Surveying

Prayer Group: Prayers for Dale Malone...ARE helping

Prayer Group: Prayers for Dale Malone...ARE helping: "Rick: My brother Dale continues to stay on the green side of the grass and I have no doubt that the Lord is keeping him around for a specif..."

Prayers for Dale Malone...ARE helping

Rick:

My brother Dale continues to stay on the green side of the grass and I have no doubt that the Lord is keeping him around for a specific purpose.  Every time I receive a request from you for prayer, it reminds me how blessed we all are.  

Reagan  

Beth's Tumor has returned...please pray

 

Will you put somebody on your prayer list for me? Our good friend Beth - the one Stef ran the marathon for back in 2003 has had her tumor start to grow again. If you remember, they lived up the street and just moved to Wisconsin last May. They moved there so that Beth was closer to her parents and sisters. It's just so sad, you know?

Did you sit with God today? Bet you did...

A little boy wanted to meet God. He knew it was a long trip to where God lived, so he packed his suitcase with a bag of potato chips and a six-pack of root beer and started his journey. 

When he had gone about three blocks, he met an old woman. She was sitting in the park, just staring at some pigeons. The boy sat down next to her and opened his suitcase. He was about to take a drink from his root beer when he noticed that the old lady looked hungry, so he offered her some chips. She gratefully accepted it and smiled at him. 

Her smile was so pretty that the boy wanted to see it again, so he offered her a root beer. Again, she smiled at him. The boy was delighted! They sat there all afternoon eating and smiling, but they never said a word. 

As twilight approached, the boy realized how tired he was and he got up to leave; but before he had gone more than a few steps, he turned around, ran back to the old woman, and gave her a hug. She gave him her biggest smile ever. 

When the boy opened the door to his own house a short time later, his mother was surprised by the look of joy on his face. She asked him, "'What did you do today that made you so happy?'" He replied, "I had lunch with God." But before his mother could respond, he added, "'You know what? She's got the most beautiful smile I've ever seen!"' 

Meanwhile, the old woman, also radiant with joy, returned to her home. Her son was stunned by the look of peace on her face and he asked, "Mother, what did you do today that made you so happy?'" She replied!"  "I ate potato chips in the park with God.'" However, before her son responded, she added, "'You know, he's much younger than I expected.'" 

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around. People come into our lives for a reason, a season, or a lifetime! Embrace all equally! 

Have lunch with God.......bring chips. Send this to people who have touched your life in a special way. Let them know how important they are. I did!!!! 

God still sits on the throne. You may be going through a tough time right now but God is getting ready to bless you in a way that only He can. Keep the faith.  

Please pass this on. This prayer is powerful, and prayer is one of the best gifts we receive. There is no cost but a lot of rewards. Let's continue to pray for one another. 

Here is the prayer: 

Father, I ask You to bless my friends, relatives and e-mail buddies reading this right now. Show them a new revelation of Your love and power. Holy Spirit, I ask You to minister to their spirit at this very moment. Where there is pain, give them Your peace and mercy. Where there is self-doubt, release a renewed confidence through Your grace. Bless their homes, families, finances, their goings and their comings. In Jesus' precious name, Amen. 

Hunter Danielle, 11 years old...bone cancer

Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2011 16:50:40 -0800
From: galloway.troy@yahoo.com
Subject: Prayer request
To:

Please pray for Hunter Danielle. She is 11 years old and has bone cancer. Please pass this request on to your friends and prayer chains

Carl...the Gardener

Carl was a quiet man. He didn't talk much. He would always greet you with a big smile and a firm handshake. 

Even after living in our neighborhood for over 50 years, no one could really say they knew him very well. 

Before his retirement, he took the bus to work each morning. The lone sight of him walking down the street often worried us. 

He had a slight limp from a bullet wound received in  WWII . 

Watching him, we worried that although he had survived WWII, he may not make it through our changing uptown neighborhood with its ever-increasing random violence, gangs, and drug activity. 

When he saw the flyer at our local church asking for volunteers for caring for the gardens behind the minister's residence, he responded in his characteristically unassuming manner. Without fanfare, he just signed up. 

He was well into his 87th year when the very thing we had always feared finally happened. 

He was just finishing his watering for the day when three gang members approached him.

Ignoring their attempt to intimidate him, he simply asked, "Would you like a drink from the hose?" 

The tallest and toughest-looking of the three said, "Yeah, sure," with a malevolent little smile. 

As Carl offered the hose to him, the other two grabbed Carl's arm, throwing him down.

As the hose snaked crazily over the ground, dousing everything in its way, Carl's assailants stole his retirement watch and his wallet, and then fled. 

Carl tried to get himself up, but he had been thrown down on his bad leg. He lay there trying to gather himself as the minister came running to help him. 

Although the minister had witnessed the attack from his window, he couldn't get there fast enough to stop it. 

"Carl, are you okay? Are you hurt?" the minister kept asking as he helped Carl to his feet. 

Carl just passed a hand over his brow and sighed, shaking his head. "Just some punk kids. I hope they'll wise-up someday." 

His wet clothes clung to his slight frame as he bent to pick up the hose. He adjusted the nozzle again and started to water. 

Confused and a little concerned, the minister asked, "Carl, what are you doing?"

"I've got to finish my watering. It's been very dry lately," came the calm reply. 

Satisfying himself that Carl really was all right, the minister could only marvel. Carl was a man from a different time and place. 

A few weeks later the three returned. Just as before their threat was unchallenged.

Carl again offered them a drink from his hose.

This time they didn't rob him. They wrenched the hose from his hand and drenched him head to foot in the icy water. 

When they had finished their humiliation of him, they sauntered off down the street, throwing catcalls and curses, falling over one another laughing at the hilarity of what they had just done. 

Carl just watched them. Then he turned toward the warmth giving sun, picked up his hose, and went on with his watering.

The summer was quickly fading into fall. Carl was doing some tilling when he was startled by the sudden approach of someone behind him. He stumbled and fell into some evergreen branches. 

As he struggled to regain his footing, he turned to see the tall leader of his summer tormentors reaching down for him. He braced himself for the expected attack. 

"Don't worry old man, I'm not gonna hurt you this time." 

The young man spoke softly, still offering the tattooed and scarred hand to Carl. As he helped Carl get up, the man pulled a crumpled bag from his pocket and handed it to Carl. 

"What's this?" Carl asked. "It's your stuff," the man explained. "It's your stuff back.

Even the money in your wallet." "I don't understand," Carl said. "Why would you help me now?" 

The man shifted his feet, seeming embarrassed and ill at ease. "I learned something from you," he said. "I ran with that gang and hurt people like you. We picked you because you were old and we knew we could do it But every time we came and did something to you, instead of yelling and fighting back, you tried to give us a drink. You didn't hate us for hating you. You kept showing love against our hate." 

He stopped for a moment. "I couldn't sleep after we stole your stuff, so here it is back." 

He paused for another awkward moment, not knowing what more there was to say. "That bag's my way of saying thanks for straightening me out, I guess." And with that, he walked off down the street. 

Carl looked down at the sack in his hands and gingerly opened it. He took out his retirement watch and put it back on his wrist. Opening his wallet, he checked for his wedding photo. He gazed for a moment at the young bride that still smiled back at him from all those years ago. 

He died one cold day after Christmas that winter. Many people attended his funeral in spite of the weather. 

In particular the minister noticed a tall young man that he didn't know sitting quietly in a distant corner of the church. 

The minister spoke of Carl's garden as a lesson in life. 

In a voice made thick with unshed tears, he said, "Do your best and make your garden as beautiful as you can. We will never forget Carl and his garden." 

The following spring another flyer went up. It read: "Person needed to care for Carl's garden." 

The flyer went unnoticed by the busy parishioners until one day when a knock was heard at the minister's office door. 

Opening the door, the minister saw a pair of scarred and tattooed hands holding the flyer. "I believe this is my job, if you'll have me," the young man said. 

The minister recognized him as the same young man who had returned the stolen watch and wallet to Carl. 

He knew that Carl's kindness had turned this man's life around. As the minister handed him the keys to the garden shed, he said, "Yes, go take care of Carl's garden and honor him." 

The man went to work and, over the next several years, he tended the flowers and vegetables just as Carl had done.

During that time, he went to college, got married, and became a prominent member of the community. But he never forgot his promise to Carl's memory and kept the garden as beautiful as he thought Carl would have kept it. 

One day he approached the new minister and told him that he couldn't care for the garden any longer. He explained with a shy and happy smile, "My wife just had a baby boy last night, and she's bringing him home  on Saturday .." 

"Well, congratulations!" said the minister, as he was handed the garden shed keys. "That's wonderful! What's the baby's name?" 

"Carl," he replied.. 

Sylvia's Requests...van bibber update

Hello everyone........thank you for storming heaven for David VanBibber - Nina just sent this update - God is good.....please keep praying!  

Hi Sylvia,

This just came through this morning.

Nina

For all of you prayer warriors out there: The Lord heard our prayers and bumped up the appt to see Dr. Wolin a whole week (1/18). I was discouraged at first to think, "only a week" but then I remembered that every good thing comes from above and not to grumble or complain. They have started working on the authorization for the treatment and I have an appt scheduled with Dr. Sundaram on Fri 1/21. My prayer is that this is the last wrap up appointment with my primaryOncologist to iron out all of the details for the treatment. Just so you know that my account hasn't been hacked I attached what the Lord has been bringing to me from Psalm 119 about preserving my life: 3 times its according to your Word, 2 times for Righteousness, 2 promises and 2 laws/precepts. I then came to the reality that it had nothing to do with me and everything to do with His will and his plan for all of this. Psalm 119:25 I am laid low in the dust; preserve my life according to your word. Psalm 119:37 Turn my eyes away from worthless things; preserve my life according to your word. Psalm 119:40 How I long for your precepts! In your righteousness preserve my life. Psalm 119:50 My comfort in my suffering is this: Your promise preserves my life. Psalm 119:88 In your unfailing love preserve my life, that I may obey the statutes of your mouth. Psalm 119:93 I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have preserved my life. Psalm 119:107 I have suffered much; preserve my life, LORD, according to your word. Psalm 119:149 Hear my voice in accordance with your love; preserve my life, LORD, according to your laws. Psalm 119:154 Defend my cause and redeem me; preserve my life according to your promise. Psalm 119:156 Your compassion, LORD, is great; preserve my life according to your laws. Psalm 119:159 See how I love your precepts; preserve my life, LORD, in accordance with your love. Psalm 143:11 For your name’s sake, LORD, preserve my life; in your righteousness, bring me out of trouble. With all love,David Van Bibber

---

Visit our community site: Van Bibber Family Helping Hands

Hi Syl,

    Please say a prayer for Katie.  She was in Brooklyn last nightand fell  on black ice.  She went to LVH today she fractured her elbow.  She need to see an Ortho doc tomorrow.please pray we get a appt early am.  She has a 2pm flight out of Philly for a weeklong Arbonne convention in Vegas.  Please pray for safe travel for both of us.  We are on diff flights and diff airlines.

Betty

****************************************************************************************************************

To Ann Brown, or Nina - In my prayers this morning, David VanBibber and his family came so strongly to  my heart - can you send an update?  I ask our warriors to continue to lift the VanBibber family in prayer - Ann lived with the VanBibber's when she first moved to San Diego - David was recently dx with cancer and they were awaiting test results to see where the primary site was.   Thank you.

The story of Tim and the Deacon

His name is Tim. He has wild hair, wears a T-shirt with holes in it, jeans,
and no shoes. This was literally his wardrobe for his entire four years of
college.

He is brilliant. Kind of profound and very, very bright. He became a
Christian while attending college.

Across the street from the campus is a well-dressed, very conservative
church. They want to develop a ministry to the students but are not sure how
to go about it.

One day Tim decides to go there. He walks in with no shoes, jeans, his
T-shirt, and wild hair. The service has already started and so Tim   starts
down the aisle looking for a seat.

The church is completely packed and he can't find a seat. By now, people are
really looking a bit uncomfortable, but no one says anything.

Tim gets closer and closer and closer to the pulpit, and when he realizes
there are no seats, he just squats down right on the carpet.

By now the people are really uptight, and the tension in the air is thick.

About this time, the minister realizes that from way at the back of the
church, a deacon is slowly making his way toward Tim.

Now the deacon is in his eighties, has silver-gray hair, and a three-piece
suit. A godly man, very elegant, very dignified, very courtly. He walks with
a cane and, as he starts walking toward this boy, everyone is saying to
themselves that you can't blame him for what he's going to do.

How can you expect a man of his age and of his background to understand
some college kid on the floor?

It takes a long time for the man to reach the boy.

The church is utterly silent except for the clicking of the man's cane. All
eyes are focused on him. You can't even hear anyone breathing. The minister
can't even preach the sermon until the deacon does what he has to do.

And now they see this elderly man drop his cane on the floor. With great
difficulty, he lowers himself and sits down next to Tim and worships with
him so he won't be alone.

Everyone chokes up with emotion...

When the minister gains control, he says,

'What I'm about to preach, you will never remember. What you have just
seen, you will never forget.'

'Be careful how you live. You may be the only Bible some people will ever
read!'


I asked the Lord to bless you
As I prayed for you today.
To guide you and protect you
As you go along your way....
His love is always with you,
His promises are true,
And when we give Him all our cares,
You know He will see us through.