Jenny was a bright-eyed, pretty five-year-old girl.
One day when she and her mother were checking out at
the grocery store, Jenny saw a plastic pearl necklace
priced at $2.50. How she wanted that necklace, and
when she asked her mother if she would buy it for her,
her mother said, "Well, it is a pretty necklace, but
it costs an awful lot of money. I'll tell you what.
I'll buy you the necklace, and when we get home we can
make up a list of chores that you can do to pay for
the necklace. And don't forget that for your birthday
grandma just might give you a whole dollar bill, too.
Okay?"
Jenny agreed, and her mother bought the pearl necklace
for her. Jenny worked on her chores very hard every
day, and sure enough, her grandma gave her a brand new
dollar bill for her birthday. Soon Jenny had paid
off the pearls. How Jenny loved those pearls. She
wore them everywhere-to kindergarten, bed and when she
went out with her mother to run errands. The only time
she didn't wear them was in the shower-her mother had
told her that they would turn her neck green!
Now Jenny had a very loving daddy. When Jenny
went to bed, he would get up from his favorite chair
every night and read Jenny her favorite story. One
night when he finished the story, he said, "Jenny, do
you love me?"
"Oh yes, Daddy, you know I love you," the little
girl said.
"Well, then, give me your pearls."
"Oh! Daddy, not my pearls!" Jenny said. "But you
can have Rosie, my favorite doll. Remember her? You
gave her to me last year for my birthday. And you
can have her tea party outfit, too. Okay?"
"Oh no, darling, that's okay." Her father
brushed her cheek with a kiss. "Good night, little
one."
A week later, her father once again asked Jenny
after her story, "Do you love me?"
"Oh yes, Daddy, you know I love you."
"Well, then, give me your pearls."
"Oh, Daddy, not my pearls! But you can have
Ribbons, my toy horse. Do you remember her? She's my
favorite. Her hair is so soft, and you can play with
it and braid it and everything. You can have Ribbons
if you want her, Daddy," the little girl said to her
father.
"No, that's okay," her father said and brushed her
cheek again with a kiss. "God bless you, little one.
Sweet dreams."
Several days later, when Jenny's father came in
to read her a story, Jenny was sitting on her bed and
her lip was trembling. "Here, Daddy," she said, and
held out her hand. She opened it and her beloved pearl
necklace was inside. She let it slip into her father's
hand.
With one hand her father held the plastic pearls
and with the other he pulled out of his pocket a blue
velvet box. Inside of the box were real, genuine,
beautiful pearls. He had had them all along. He was
waiting for Jenny to give up the cheap stuff so he
could give her the real thing. So it is with our
Heavenly Father. He is waiting for us to give up the
cheap things in our lives so he can give us beautiful
treasure. Isn't God good?
You can do two things with this story:
a) You can pass it on and let others be touched
by its message
b) You can throw it away and not let it touch
your heart
I recommend option A.
(i did not write this nor do i take credit for it i was sent this through email and wanted to share it with my friends that visit my site.)
|
THE HAND
My daughter, Kathleen, was 15... too young to
seriously date but she had a
boyfriend. One evening, when I was leaving
to pick
up my son, Paul, from
baseball practice, she asked if she could
just go
with her boyfriend to
pick up his little brother at a friend's
house. She
said they would come
right back. I said, "All right, just make
sure you
wear your seat belt, and come right home."
It was my father's birthday and my youngest
daughter, Therese, was already at my father's
house
waiting for us to come over with the cake I
had yet
to pick up at the store. I left to pick Paul
up at
school, but decided to take the highway,
rather than
the shortcut along the back road.
After leaving the school, Paul and I ran in
the
store for the cake and some last minute
goodies. As
we were getting into the car, we heard and
saw
paramedics, fire trucks, three ambulances and
of
course a multitude of police cars.
I got a sick feeling in my stomach and said
to Paul,
"Somebody needs our
prayers, quick." I wondered if there was a
fire or
a bad car accident.
At one of the intersections I had to stop to
let
more emergency vehicles through, and prayed,
"Lord,
those people need you right now, go
to them and place your protective hand over
them."
We stopped at my
parents to drop off the food, before going
home to
pick up Kathleen, but
my father met me at the car and told us to
postpone
the party because
Therese had fallen asleep. "Which way did
you go to
the school?" he
asked, "Because there was a bad accident on
the back
road, I heard
someone was killed. It happened just about
the time
you had to pick up Paul at the school and I
know you
always go that way. I was so happy to see
you pull
in, I had a gut feeling it was you."
As Paul and I drove the short distance home,
I could
see our house was
dark and when Kathleen is home alone, she
always
burned every light. As
turned off the ignition, tears fell, "It was
Kathleen," I told Paul, "I know it."
I ran in the house and checked our answering
machine, no one had called.
I breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that
someone
would have called by
now. "Paranoid," that's what Kathleen always
called
me, and that's what
I was telling myself, "Your just paranoid!"
Then,
the phone rang. It was her friend's mother,
who
worked in the emergency room of our local
hospital.
She only told me that the three of them were
in an
accident and were being transported to the
hospital.
I didn't call my husband at work, nor my
parents.
Paul and I just left for the hospital. As I
pulled
into the parking lot, one of
the paramedics, someone we have known for
years, met
us at our car.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," he said with tears
streaming down his face. The next thing I
remember
after was talking to the doctor in the
hallway of
the ER. He asked me if I believed in God,
and with
that my knees gave way. "No," he said, "you
don't
understand, do you believe in divine
intervention?"
I stammered, a weak, "Yes." Not having a
clue what
he
was talking about. He smiled at me and asked,
"Do
you know what shirt your daughter is wearing,
tonight?" Nodding no, he told me to go down
the
hall and look.
"Your daughter is blessed with angels and so
are
you. From what the
emergency personnel told me, there is no way
that
your daughter should be
alive, let alone only have a few scratches."
Kathleen was laying on a cart, waiting for
more
x-rays. When I got to her, we both sobbed.
As I
was hugging her I had the urge to check her
shirt,
unzipping her jacket. I read the words,
"Jesus
Saves." I knew then, what the doctor had
meant. All
three were treated and released.
On the way home that night, Kathleen told
this
story: "It was really weird, about a quarter
of a
mile before the accident, I said, 'Wait, we
forgot
to put our seat belts on, my Mother will kill
me.'
Then a car was coming towards us in our lane,
he
swerved, and I knew we got hit on the
passenger side
of the car, where I was sitting. We got hit
a total
of three times because the car kept spinning
in a
circle. I felt his little brother's hand on
my
shoulder, holding me tightly in place. "But
Mom,
after it was all over, I could still feel the
hand
on my shoulder. I looked and his little
brother had
flown out the back window of the car, as we
later
found out, on the first spin. "It was an
angel,
Mom, I know it!" I knew it too, especially
when we
went the next day to look at the car, it had
been
split in half, right underneath my daughter's
seat.
The driver of the other car, witnesses said,
was
traveling 90-95 miles per hour and the point
of
impact at that speed was directly at
Kathleen's
door.
The police report stated that the car door
was found
fifty feet away from
the accident scene, with the seat belt
attached. So
when the door broke
loose, "the hand" was the only thing that
saved my
daughter's life. The Lord, knew, long before
I did
that my child was in trouble, and I will
always
praise Him for saving her life and restoring
mine.
I have been meaning to write this story for
the past
couple years. Kathleen just turned 21. While
I was
writing this I smiled and cried, but it's all
true.
Father, I ask you to bless my friend reading
this
right now! Lord, 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 & mercy. Where
there is
self-doubting, release a renewed confidence
in Your
ability to work through them. Where there is
tiredness, or exhaustion, I ask You to give
them
understanding, patience, & strength as they
learn
submission to Your leading. Where there is
spiritual stagnation, I ask You to renew them
by
revealing Your nearness, and by drawing them
into
greater intimacy with You. Where there is
fear,
reveal Your love, and release to
them Your courage. Where there is a sin
blocking
them, reveal it, and reak
its hold over my friend's life. Bless their
finances, give them greater vision, and raise
up
leaders, and friends to support, and
encourage them.
Give each of them discernment to recognize
the
demonic forces around them,
and reveal to them the power they have in You
to
defeat it. I ask You to do these things in
Jesus'
name! In Christian love,
............................
Passing this on to anyone you consider a
friend, as
I have done here, will
bless you both. Passing this on to one not
considered a friend is something I know
Christ would
do. Be Blessed....................
===== |
|
