KIM PECKHAM

Cover design by Gerald Lee Monks

Cover design resources taken from the public domain
Ellen White Illustration by Marcus Mashburn
Inside design by Aaron Troia

Copyright © 2018 by Pacific Press® Publishing Association

Printed in the United States of America
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book.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Peckham, Kim, 1958- author.
Title: The sensational quotational devotional : youthful devotionals found in famous, funny, and
inspiring quotes / Kim Peckham.
Description: Nampa : Pacific Press Publishing Association, 2018.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018021801 | ISBN 9780816364107 (pbk. : alk. paper; June 2018) | ISBN
9780816364114 (ebook; Version 1.0)
Subjects: LCSH: Christian children—Prayers and devotions—Juvenile literature. | Devotional
calendars—Juvenile literature. | Quotations—Juvenile literature.
Classification: LCC BV4870 .P39 2018 | DDC 242/.62—dc23 LC record available at
https://lccn.loc.gov/2018021801
Also by Kim Peckham
Stop Laughing: I’m Trying to Make a Point
 Dedication

To my father, who loved Jesus and who read from

the devotional book at our family breakfast table.
To my wife, Lori, who contributed some of the real
gems among these daily readings.
 Contents

Acknowledgments

January
January 1
January 2
January 3
January 4
January 5
January 6
January 7
January 8
January 9
January 10
January 11
January 12
January 13
January 14
January 15
January 16
January 17
January 18
January 19
January 20
 January 21
January 22
January 23
January 24
January 25
January 26
January 27
January 28
January 29
January 30
January 31

February
February 1
February 2
February 3
February 4
February 5
February 6
February 7
February 8
February 9
February 10
February 11
February 12
February 13
February 14
February 15
February 16
February 17
February 18
 February 19
February 20
February 21
February 22
February 23
February 24
February 25
February 26
February 27
February 28

March
March 1
March 2
March 3
March 4
March 5
March 6
March 7
March 8
March 9
March 10
March 11
March 12
March 13
March 14
March 15
March 16
March 17
March 18
March 19
 March 20
March 21
March 22
March 23
March 24
March 25
March 26
March 27
March 28
March 29
March 30
March 31

April
April 1
April 2
April 3
April 4
April 5
April 6
April 7
April 8
April 9
April 10
April 11
April 12
April 13
April 14
April 15
April 16
April 17
 April 18
April 19
April 20
April 21
April 22
April 23
April 24
April 25
April 26
April 27
April 28
April 29
April 30

May
May 1
May 2
May 3
May 4
May 5
May 6
May 7
May 8
May 9
May 10
May 11
May 12
May 13
May 14
May 15
May 16
 May 17
May 18
May 19
May 20
May 21
May 22
May 23
May 24
May 25
May 26
May 27
May 28
May 29
May 30
May 31

June
June 1
June 2
June 3
June 4
June 5
June 6
June 7
June 8
June 9
June 10
June 11
June 12
June 13
June 14
 June 15
June 16
June 17
June 18
June 19
June 20
June 21
June 22
June 23
June 24
June 25
June 26
June 27
June 28
June 29
June 30

July
July 1
July 2
July 3
July 4
July 5
July 6
July 7
July 8
July 9
July 10
July 11
July 12
July 13
 July 14
July 15
July 16
July 17
July 18
July 19
July 20
July 21
July 22
July 23
July 24
July 25
July 26
July 27
July 28
July 29
July 30
July 31

August
August 1
August 2
August 3
August 4
August 5
August 6
August 7
August 8
August 9
August 10
August 11
 August 12
August 13
August 14
August 15
August 16
August 17
August 18
August 19
August 20
August 21
August 22
August 23
August 24
August 25
August 26
August 27
August 28
August 29
August 30
August 31

September
September 1
September 2
September 3
September 4
September 5
September 6
September 7
September 8
September 9
 September 10
September 11
September 12
September 13
September 14
September 15
September 16
September 17
September 18
September 19
September 20
September 21
September 22
September 23
September 24
September 25
September 26
September 27
September 28
September 29
September 30

October
October 1
October 2
October 3
October 4
October 5
October 6
October 7
October 8
 October 9
October 10
October 11
October 12
October 13
October 14
October 15
October 16
October 17
October 18
October 19
October 20
October 21
October 22
October 23
October 24
October 25
October 26
October 27
October 28
October 29
October 30
October 31

November
November 1
November 2
November 3
November 4
November 5
November 6
 November 7
November 8
November 9
November 10
November 11
November 12
November 13
November 14
November 15
November 16
November 17
November 18
November 19
November 20
November 21
November 22
November 23
November 24
November 25
November 26
November 27
November 28
November 29
November 30

December
December 1
December 2
December 3
December 4
December 5
December 6
December 7
December 8
December 9
December 10
December 11
December 12
December 13
December 14
December 15
December 16
December 17
December 18
December 19
December 20
December 21
December 22
December 23
December 24
December 25
December 26
December 27
December 28
December 29
December 30
December 31
 Acknowledgments

Thank you to my family, my friends, my acquaintances, and even strangers

for sharing their stories with me. All of the tales in this devotional really
happened, but as you might guess, some names have been changed.
 January 1

I don’t know what the future may hold,

but I know who holds the future.
—Ralph Abernathy

T
he trouble with being a human is that you can’t predict the future. I
mean, we all knew you were going to be late to breakfast. But
beyond that, we just can’t see what’s coming next on this big planet.
Nobody tries harder to figure it out than science fiction writers; but their
ideas never make it to reality. Laser guns. I haven’t seen one of those
lately. Rocket trips to a base on the moon. Nope. Flying cars. Ha! Talking
robots that help with the chores. I wish!
Even when people are looking right at an object from the future, they
can’t recognize it. Darryl Zanuck, former head of Twentieth Century Fox,
was not impressed when he saw the first television set. “It won’t be able to
hold on to any market,” he declared. “People will soon get tired of staring
at a plywood box every night.”
Back in 1977, when only universities and businesses could afford
computers, the president of the Digital Equipment Corporation declared,
“There is no reason for any individuals to have a computer in their home.”
Boy, was he wrong. Not only do we have computers in our homes today—
we have them in our pockets!
So what will this New Year hold for you? You’ll go to school, eat
snacks, and probably lose a sock from your favorite pair. But beyond that,
you have no idea. Will good things come your way? Or will one of those
bad things that your mother is always worrying about finally happen?
Well, I hope not.
The best way to face the future is not to guess at what will happen but to
trust God to guide you through it. He can see what is coming next in your
life, and He already has a plan for making it awesome. Of course, it would
be more awesome with robots that can wash the dishes, but I’m not
holding my breath.

—Kim

“For we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7).

 January 2

Once bitten, twice shy.

—Traditional

J
ohnny would have been a wonderful computer geek, except that he
was born before computers. So when his geekish tendencies needed
an outlet, he focused on telephones. They had telephones in cities back
then, but they hadn’t come out to the little Arkansas community where he
lived. I don’t know how the teenager got his hands on a telephone, but he
did, and it didn’t take long for him to figure it out.
Then he thought, Why not set up my own telephone company? He ran
wires down fence rows and through trees to homes in the little farming
community of Bonnerdale, Arkansas. He charged fifty cents a month for
his service. It was a party line, which meant everyone could hear everyone
else. The number of rings told which home was being called.
But telephone company president wasn’t Johnny’s only job. He also had
to help with the family garden. It was a big garden, and Johnny hitched up
the mule to the plow and followed it from one end of the garden to the
other. Like I said, it was a big garden, and the mule was slow. Terribly
slow. Johnny couldn’t stand it.
Then he got an idea. The old phones he used in his network had a crank
generator to make the electrical voltage necessary to ring the receiving
phone. He got a generator and attached it to the plow. Then he took two
wires and wrapped them around the mule’s tail.
He lined up the plow and shouted “Go, Nellie,” giving the generator a
good crank. Shocked by a jolt of electricity, the mule took off at a gallop.
Chunks of earth flew up in the air from the plow. This is great, thought
Johnny. But after that one quick trip across the garden, that mule would
never pull for Johnny again.
Sometimes when we’re not getting what we want, we might be tempted
to say stinging words to friends or family. Pray that you never do. Because
once bitten by our sharp remarks, people may be twice shy about trusting
us ever again.

—Kim

“The words of the reckless pierce like swords, but the tongue of the wise
brings healing” (Proverbs 12:18, NIV).
 January 3

Early to bed, early to rise, makes a

man healthy, wealthy, and wise.
—Benjamin Franklin

A
n object at rest tends to stay at rest. This law of physics was
discovered by Sir Isaac Newton while trying to get a teenager out of
bed and off to school.
I sympathize more with the teenager than with Sir Isaac. I don’t greet
the morning with any great eagerness myself. The struggle to get up turns
into kind of a hostage situation.
Brain: “Throw down the covers and come out with your eyelids up.”
Body: “Ha! No one is going anywhere until you meet my demands.”
Brain: “Be reasonable. It’s time for work.”
Body: “Here’s my first demand: An alarm clock with a forty-minute
snooze button.”
Brain: “If you don’t get moving soon, you’ll be in for a career change
that involves holding a cardboard sign at busy intersections.”
Body: “You don’t scare me! I’m staying with the Posturepedic.”
I feel guilty about sleeping late, because my ancestors would be
appalled by the very idea. They operated under the firm conviction that the
best time to milk cows was at four in the morning—an opinion that
probably didn’t receive any input from the cows.
If your mom or dad helps you get up in the morning, you should be
grateful. Did you know that getting people up used to be a paid job? That’s
right. Back in the days before cheap alarm clocks, people would pay
“knockers up” to help awaken them in time to go to work. For a few cents
a week, the knocker up would come by every morning and rap on the door
with a stick. They also used long poles so that they could tap on the
bedroom window of their client without disturbing others in the house.
They would keep scratching on the window until they saw signs of life.
Jesus liked to wake up early to spend time in prayer. He didn’t need
someone to drag Him out of bed because He wanted to talk with His
heavenly Father. It’s like Christmas morning—it’s easy to get out of bed
when there’s something to look forward to.

—Kim

“Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He

went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed” (Mark
1:35).
 January 4

He who has overcome his fears will truly be free.

—Aristotle

D
oes your mom worry a lot? You might find yourself reassuring her
with words such as: “Don’t worry, Mom. It doesn’t look like a
poisonous snake.” Or “Don’t worry, Mom. It’s been several weeks since
anyone fell out of this roller coaster.”
We want to urge mothers to relax, because when they’re nervous, we’re
nervous. Especially when they make a certain noise called “the gasp.”
My wife often chooses to use the gasp when we’re driving peacefully
down the road. There is something about that sound that shoots a quart of
adrenaline into my bloodstream and causes me to veer into the oncoming
traffic, figuring that death from collision is preferable to whatever terror
brought forth that sound.
“What is it?” I shriek in panic. “What is it?”
She will turn to me, eyes wide with horror. “I forgot to send a birthday
card to Aunt Elsie.”
This brings me to a problem with both the gasp and the scream. They
convey no useful information. For example, the same scream can mean
either “A strange man is coming at me with a butcher knife!” or “The cat
is eating my breakfast cereal!”
Men don’t scream. Which is why I prefer a male captain when I’m on
an airliner. No one wants to be on a transcontinental flight and hear, “This
is your captain speaking . . . Aaeeeeeee!”
Men will give you the facts with cool composure. “This is your captain
speaking. Due to mechanical problems, we will be crashing south of
Omaha. This means you will be awarded only half the frequent flyer miles
that you expected for this flight.”
Actually, both men and moms probably worry too much. Men worry
about their job, politics, and getting a ding on their new car. Women worry
about child kidnappers, germs, serial murderers, germs, children running
with sharp sticks, and germs.
While it’s completely natural to worry, I think God takes it as a
compliment when we don’t—when we trust Him so completely that our
worries drain away and we’re left with perfect peace.
Consider the lilies—how they never fret. Nor gasp.

—Kim

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry

about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (Matthew
6:34).
 January 5

Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.

—Publius Syrus

O
ne of my friends is a pro at sending intriguing texts that leave me
hanging. They hint at great personal drama, but give me no details.
Here are some actual ones he’s sent me:
“This is so wrong.”
“Avoid town at all costs today.”
“I’m in urgent care. The boss sent me.”
“Got an update n it’s not good.”
“Guess what.”
“Not a happy camper.”
“I’m at the doctor’s office. I really did it this time.”
Almost always, I beg for more information. And usually the answer is
. . . well, disappointing.
For instance, when I asked “What’s wrong?” after reading his text “This
is so wrong,” he explained, “Got called in to work on my day off.”
After his “Guess what” and my “What?” he responded, “I’m switching
phones n numbers tonight just heads up.”
“Wow, he really overreacts,” I’ve mumbled to myself numerous times.
Even the trip to urgent care turned out to be for a sliced finger that didn’t
even need stitches.
But on a recent vacation, all of us in my family found ourselves
panicking over minor things that went wrong: a delayed plane, a
“vegetarian” soup that contained hunks of meat, a break in cell phone
service. Once we recognized what we were doing, we began to joke about
it, saying, “Almost lost my cool!”
Talk about cool . . . Jesus had that down. Even while hanging on the
cross, He forgave His killers, arranged for the care of His mother,
promised eternal life to a repentant sinner, and submitted His own life to
God. Only one time did He show panic: when He felt separation from His
heavenly Father and cried, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken
Me?” (Mark 15:34).
And that’s the only condition that should cause us to lose our cool.
Separation from God is indeed a reason to text “This is so wrong.”

—Lori

“He brings them out of their distresses. He calms the storm, so that its
waves are still” (Psalm 107:28, 29).
 January 6

It’s not the size of the dog in the fight;

it’s the size of the fight in the dog.
—Mark Twain

W
hen a woman called 911 in Greenfield, Wisconsin, the
conversation went like this:
Dispatch: “Greenfield Police Department. How may I help you?”
Caller: “Hi. This is going to sound like a strange question, but we have a
cat, and it’s going crazy, and it’s attacked my husband, and we’re kind of
hostage in our house. And we’re just wondering who we can call to do
something, get rid of the cat or help us.”
Dispatch: “This is your cat?”
Caller: “It’s our own cat, yes.”
Dispatch: “So, it’s your own pet?”
Caller: “Yes.”
Dispatch: “Give me one second.”
Must have been a big cat, right? Like a mountain lion or a tiger? Nope.
It was just a little, fluffy cat in a bad mood. And this isn’t the first time a
cat has fought a whole family and won.
The Palmer family in Oregon got in trouble when their young son pulled
on the tail of their black-and-white Himalayan mix. They had to barricade
themselves in their bedroom to find refuge from the claws of their angry
cat.
Apparently, what Mark Twain said about dogs also applies to cats. And
maybe it applies to people as well.
 There’s a story in the Old Testament about how three hundred men took
on an army of 135,000 with no other weapons than some pottery and band
instruments. In the story of Gideon, we read how great fear came on the
Midianite soldiers. The Bible says “the whole army ran and cried out and
fled” (Judges 7:21). If there was a 911 to call at that time, the Midianites
would have called it.
Obviously, it wasn’t the size of Gideon’s army that won the battle. And
in this case, it wasn’t the size of the fight in the Gideon’s men. It was the
size of the God who fought for them. Whatever battles you find yourself in
today, be glad that you are on the side of a big, big God.

—Kim

“The LORD said to Gideon, ‘The people who are with you are too many
for Me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel claim glory for
itself’ ” (Judges 7:2).
 January 7

Curiosity killed the cat.

—Proverb

A
mber slid off her backpack and hung it on the back of her classroom
chair before settling behind her desk.
“Amber!” Kyle said as dropped into the desk behind her. “What’s going
on?”
“Not much,” replied Amber, who didn’t welcome her new neighbor too
warmly.
“You have anything to eat in there?” Kyle asked as he reached for her
backpack and unzipped the top.
“Leave it alone, Kyle,” Amber said as she pushed his hand away.
But Kyle reached into the backpack again. “Oh, lip gloss! At least it
smells delicious.” Kyle had opened up the bottle for a sniff.
“Put it back, Kyle.”
“Quiet. Let’s get started,” the Spanish teacher said.
Kyle continued to root around in the backpack on an adventure of
discovery.
“Get out of my stuff,” hissed Amber, trying not to draw attention to
herself.
But suddenly, every eye was looking their direction. Kyle had made an
agonized scream and had fallen out of his chair. The teacher ran over as
Kyle twisted around on the floor with loud groans. “What happened?” the
teacher demanded.
Amber guessed what Kyle had done and was afraid he might die. Kyle’s
face was turning bright-red. She started to cry. The teacher called for help
before Amber could speak.
Between sobs Amber finally explained that she had a small canister of
pepper spray that she kept on a key chain for self-defense. Kyle must have
thought it was breath spray. His attempt to freshen his breath had taken an
unexpected turn. The teacher who told me the story said Kyle recovered
completely.
Maybe Kyle has learned to respect the privacy of others. He certainly
knows that when you stick your nose where it doesn’t belong, you can end
up red-faced.

—Kim

“We hear that some of you are living idle lives, refusing to work and
meddling in other people’s business” (2 Thessalonians 3:11, NLT).
 January 8

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take,

but by the moments that take our breath away!
—Vicki Corona

L
et me ask you, are you bored? Well, my friend, I am about to tell you
a secret that will turn your dull existence into one vibrating with
thrills.
First, let me tell you a story about my friend Patrice.
Patrice drives a long way to work. She’s a cheerful sort who views
every human as a friend. Still, she was surprised one morning at how much
attention she was getting from drivers in passing cars. Everyone with a
new haircut wants to get a certain amount of notice from strangers, but this
was too much. Other drivers stared and pointed frantically at the top of her
SUV.
Something must be wrong, she thought as she slowed down and parked
on the shoulder of the highway. Jumping out of the car, she looked at the
roof. Staring back at her, eyes wide with terror, was her cat. Apparently,
the cat liked sleeping on the SUV roof and had failed to wake in time that
morning. His front legs had wedged under the back of the roof rack so that
cars gaining on Patrice to pass her had come face-to-face with a cat in fear
for its life.
Now, it’s possible that this was a good experience for the cat. After
Patrice pried him off the roof, he probably felt a rush of exhilaration at
being able to hang on to one of his nine lives. After all, you never feel
more alive than when you are scared to death.
 So try hang gliding. Go bungee jumping. Order the hot sauce. Face your
fears, because they often hold us back from joy. It is fear that keeps us
from making new friends or connecting with old ones. Sometimes it is fear
that stops us from saying “I’m sorry” or “I love you.”
If your life seems as dull as driving across Kansas, my advice is to do
something that scares you. Just stay inside the car. A little excitement is
good, but you don’t want to push it.

—Kim

“Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for
the LORD your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave
you nor forsake you” (Deuteronomy 31:6).
 January 9

You have not lived today until you have done

something for someone who can never repay you.
—John Bunyan

H
onoré Daumier has been called the “Michelangelo of caricature.”
(Caricatures, as you probably know, are drawings that exaggerate a
person’s ears, nose, or other physical features.) Honoré lived in France in
the 1800s—a turbulent time when the French people hardly knew what
kind of government would be there when they woke up each morning. His
drawings exposed the greed and injustice that he saw around him.
The French enjoyed his art. Well, most of the French. A caricature he
drew of King Louis Philippe caused him to be sent to prison for six
months.
Honoré worked hard, making four thousand lithographs, five hundred
paintings, and one hundred sculptures. But toward the end of his life he
began to go blind, and he sank into poverty. On his sixty-fifth birthday, his
landlord threatened him with eviction from his cottage north of Paris
unless he paid the rent.
Then he received a letter from Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, a friend
who painted landscapes and was having some success. The letter said: “I
have a little house at Valmondois which I could not, for the life of me,
think what to do with. Suddenly I thought to give it to you, and liking the
idea, I have had your ownership legally confirmed. I had no idea of doing
you a good turn. The whole scheme was carried out to annoy the landlord.
Ever yours, Corot.”
 In his reply, Honoré wrote, “You are the only man from whom I could
accept such a gift and not feel humiliated.”
Corot shows us that while it is kind to help others, it is even kinder to
consider the feelings of those being helped. He took the trouble to find a
way to assist his friend without embarrassing him. It was a beautiful and
creative thing to do—just what you’d expect from an artist.

—Kim

“When you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as

the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have
glory from men” (Matthew 6:2).
 January 10

Are there no more worlds that I might conquer?

—Alexander the Great

T
he trader with the magnificent black horse approached King Philip II.
“I’m sure your Majesty understands that a stallion this large and
strong cannot go for less than thirteen talents,” the trader said.
“Why is he not saddled?” the king asked.
“Well . . . er . . . he is not yet tamed.”
“I doubt he will be,” the king replied. “Look how he pulls against the
halter. Take him away.”
“Wait, father.” Young Alexander walked forward. “Let me tame him. If
I fail, I will pay for him myself.” The boy reached for the halter. He had
seen that the horse was spooked by its own shadow. He turned the horse
into the sun, so that the shadow fell behind him. Concerned that the horse
would fear his fluttering cloak, Alexander dropped it on the ground and
began to soothe the mighty beast. He did tame the horse, which he named
Bucephalus.
Alexander grew up to be one of the greatest military commanders of all
time. He rode Bucephalus into every battle as he conquered lands all the
way from Greece to India. When his beloved charger died, the warrior
established a city named Bucephala, where the horse was buried.
As you may know, Alexander shows up in the Bible prophecies of
Daniel. One hundred fifty years before Alexander was born, Daniel saw
his empire represented by the belly and thighs of brass in
Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of a great metal statue. In vision, Daniel also saw
Alexander as a leopard that came out of the great sea. The leopard had four
wings that symbolized the speed with which Alexander conquered Persia
and other nations to the east.
Maybe some of the speed was made possible by his much-loved horse.

—Kim

“After this I looked, and there was another, like a leopard, which had
on its back four wings of a bird. The beast also had four heads, and
dominion was given to it” (Daniel 7:6).
 January 11

Little lamb, who made thee?

Dost thou know who made thee?
—William Blake

W
hat if you could be any animal for one day? What animal would
you choose?
You could be a bear, and that would definitely end any chance of you
being bullied on the playground. Or you could be a snake and totally freak
out your mother when you slithered up to the supper table. Or you could
become a camel and be totally confident that you’d get a part in the
Christmas play. It might be useful to be a hawk so that you could fly up
and get your quadcopter out of that tree it’s been stuck in since summer.
While you were thinking about what kind of animal you wanted to
become, did you think for even a second about becoming a sheep?
Probably not. Sheep have no cool powers. They can’t fly or swim. They
don’t have night vision like an owl.
But here’s a funny thing. When God thinks of you or me as an animal,
He thinks of us as sheep. It’s not really a compliment. Sheep are dumb.
They would get terrible grades in school. And they have absolutely no
special abilities, unless being eaten by wolves is a special ability.
But sheep have done pretty well. Right now there are more than one
billion sheep on the planet. They prosper because they remain in the care
of people. They prosper because they serve people’s needs. (By the way,
that’s a nice wool sweater you’re wearing.)
God sees you as a lamb that needs His protection and care. And He
doesn’t mind providing that care.
Of course, you can’t really choose to become an animal. But every day
you have a choice: whether to live with humility under the care of the
Good Shepherd or to sharpen your teeth and claws and go out into the
world alone.

—Kim

“The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want” (Psalm 23:1).

 January 12

Those blessings are sweetest that are

won with prayer and worn with thanks.
—Thomas Goodwin

M
y five-year-old son, Reef, gets a lot of prayers answered. It’s not to
the point where the neighbors are bringing by the sick and infirm,
but he’s had a pretty good run lately.
I once watched him dash around the house in search of a stuffed bunny
until he suddenly remembered the power of prayer. He went from a run to
the praying position so fast that he actually skidded across the wood floor
on his knees.
“Dear Jesus,” he said, “please help me find my pink bunny. Please,
please, please.”
The next time you pray for something, trying saying “please” three
times because it worked for Reef.
He’s getting used to having his prayers answered, which makes me
nervous. Will he be disappointed if Heaven doesn’t grant his next request?
I mean, the old bedtime stories don’t prepare a kid for that. They tend to
focus on the time little Harry prayed and found his boat—not the time his
toy became an aquarium decoration at the bottom of a pond.
Of course, many people believe that God does answer every prayer.
They contend that He sometimes says yes, He sometimes says no, and He
sometimes says “Have you thought about putting a hook for your car keys
by the door?”
I don’t think children are heartbroken by a no answer. Goodness knows
that they’ve heard plenty of nos from parents. “No, you may not hot glue
your sister’s hair to the wall!” “No, you can’t test your paper-towel
parachute on the cat!”
Yesterday I was trying to find a lost power tool. As I pursued my search
from room to room, I heard Reef call after me, “I prayed to Jesus that you
would find your drill.”
Sure enough, I found it. I told Reef about his answered prayer and
observed that “God is good to us.”
“He sure is,” replied Reef with enthusiasm.
Will God still be good if Reef doesn’t get everything he wants? Will He
still be good even if we perceive no response to our serious requests? The
answer is always yes.

—Kim

“Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything
according to His will, He hears us” (1 John 5:14).
 January 13

Win one for the Gipper.

—George Gipp

O
ne hundred years have passed since Knute Rockne stepped in as the
coach of Notre Dame’s Fighting Irish, and he still remains the most
famous coach in the game of American football. During his first full year
of coaching Notre Dame, the team was undefeated. He developed the use
of the forward pass to gain more yardage than other teams. His backfield
for the 1924 season had the nickname “The Four Horsemen.” The starting
line called themselves “The Seven Mules.” Working together as an
unstoppable force, they won the 1925 Rose Bowl after a perfect season.
One of Knute’s best players was George Gipp, who could play halfback
or quarterback and was also a good punter. George led the team in rushing
and passing for three seasons. Then he came down with strep throat. In
those days there were no antibiotics to fight strep. George went in the
hospital, and it became clear that he was losing the battle with the
infection. On his deathbed, he told Knute, “Someday, when things look
real tough for Notre Dame, ask the boys to go out there and win one for
the Gipper.”
Eight years later Notre Dame had a terrible season. They were losing to
Army 6-0; that’s when Knute gathered the team around him in the locker
room. For the first time he told the team about the deathbed request. “I’ve
never used Gipp’s request until now,” he said. “This is the game. It’s up to
you.”
Notre Dame stopped Army from scoring for the rest of the game and
made twelve points of their own. They had won one for the Gipper.
In a similar way, the Bible asks you to win one for Christ. Does the
thought of what Jesus has done for you motivate you to witness for Him
today? Speaking one encouraging word can make all the difference. Go
out there and win one for the Savior.

—Kim

“To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things
to all people so that by all possible means I might save some”
(1 Corinthians 9:22, NIV).
 January 14

The only way God can show us He’s in control

is to put us in situations that we can’t control.
—Steven Furtick

F
riend, are you tired of people telling you what to do? “Clean up your
room,” says your bossy parent. “Answer questions one to one
hundred,” says your demanding teacher. “Come back and see us again,”
says that pushy waiter at the Olive Garden.
Don’t you think it’s time you gave the orders? Well, I’m here to tell you
how you can take charge of your life.
“But wait,” I hear you saying. “How can I take control of my life? I
can’t even control my hair.”
Ah, your hair. Let me direct your attention to a real product called
Wella Liquid Hair Kryptonite. Once you use this product, your hairdo will
become as permanent as the Swiss Alps. I guarantee that bonding your hair
so firmly in place that it cannot be affected by high winds or, for that
matter, small arms fire, will heighten your sense of control.
Before we go any further, let me outline my qualifications for teaching
you how to take control of a situation. I once was in total control of my
life. I called the shots. When I spoke, I spoke with the confidence of one
who expected to be obeyed. “Give me a large order of fries,” I said. And it
was done.
It’s hard to say when things began to change. As I look back, it seems
that my sense of control began to wane at about the time I got married,
give or take forty-five minutes.
 So while marriage has many benefits—not the least of which is having
someone handy to scratch between your shoulder blades—it does not
enhance feelings of personal dominion.
OK, I admit I’m not qualified to tell you how to gain control of any
situation. But let me recommend the peace that comes from taking an out-
of-control situation and putting it in the hands of the One who can
command even the wind and the waves.
As for your hair—calming those waves will take a different kind of
miracle.

—Kim

“They feared exceedingly, and said to one another, ‘Who can this be,
that even the wind and the sea obey Him!’ ” (Mark 4:41).
 January 15

Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand,

the spines of others are often stiffened.
—Billy Graham

O
n this same day in 1865, a group of Union Marines prepared to
attack Fort Fisher in South Carolina. This was a fort armed with
large cannons and almost nineteen hundred Confederate soldiers, including
sharpshooters. The Marines held nothing in their hands but axes. That’s
right. Nothing but the tools they used to split firewood.
They waited while cannon shells whistled through the air and landed
with thunderous explosions. “Forward,” said Brevet Brigadier General
Newton Martin Curtis. The hundred soldiers with axes began running at
full speed toward a wall of log spikes that stood between them and the fort.
They began chopping at the wall, making holes that the infantry could run
through. Behind them came soldiers under the command of twenty-year-
old Colonel Galusha Pennypacker.
Soon the Union flag was coming into Fort Fisher. The fortress at the
outlet of the Cape Fear River fell, and with it the last sea route providing
supplies to the Confederates.
Curtis and Pennypacker were both wounded in the assault, and both
received the Medal of Honor for their bravery. Pennypacker was promoted
to brigadier general, making him the youngest to hold that rank of any
United States soldier.
These young men facing cannons and sharpshooters with only an ax in
their hands seem pretty brave to me. Staggeringly brave. But they all did
what they knew had to be done.
If they can run into a hail of rifle fire, there’s a chance we can do the
things that test our courage. Maybe we can knock on the door of a
neighbor to invite them to church meetings. Or maybe we can offer to have
prayer with a friend going through a hard time. The world still needs
heroes, and maybe one of them will be you.

—Kim

“Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all you who
hope in the LORD” (Psalm 31:24).
 January 16

To err is human; to forgive, divine.

—Alexander Pope

Y
ou know about the attack on Pearl Harbor that started World War II.
But I bet you’ve never heard about the Japanese attack on the town
of Brookings, Oregon.
Early in the morning of September 9, 1942, Nobuo Fujita, a thirty-year-
old warrant officer, took off from an aircraft carrier submarine off the
coast of Oregon. (I also bet you didn’t know there was such a thing as an
aircraft carrier submarine.)
His plan was to drop firebombs into the forest that surrounded
Brookings. He hoped for a great forest fire that would destroy the town
and kill the residents.
Some of the townspeople heard the plane fly over, but thought nothing
of it. United States (US) Forest Service lookout Howard Gardner was the
first to see a small plume of smoke rising above the trees. He and three
other forest service rangers easily put out the fire, then discovered
fragments of the bomb with Japanese markings.
Twenty years later three men planning the town’s Azalea Festival
thought of inviting the Japanese pilot as a guest at their celebration. Nobuo
was intrigued, but a little worried. “I was quite sure that once in Brookings
I would be beaten up, people would throw eggs at me and shout insults at
me,” he later admitted.
But when he arrived with his family, he was treated like a celebrity. His
motorcade stopped three times for crowds to welcome him. In Brookings,
he was given a key to the city. Then Nobuo presented the city with his own
samurai sword that had been in his family for four hundred years.
There had been some veterans of World War II who were against
inviting this soldier of Imperial Japan to their town. But his act of giving
up his priceless family heirloom as a sign of friendship and mutual
forgiveness changed their attitude.
Nobuo died an honorary citizen of the town he tried to destroy. The
impact of the town’s forgiveness turned out to be more powerful than his
bombs.

—Kim

“Whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone,

forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your
trespasses” (Mark 11:25).
 January 17

I had a million questions to ask God: but when I met Him,

they all fled my mind; and it didn’t seem to matter.
—Christopher Morley

D
ogs don’t complain. This is why they make better pets than talk
show radio hosts who tend to spend all afternoon grumbling about
the government. But even though they don’t complain, I think dogs have
these moments when they tilt their head to the side because they are
baffled by their human masters.
My dog’s thoughts probably go like this: Why do you sleep in one room
and your boy sleeps down the hall in another room? Is he being punished?
Why can’t we all sleep in one big pile in front of the fireplace?
And another thing: Why do you humans always get this hot, delicious-
smelling food while I get only a bowl of this dry stuff that looks like oven-
baked goat dung? That doesn’t seem fair.
By the way, who is this No person that you get so excited about? And
why do you always mention Mr. No when I’m trying to sneak food off the
table?
I don’t understand why humans don’t sniff stuff. There are so many
interesting things you can learn about the world. Instead of staring at your
glowing rectangles, you should go outside and smell the bushes.
Also, I don’t mean to complain, but why do you leave on hunting trips
without me? Aren’t I part of the pack? Why do I have to stay at home
looking out the window while you track down the food and bring it back in
plastic bags? I want to go with you!
 I don’t know if it is even possible for dogs to understand us, any more
than it is possible for us to understand God. We wonder why God doesn’t
help us avoid hard times or why He doesn’t give us the things that other
kids have. It’s a mystery. All we can do is trust that He loves us and wait
patiently by the window for our Master to return.

—Kim

“ ‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts,

Nor are your ways My ways,’ says the LORD.
‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts’ ” (Isaiah 55:8, 9).
 January 18

People say nothing is impossible,

but I do nothing every day.
—Winnie-the-Pooh

D
o you ever wish you didn’t have to grow up? OK, I’m sure you’ve
had moments when you wish you could grow up faster—or at least
you wish people would treat you more like a grown-up.
But I bet you’ve also had times when you wish you could go back to
playing all day, stopping only for a nap or snacks. And instead of doing
schoolwork, you could kick back while people read books to you about
entertaining animals like Curious George or Winnie-the-Pooh.
At the end of the book The House at Pooh Corner, Christopher Robin is
trying to explain to Pooh that he will begin school soon and won’t be able
to “do nothing” all day. Thoughtfully, Christopher Robin shares, “What I
like doing best is nothing.”
“How do you do nothing?” asks Pooh.
“Well, it’s when people call out at you just as you’re going off to do it,
‘What are you going to do, Christopher Robin?’ and you say, ‘Oh,
nothing,’ and then you go and do it.”
“Oh, I see,” says Pooh.
A little later Christopher Robin tells his best friend, “I’m not going to do
nothing anymore.”
It’s exciting—and often a little sad and scary—to find that you’re
growing up. You earn more privileges, but you also gain more
responsibilities. Schoolwork and jobs become more challenging and take
more of your time.
But while you might hang on to some of your favorite stuffed animals,
childhood books, and toys, you probably don’t really want to go back to
being a little kid again. You’re growing taller, wiser, more productive and
faithful, and that’s the way it should be.

—Lori

“When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But
when I grew up, I put away childish things” (1 Corinthians 13:11, NLT).
 January 19

Time is the currency of relationships. If you want to invest into

your relationships, start by investing your time.
—Dave Willis

C
ars illustrate one difference between a boy’s relationships and a
girl’s. Girls generally feel that if they are going to invest time and
energy in a relationship, it should involve an actual human being. Men are
not so picky.
We look at a car and say, “It’s bright and shiny. It lets me be in total
control, and it doesn’t talk much. This could be the start of something
beautiful.”
As time passes, we can become downright sentimental about our set of
wheels. I have to dab at my eyes when I remember my first car, a Ford
Mustang that was so underpowered it struggled in a headwind.
My pastor admits to being so deeply attached to a beat-up Toyota that
he continued to drive it even when the only way into the car was through
the hatchback. I have heard of men demanding to be buried in their cars,
though a fellow will feel mighty silly when he wakes up on Resurrection
Day in an ’88 Lincoln with a dead battery.
I asked my dad—who is not usually the sentimental type—why he
would never part with a 1972 Ford he called “Old Blue.”
“I don’t know,” he mused. “It’s like a favorite horse. When he comes to
the end of his career, you don’t send him to the rendering plant.”
I think Old Blue was my dad’s favorite because he spent 286,000 miles
in the driver’s seat.
 Given enough time, you can build a relationship with anybody or
anything. And the reverse seems to be true: If you want to build a
relationship, spend time with the person.
I think that’s one reason God gave us the Sabbath. It’s a whole day
every week to spend with God and with our family. I can’t think of a better
way to make sure that the most important relationships in your life last
longer than a relationship with a car.

—Kim

“Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of
solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work on it; it is the
Sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings” (Leviticus 23:3).
 January 20

We have nothing to fear for the future,

except as we shall forget the way the Lord has led us,
and His teaching in our past history.
—Ellen G. White

W
hat do you think is the most awesome miracle in the Bible?
Walking on water? Very cool. Making the sun stand still?
Impressive. But I think the miracle that is most likely to have won an
Oscar for best special effects is the parting of the Red Sea.
Imagine being one of the Hebrews as you walk down onto the seabed.
Towering walls of water go up on both sides of you. Just a little while ago
you thought you were about to be whacked by Pharaoh’s army. But then
Moses holds out his staff, and the ocean does something it has never, ever
done before. It splits in half like lime Jell-O salad. Wow!
After you get across, you see Pharaoh’s army following you through the
passage between the walls of water, and you think that might be a decision
that he will regret. Then you see the water crashing down on them and
realize that you’ll never have to worry about Pharaoh again. Can there be
any more dramatic way of seeing that God is looking out for you? Let me
answer my own question. No.
So what is amazing to me is that three days later, the Hebrews panicked
and asked Moses, “What are we going to drink?” They implied that God
was going to let them die of thirst just seventy-two hours after rescuing
them with the most miraculous sign of His protection ever seen in human
history.
 Of course, we do the same thing. We panic when bad things happen:
“Oh, no! I lost my science notebook. I’m going to flunk out of school and
never get a job for the rest of my life!”
I think God would like for us to stay cool and remember the last time He
came to our rescue. We all have times when He brought us through deep
water. Let’s never forget them.

—Kim
“They forgot the God who saved them,
who had done great things in Egypt,
miracles in the land of Ham
and awesome deeds by the Red Sea” (Psalm 106:21, 22, NIV).
 January 21

No one really knows why they are alive

until they know what they’d die for.
—Martin Luther King Jr.

S
o Rick and Chris were eating dinner together when Chris made a
joke and Rick exploded in laughter. Rick’s mouthful of drink
sprayed over all the food on the table. That’s when everyone stopped
eating. They didn’t want to risk whatever germs had traveled from his
mouth to their corn dogs.
But some people will take greater risks than that if the food is tasty
enough. They will risk death itself. Like the family in Salinas, California,
who went hunting for wild mushrooms and ended up making a soup that
put them all in the hospital.
The Japanese consider it a special treat to eat raw puffer fish, even
though the liver and other parts of the fish contain a poison that is one
hundred times more lethal than cyanide. Chefs train for two years to learn
to remove the most deadly parts of the fish; but even so, a few restaurant
customers die every year.
In France, eating cheese is a risky proposition. The French use milk that
hasn’t been pasteurized to make a variety of cheeses. They believe that
skipping the heating process makes the cheese more flavorful.
Unfortunately, it allows some deadly bacteria to slip through that can
cause flu-like symptoms and sometimes even death.
Would you risk your life for a really tasty cheese on a cracker? Maybe
not. But you can probably understand wanting something so badly that
you’re willing to take your chances. The early Christians felt that way
about Jesus. They wanted to follow Him even though it was dangerous.
They took on the risk of being thrown into the Colosseum and getting
gnawed on by lions.
It’s not that they were braver or tougher than you. They just loved Jesus
so much that they thought He was worth the risk.

—Kim

“Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my
sake will find it” (Matthew 10:39, NIV).
 January 22

Do not trust your memory; it is a net full of holes;

the most beautiful prizes slip through it.
—Georges Duhamel

L
et us consider the brain. This wonderful organ can recall millions of
items of information. Unfortunately, most of these items are songs
from summer camp. The stuff you really want to remember—like the
answer to number four on the science test—has disappeared like the good
desserts at potluck.
I forget a wide variety of things. I forget what my wife asked me to pick
up at the store. “Sorry, honey. I forgot to get the sandwich bags. But I
guess that’s not a big problem because I also forgot to get sandwich
bread.”
Once I forgot a piece of luggage at the airport. Nobody forgets their
luggage. But I did. I had to drive three hours back to the airport and admit
I was the soap bubble who forgot his bag. If I had it to do over, I think I
would have left the luggage and just worn the clothes I had on for a week.
Maybe no one would have noticed.
Forgetting can be dangerous. Zach was in fourth grade on this particular
morning. He woke up kind of slowly, eating breakfast with his eyes barely
open, then gathering his schoolbooks and shuffling toward the door to
catch the bus.
“Zach,” called his mother. “Are you forgetting something?”
Zach turned and looked at her. His mind did an inventory. Backpack?
Check. Shoes? Check. Pants? Oh, oh! He had almost gone to school
without pants.
Our memories are probably a long way from working as well as God
intended. He probably didn’t intend for us to forget so much. I mean, He
can remember everything exactly. Or can He? There is one thing He
forgets: our sins. All you have to do is ask. You can remember to do that,
right?

—Kim

“I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake;
and I will not remember your sins” (Isaiah 43:25).
 January 23

I hated every minute of training, but I said, “Don’t quit.

Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.”
—Muhammad Ali

T
he US Airways jet had taken off from New York City and was just
above the tallest skyscrapers when it ran into some bad luck.
Actually, it ran into a flock of Canada geese that destroyed both engines.
The Airbus A320 began to glide back to earth.
This had never happened before. Captain “Sully” Sullenberger began
going through emergency procedures with his copilot. Where could they
land? Buildings covered the ground. Sully gauged his distance from the
airport. Could he turn around and make it? His instincts told him no.
That left only the Hudson River that separated the city from New Jersey.
Sully turned the jet toward the water and glided over the George
Washington Bridge. He told the passengers to brace for impact.
Other airliners that had ditched in the water had broken up, killing more
than half of the passengers. Sully used his skill to keep the wings
absolutely level as the jet settled into the river. When it was over, the pilot
was celebrated as a hero because he kept all 155 passengers and crew alive
in a deadly situation.
In his book Highest Duty, Sully shares a letter that reads: “In your
interviews, you seemed uncomfortable being called a hero. I also found the
title inappropriate. I see a hero as electing to enter a dangerous situation
for a higher purpose, and you were not given a choice. This is not to say
you are not a man of virtue, but I see your virtue arising from your choices
at other times.” The letter went on to say that Sully’s choice to train and
become the best possible pilot had prepared him for that critical moment in
the air.
Think of it. The choices you make today may put you in a position to be
a hero tomorrow. For example, choosing to focus your attention on your
studies can prepare you to solve an important problem in the future. That’s
why you need to do your best in your studies and your chores because you
may be training to be a hero.

—Kim

“Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does

not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy
2:15).
 January 24

God created us to thrive on the encouragement of others.

—Willie Robertson

T
he man in the ball cap took out his violin just inside the doors of the
metro station. He opened the case on the floor to suggest that he
would accept tips and began to play Bach’s “Chaconne.” He continued to
play for three-quarters of an hour as morning commuters streamed by him
on their way to work in Washington, DC. When he was done, he had made
$32.17 in tips.
But this wasn’t about the tips. It was an experiment by Gene
Weingarten, a writer for The Washington Post. What if one of the most
celebrated violin players in the world, Joshua Bell, played a concert in the
guise of a subway panhandler? Would anyone appreciate it?
The answer was mostly “no.” More than a thousand people rushed by
with hardly a glance. Only seven stopped to listen for a minute or more.
Joshua was fine about not being recognized, but he found the few seconds
after he ended each piece very strange. There was no response. In a
concert hall, a roar of applause would have erupted from people who had
paid one hundred dollars or more for each seat. In the metro station there
was only an awkward silence.
Nobody said anything nice to Joshua. They didn’t seem to notice how
masterfully he played. Nor did they appreciate the superb sound of his $3.5
million violin.
I assume Joshua would rather have played in a concert hall, where the
audience appreciates fine music. And that’s the same reason we go to
church. When we are trying to grow as a Christian, we want to be around
people who also love Jesus and can applaud and encourage us as we
become more like Him.
When we are apart from the church, the people around us may actually
dismiss our Christian faith and discourage us. We will be like Joshua
playing beautiful music for silent, busy commuters.
How much better to play out your life in the company of people who
appreciate the Master.

—Kim

“The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come
from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot
understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit”
(1 Corinthians 2:14, NIV).
 January 25

When one door of happiness closes, another opens;

but often we look so long at the closed door that we
do not see the one which has been opened for us.
—Helen Keller

I
t had been a long day of traveling for Reef and his family. They had
seen wonderful things during their tour of Italy, but now everyone
wanted to collapse in bed at the small hotel where they had stopped for the
night. Dad and Grandpa had checked in. Now the family members were
taking their luggage up to their rooms.
Grandma got on the elevator and pushed the button for her floor. She
took a deep breath to calm herself. Elevators at cheap hotels in Europe are
small. Not much bigger than a refrigerator really. They made Grandma
uncomfortable. The elevator came to a stop. Then, horror of horrors, the
door didn’t open.
Grandma tried not to panic. She pushed the button for the floor. Nothing
happened. “Hello,” she called out. “I can’t get out of the elevator . . .
Help!”
Then she spotted a phone in the elevator. She picked it up, and the
woman at the front desk answered. “Buona sera!” she said cheerfully.
“I’m stuck in the elevator,” said Grandma, her voice rising slightly.
“The door won’t open.”
The desk person stayed silent for a moment. “Look behind you,” she
finally said.
Grandma turned around. Well, how about that, she thought. The elevator
had doors on both sides! Through the open back doors she could see the
corridor to her room. Grandma laughed and hung up the phone.
When the children of Israel were caught between Pharaoh’s army and
the Red Sea, they panicked. What they didn’t know was that God was
going to open a path for escape in an unexpected direction.
God wants you to trust Him the next time you are in a tight spot. Stay
calm, and look for the open door that He has for you.

—Kim

“No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind.

And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can
bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you
can endure it” (1 Corinthians 10:13, NIV).
 January 26

Life is mostly froth and bubble;

Two things stand like stone—
Kindness in another’s trouble,
Courage in your own.
—Adam Lindsay Gordon

A
fter sinking Dick Antrim’s ship south of the Philippines, the
Japanese placed him in a prisoner of war camp. The Japanese
considered him a coward just like they would any soldier who didn’t fight
to the death.
But their opinion was about to be challenged. It started when an
American lieutenant failed to bow low enough when a Japanese guard
passed. The guard flew into a rage and brought his swagger stick down on
the prisoner with quick, hard blows. The lieutenant collapsed on the
ground, and the blows kept coming.
Dick couldn’t let it continue. Daring to intervene, he asked the guard to
show mercy. Struggling with broken English and gestures, he tried to
convince the guard that enough had been done. But the guard insisted that
the prisoner’s punishment would be fifty lashes with heavy rope.
Hundreds of prisoners watched. Other prison guards gathered around. In
their opinion, the navy lieutenant was guilty. Dick was ordered to step
back.
As the rope hit the man again, large welts broke open to spill his blood.
After fifteen lashes, he was unconscious. Three more guards rushed to kick
the unflinching body.
 “Enough!” said Dick. A stunned silence fell over the camp. “I’ll take the
rest!” Both the watching prisoners and the guards were stunned.
Dick had to repeat his offer. “If there are to be fifty lashes, I will take
the rest of them for him.”
From the ranks of the prisoners a cheer went up. The punishment ended,
and the lieutenant was carried away for treatment.
For this act of courage, Dick received the US military’s highest award,
the Medal of Honor. Without a weapon, without any hope of survival, he
had offered his life in exchange for the life of his friend. It seems as if
there is Someone in the Bible who did the same for you and me. Maybe
you know the Man I’m thinking of.

—Kim

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the
sheep” (John 10:11).
 January 27

There are simply too many notes.

—Emperor Joseph II of Austria

T
he emperor of Austria was a blockhead. Or at least he sounds like
one in the movie Amadeus. We see the composer Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart presenting his opera The Abduction from the Seraglio
and asking the opinion of Emperor Joseph II. The emperor hems and haws
and finally says, “There are simply too many notes. That’s all. Just cut a
few, and it will be perfect.”
Mozart replies, “Which few did you have in mind, majesty?”
Today is Mozart’s birthday. You’ve probably listened to his
compositions at weddings and other places you hear classical music. His
genius has survived for 250 years in pieces such as A Little Night Music.
The emperor seems silly for criticizing one of the most famous musicians
to exist before Justin Bieber.
But don’t believe everything you see in movies. Other biographers of
Mozart record the emperor saying, “Too beautiful for our ears, my dear
Mozart, and monstrous many notes.”
It sounds like he recognizes Mozart’s great talent even if he can’t keep
up with all the notes. In fact, we know that it was Emperor Joseph’s
support of Mozart that gave him the money he needed to get married and
start a family. He became known as “the musical king.”
Sometimes it is tempting to criticize what other people do or say. But
maybe we can learn from Emperor Joseph to admit that maybe we don’t
fully understand what is going on. Adding a touch of humility in our
conversation always hits the right note.

—Kim

“Pride brings a person low, but the lowly in spirit gain honor”
(Proverbs 29:23, NIV).
 January 28

Insults should be written in sand.

Compliments should be carved in stone.
—Arab Proverb

T
he story goes like this: On one particular flight, an airline pilot had
hammered his plane into the runway really hard. The airline had a
policy that required the pilot to stand at the door while the passengers
exited. The pilot would smile and tell everyone passing, “Thank you for
flying with us.”
After this rough landing, however, the pilot had a hard time looking the
passengers in the eye. Finally everyone had gotten off the plane except for
one older woman walking with a cane.
She stopped and addressed the pilot. “Sonny, do you mind if I ask you a
question?”
“Why no, ma’am,” he replied. “What is it?”
The woman said, “Did we land, or were we shot down?”
Ouch! What a burn! I bet that pilot never forgot that comment.
On another airplane, at another time, a mother tried to comfort her
crying baby. She knew that there’s hardly anything more annoying than
the wails of a newborn echoing through a cramped jet cabin. She began to
sing softly to her child. Eventually the cries faded into silence as the baby
fell asleep.
A man in the row behind them leaned forward to get the mother’s
attention. “Your baby is lucky to have you sing to her like that,” he said.
The man shared a compliment instead of a complaint. And I know for a
fact that the mother never forgot the way a stranger gave her a thumbs-up.
Both insults and compliments can leave a lasting impression. Which do
you want to be remembered for as you travel through this world?

—Kim

“Anxiety weighs down the heart, but a kind word cheers it up”
(Proverbs 12:25, NIV).
 January 29

Great leaders know when to step aside.

—Tara Jaye Frank

D
uring my sophomore year in college, I had finally saved enough
money to get my first car! My silver hatchback gleamed in the
parking lot behind the dorm. When Thanksgiving vacation arrived, I
grabbed my keys and bolted for home.
Everything went fine until I approached a truck stop. I spotted a car
exiting the truck stop, but they had a stop sign and were waiting. I had the
right of way and continued to speed along at forty-five miles per hour.
Then, just as I was about to whiz past, the car pulled out right in front of
me. I slammed on the brakes, but there wasn’t enough time to stop. I
crashed into the side of the green sedan, and my little Mazda spun around
several times.
Fortunately, I was unharmed, but I had always heard that if you hit a
car, it’s your fault. So even though I couldn’t stop in time, I figured I’d get
a traffic violation, besides losing my wheels.
But after collecting statements from witnesses, the police officer told
me, “I’m citing the other driver. It’s clear that she violated your right of
way.”
Whew! The insurance covered a new car, and my driving record
remained clean.
But I’ve often thought about that phrase “violated your right of way.”
Who has violated your right of way lately?
Maybe you were going for a jump shot in a varsity game, and someone
swooped in and not only blocked your shot but landed you on the floor
with a concussion. Or maybe you were running for a class office, and
suddenly another student (who didn’t want it nearly as much as you did)
joined the race and won.
When have you violated someone else’s right of way? When have you
hindered a teacher or parent or friend from meeting their goals and
succeeding? Maybe your disruption in class flustered the teacher or your
procrastination on a group project caused everyone to earn a poor grade.
Today let’s give people the right of way—even when it’s not theirs. It
makes sense in driving—and in life.

—Lori

“Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the
interests of others” (Philippians 2:4).
 January 30

What you should want from life is an arena

big enough to express your talents and gifts.
—Pleasant Rowland

P
leasant Rowland, a schoolteacher, was visiting Colonial
Williamsburg in Virginia. She sat down on a bench in the old-timey
town and wondered how she could bring history alive for students in the
same way that the town’s actors, all dressed in period costumes, had made
history come alive for her.
Then inspiration struck. She dashed off a postcard to a friend: “What do
you think of this idea? A series of books about nine-year-old girls growing
up in different times in history, with a doll for each of the characters and
historically accurate clothes and accessories?” She imagined girls learning
history as they played with the dolls.
Her friend wasn’t sure it was a good idea. Most dolls were either baby
dolls or grown-up dolls like Barbie. These dolls would be the same age as
the girls who would play with them.
In 1986 Pleasant used her savings to produce three dolls, Kirsten,
Samantha, and Molly. Each doll was introduced with books that described
what life was like at their time in history. For example, Samantha’s book
described the hard life of children who had to work in factories in the early
1900s.
The new American Girl dolls were available only by mail order, but
they still became hugely popular. Because of Pleasant’s idea, millions of
girls learned about history, which is a good thing. But that wasn’t the only
good thing that happened.
Girls who had grown up with the dolls began to experiment with stop-
motion animation. Moving a doll in tiny increments as they took pictures,
they made videos that got a lot of attention on YouTube. Using their
impressive talents—and a lot of patience—they taught lessons about
bullying or about the dangers of drinking and driving.
Like the inventor of the dolls, these girls found a new way to combine
learning and play. Pleasant once described this combination as “chocolate
cake with vitamins.” Now, doesn’t that sound like a good thing?

—Kim

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down
from the Father of lights” (James 1:17).
 January 31

I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation, and

an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins.
—John Wesley

Y
ou can rate a good gospel concert by how much time you spend on
your feet clapping, and I hadn’t sat down in over an hour. A male
quartet came on at the end of the program. They were so good that I still
didn’t have a chance to sit down. Speaking between songs, the lead man
asked the audience to raise their hands if they were saved.
Now, I don’t have the quickest reaction time. My hand stayed at my side
while I tried to process the question. Am I saved? I guess so. But I don’t
want to be smug about it. I don’t want to wave my hand around and say,
“Look at me; I’m totally saved.
The guy to my left noticed that I had not responded. “Hey, man,” he
said in a challenging tone, “are you not saved?”
I smiled and thought that would be the end of it. But the quartet closed
with a call, and while everyone else was swaying back and forth holding
hands, my neighbor decided he had some work to do. “Hey, man, do you
know for sure if you are saved?” he shouted over the music. “If you’re not
saved, you are going to burn in hellfire. Do you know that? Why don’t you
give yourself to Christ?”
My new friend leaned into me with the aggressiveness of a gang
member. “Do you think this is a game? This is life or death. You could go
out of here and be killed tonight. What is your problem?” Then he gave up
on me. “OK, but your blood isn’t on my hands.”
 As I thought about this later, I realized that it is only smug to claim
salvation if it is something we earn. But since salvation is a gift from God,
saying we are saved is only showing confidence that God is doing His job.
So I know it’s a little late, but I have a word for the guy standing next to
me at the concert. “Yes. The answer is yes.”

—Kim

“He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God
through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them”
(Hebrews 7:25).
 February 1

Do not punish me by granting that which I wish or ask.

—Teresa of Avila

D
avey may not have been a very smart dog. But he was very focused.
He loved to eat. Especially sweets. Cookies were like a miracle to
him. He would pay any amount of money for a snickerdoodle, if only he
had some money.
So I don’t really blame him for what happened on Mother’s Day. Dad
had bought Mom a bag of chocolate truffles and had set them out on the
dining room table with her other presents. Davey saw them there, and his
mouth watered like the Mississippi River.
No one else was around. He sniffed at the bag, and a rich, exotic
sweetness filled his nose. He had to taste one. Then two. Then three. Soon
the floor around him was littered with wrappers.
About that time Dad came into the room, and Davey knew he was in big
trouble. Without saying a word, Davey went to his secret hiding place
under the bed.
Dad sounded upset. Not just because Davey had ruined Mom’s gift. But
also because dark chocolate was poisonous to Davey. It affected him just
like it did other dogs.
So Dad had to give him hydrogen peroxide, and Davey started feeling
very sick. And then he threw up Mom’s gift on her clean floor.
Humans are like dogs in the sense that we sometimes desperately want
things that end up bringing disaster. God tries to help us avoid these bad
experiences in three ways.
 First, He gives us some plain instructions in the Bible. Second, He gives
us advice from wise people like our parents. Third, He sometimes gives
direct impressions to step back from the object of our desire before it
explodes in our face.
God always knows what’s best. We would be better off if we asked
what He wants for us instead of just thinking about what we want next. A
dog can probably never be that smart. But maybe we can.

—Kim

“Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one”
(Matthew 6:13).
 February 2

As long as thanks is possible, then joy is always possible.

—Ann Voskamp

L
ivia couldn’t solve the problem on her math worksheet. She felt
dumb.
Dakota dropped the pass that his football team really needed him to
catch. He felt clumsy.
Emma just had a surprise birthday party. She feels popular.
Our feelings change all the time, don’t they? They are a lot like your
dad’s Adam’s apple, always going up and down. So, what do you do when
they go down?
Well, one thing you can do is wait for them to come up. They usually
do. (If they go down and stay down, talk it over with an adult you trust.)
If you don’t want to wait, there is something you can do to lift your
feelings.
In his book Happy at Last, therapist Richard O’Connor describes an
exercise he gives many of his patients when they are feeling rotten. It is
easy, and it works. He says, “Each evening before going to bed, list three
good things that happened that day.”
You don’t even have to wait until you go to bed. If you’re feeling lower
than a snake’s sneakers, start thinking of good things in your life. It can be
anything for which you are thankful. I remember my son talking about a
sandwich he was about to eat: “The exact cheese I love. What a miracle!”
You can be grateful for hot showers, for toys with wheels, and that
hiccups don’t hurt. As the feeling of gratitude builds in your heart, you’ll
find that it squeezes out bad feelings.
The next time you feel down, look up to see your blessings.

—Kim

“In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for
you” (1 Thessalonians 5:18).
 February 3

God’s gifts put man’s best dreams to shame.

—Elizabeth Barrett Browning

W
hat’s the deal with football? I’m not saying I’m against the game.
If a husky man wants to roughhouse with other husky men on a
large lawn . . . well, fine. But I’m not going to clear my schedule on New
Year’s Day to watch them do it. I just don’t get football.
So naturally, I won a trip to the Super Bowl. To be accurate, the trip was
won by my wife—who wouldn’t know the difference between a field goal
and field corn.
On the Sunday before the big event, she decided to get ready by tuning
in the playoff games. At the moment she began watching, she was the
same wife I had always known—a polite, poetic creature who never had a
competitive moment in her life.
Then, as the games continued, she started cheering and shouting at the
TV screen in a new language. Words such as “blitz,” “interception,” and
“permanent knee injury” came out of her mouth.
The Super Bowl itself was a good game—as far as we could tell. Our
seats were so far above the field that we actually had to get permission
from Air Traffic Control to move in and out of our row.
During the halftime show, thousands of paper doves fluttered down
through the air, emphasizing the theme of peace and harmony, after which
both teams ran back on the field and began knocking each other down.
The score was close in the final minutes of the game. The cheering got
loud. And strangely enough, part of the cheering came from us—two
people who didn’t know they were fans.
That whole Super Bowl experience was a thrill that fell into our hands
even though we didn’t pursue it.
The Bible says to seek and we shall find. But what’s so wonderful about
grace is that it helps us find the joys that we don’t have the sense to seek. It
opens the right doors when we are busy knocking somewhere else. It helps
us score when we don’t even know how to play the game.

—Kim

“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of
man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him”
(1 Corinthians 2:9).
 February 4

I float like a butterfly and sting like a bee.

—Muhammad Ali

W
e were making prayer requests in Sabbath School when it was
Jake’s turn. “We have a game tonight,” began Jake. He was an all-
around athlete who was fully immersed in the basketball season. Was he
going to pray that his school team would win? Not exactly. “Let’s pray
that the other team won’t feel too bad when we beat them,” he said.
We all laughed. It’s not very humble to boast, but it can be entertaining.
The athlete best remembered for his boasts is certainly the heavyweight
boxing champion Muhammad Ali.
“I float like a butterfly and sting like a bee,” he said, bringing a silly
swagger to a violent sport. Bragging about his quick moves in the ring, he
said, “I’m so fast that last night I turned off the light switch in my hotel
room and was in bed before the room was dark.”
On another occasion he told reporters, “I done wrestled with an
alligator, I done tussled with a whale; handcuffed lightning, thrown
thunder in jail; only last week, I . . . injured a stone, hospitalized a brick;
I’m so mean I make medicine sick.”
The fans loved the big talk. But others wondered if he might be in for a
humbling experience. One such experience came when he boarded an
airliner to make a trip. The flight attendant came around and asked him to
fasten his seat belt.
“Superman don’t need no seat belt,” said Ali.
The flight attendant paused and then replied, “Superman don’t need no
airplane either.” The boxer fastened his seat belt.
The quote from the flight attendant is a reminder that even when we’re
flying high, we need to remember the One who lifted us up in the first
place.

—Kim

“May the LORD silence all flattering lips and every boastful tongue”
(Psalm 12:3, NIV).
 February 5

Everything in food works together

to create health or disease.
—T. Colin Campbell

D
uring World War II, the Russians thought they had the islands of
Franz Josef Land to themselves. These were the last frozen bits of
land between them and the North Pole. Only a few Russians traveled to
this place, where the sun stayed below the horizon for four months during
the winter.
What they didn’t know was that Nazis had set up a secret base on one of
the islands. Hidden in the blowing snow, German scientists sent back
weather reports to help their generals plan the war. They called their base
Schatzgräber, or “Treasure Hunter.” But their mission ended in 1944
because of something they ate.
After making a meal of polar bear meat, the spies began to fall ill. They
had muscle pains, fever, and a rash. They had swelling around their eyes
and blood clots under their fingernails. They had been infected with
trichinosis—tiny worms that infested the bear meat.
The Germans sent a doctor, who planned to parachute onto the island
and help the sick men. But in the end, the pilot dared to land his four-
engine bomber on the ice. He was able to rescue all the staff, and the
“Treasure Hunter” base was abandoned. They had sent their last weather
report.
In the Bible, God tells His people not to eat “unclean” animals. Among
the animals that fall in this category are bears and pigs, both of which
carry trichinosis. I think it proves His love that He gave us warnings in His
Word that protect us from disease.
You know, you can find some ideas in God’s Word that can change
your life. If you want to be a real treasure hunter, start digging in your
Bible.

—Kim

“The swine, though it divides the hoof, having cloven hooves, yet does
not chew the cud, is unclean to you” (Leviticus 11:7).
 February 6

One of the biggest challenges in life is to be yourself

in a world that is trying to make you like everyone else.
—Unknown

T
oday we take a moment to salute the world’s tallest mammal. No, not
the basketball player Yao Ming. I’m talking about giraffes. Here are
four facts about giraffes that are so amazing that they might cause your
eyes to start spinning around and your head to explode.

1. Giraffes spend their whole day standing up. They even sleep and give
birth while standing up. That is why it is not considered polite to offer
a giraffe a chair.
2. Giraffes can get by on as little as ten minutes of sleep each day. Some
naps may last as long as two hours, but giraffes still have the shortest
sleep requirements of any mammal. By the way, there is no rational
way that you can turn this fact into an excuse to stay up late tonight.
3. Giraffes have no more bones in their neck than you do. Their bones
are just way bigger.
4. After hundreds of years of studying giraffes, scientists recently
discovered that there are four different species of giraffe. Surprise!
From now on, zoos will label their animals as the southern giraffe, the
Masai giraffe, the reticulated giraffe, or the northern giraffe.
Genetically, they are as different as the brown bear and the polar bear,
even though they look the same to us.

The different species of giraffes should feel insulted that we never

noticed how they were different from each other.
If you never get beyond a person’s outward appearance, it’s a sign that
you don’t really care that much. Do you have any friends who are twins?
Maybe at first you couldn’t tell them apart. But the more you know them,
the more you see how they act differently.
God loves you so much that He knows exactly how you are different
from everyone else. Isn’t His love amazing? It’s enough to make your
head explode.

—Kim

“The LORD doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by
outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7,
NLT).
 February 7

We live in a world crushed and broken and torn,

a world God Himself visited to redeem.
—Elisabeth Elliot

T
o put it nicely, Jack was a bit clumsy. To put it less nicely, he was a
bomb with legs. Everything he touched seemed to explode. He was
carrying Dad’s phone across the garage when he dropped it, sending a
spiderweb of cracks all through the screen. A day after buying an iPod
Touch, he dropped it in the dog’s water dish, ruining it forever. He broke
another one on the floor, and a third one fell in the water at the “It’s a
Small World” ride in Disney’s Magic Kingdom.
Of course, this made Jack feel sad. Everything he touched seemed to
break into pieces or just stop working. Sometimes they even caught on
fire.
“Don’t feel bad,” his dad said. “Breaking stuff is part of being human.
In fact, we break even the most beautiful and important things in the
world.”
“Really?” Jack said.
“Maybe you’ve heard of the Parthenon in Greece,” said his father. “It’s
the most beautiful temple remaining from the ancient world. Well, an army
was storing ammunition in the temple. The ammo blew up and damaged it
badly. Do you know the Sphinx in Egypt?”
“It looks like a lion with a person’s face?”
“Yes, it’s a huge tourist attraction. Well, someone broke off the nose.
The famous painting The Last Supper, by Leonardo da Vinci, was
seriously damaged when they tried to move it to a new location.”
“Why would they move it?” Jack asked.
“Beats me,” Dad replied. “The point is, people break almost everything
we touch. But the good news is that God is in the fixing business.”
“Will He fix my iPod?”
“No, He doesn’t magically repair our broken toys,” Dad said. “But He
can work to heal our sadness and our broken hearts.”
“I wish He fixed electronics,” Jack said.
“I believe that someday He will repair everything that matters. And the
things that He doesn’t restore won’t matter.”
“When will that happen?” Jack asked.
“Soon,” Dad said. “I hope it’s soon.”

—Kim

“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds” (Psalm

147:3).
 February 8

A man who wants to lead the orchestra

must turn his back on the crowd.
—Max Lucado

B
ritain’s Natural Environment Research Council was excited. They
were about to build a new icebreaker for polar exploration. Then
they had an idea: Why not let everyone share in the excitement by inviting
the public to name the ship? So they announced a poll. Then they wished
they hadn’t.
The public saw the poll as a great opportunity to exercise their British
sense of humor. Suggested names for the three-hundred-million-dollar ship
included RRS Not the Titanic, RRS What Iceberg, and RRS Ice Ice Baby
(RRS stands for Royal Research Ship). Also in the running were RRS Big
Metal Floaty Thingy-thing, and one of special interest to Jamaican sports
fans, RRS Usain Boat.
But the name that tickled the fancy of the most Brits was RRS Boaty
McBoatface. At the end of the contest, McBoatface had 124,000 votes,
more than four times the second place choice. The people at the Natural
Environment Research Council said, “Um, we had hoped for something
more serious. How about the name of a nice Arctic explorer?”
Meanwhile, the joke spawned countless silly riffs. A UK train service
from Portsmouth to Waterloo was briefly renamed “Trainy McTrainface,”
much to the amusement of its passengers. A grocery store debuted a new
dairy product: “Cheesy McCheeseface.” A British zoo got worried about
the naming of its newest penguin chick and banned “Penguin
McPenguinface” as an option.
This story may serve as a reminder that sometimes you can have fun
with a crowd, but you can’t depend on them to always lead you in the right
direction. You don’t want to end up as a Lemming McLemmingface, if
you know what I mean.

—Kim

“Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong” (Exodus 23:2, NIV).
 February 9

I grew up like a neglected weed—ignorant

of liberty, having no experience of it.
—Harriet Tubman

H
arriet woke to see two slave traders standing over her.
“She’ll never give an honest day’s work,” said one.
“Not worth sixpence,” said the other, and they both walked away.
Harriet’s master wanted to get rid of the girl. She hadn’t been well since
the time he had thrown a two-pound weight that had hit her in the
forehead. She would fall asleep suddenly while she was carrying water or
sewing.
Day after day her owner would lead buyers to the slave cabin, but each
one would shake his head and walk away.
As time went on, the girl grew stronger. She determined that she would
be free from slavery. “There was one of two things I had a right to,” she
explained later, “liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the
other.”
The time came when she escaped from the Maryland plantation where
she had been raised and made her way to the free states in the North. But
then she did something unexpected. She came back to Maryland, where
there was a price on her head as a runaway slave. She came back to help
her parents escape. Then she came back again and again to help other
families escape.
When the Civil War began, Harriet worked for the Union Army, first as
a cook and nurse and later as an armed scout and spy. She became the first
woman to lead an armed expedition in the war; she guided soldiers on a
raid, which liberated more than seven hundred slaves. Many of the
liberated men went on to join the army.
As the war ended, she worked in hospitals for the sick and wounded.
Every job that Harriet Tubman took on, she did with energy and
determination. Today she is remembered as a hero. In fact, plans are
underway to feature her picture on the United States twenty-dollar bill. I
guess that slave trader was wrong when he said she wasn’t worth sixpence.

—Kim

“What is the price of two sparrows—one copper coin? But not a single
sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it” (Matthew
10:29, NLT).
 February 10

If you want something done right, do it yourself.

—Charles-Guillaume Étienne

M
ichael was deeply involved in a do-it-yourself project. He was
switching screens on his iPhone when he noticed smoke coming
from circuits inside the case. “Oh, no!” he cried. The phone that he had
saved up to buy was now ruined.
I can think of other do-it-yourself projects that have gone wrong. Like
the time I was putting up a wall in my house and sliced open my thumb
like a potato. Or the time I tried to fix the car and didn’t.
Of course, we try to do things ourselves to save money or just because it
looks fun. But the strangest do-it-yourself story that I’ve seen lately
involves a Russian named Leonid Rogozov. He was the doctor on an
expedition that left for the Antarctic in 1960.
The twelve men at the Russian base were soon cut off from the outside
world by the extreme polar winter. That’s when Dr. Rogozov came down
with appendicitis. Great. If anyone else had needed an appendix removed,
he could do it. But there were no other physicians in the group who could
perform the surgery for him.
His fever rose, and he was throwing up. “I did not sleep at all last
night,” he wrote in his diary. “It hurts like the devil! A snowstorm
whipping through my soul, wailing like a hundred jackals. . . . This is it . . .
I have to think through the only possible way out: to operate on myself.”
He had one of his comrades hold a mirror and showed another how to
hold the instruments that would keep open the skin. Another friend stood
ready to fill in if one of the first two fainted. Then he sliced open his own
stomach. He had to pause every few minutes because of weakness and
vertigo. But he finished the operation and recovered fully.
While you can try to do many things yourself, there is one thing you
cannot do. You cannot make yourself good enough for heaven. You need
Jesus to give you a new heart. It’s one operation you can’t do on yourself.

—Kim

“Who can say, ‘I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin’ ”?
(Proverbs 20:9).
 February 11

It was pride that changed angels into devils;

it is humility that makes men as angels.
—Augustine of Hippo

W
hen it came to prehistoric parties, nobody did them like the
American Indians of the Pacific Northwest. Their feasts went on
for days. People enjoyed theatrical performances and dances. They ate
berries and fish. Lots of fish. In fact, it was their easy access to fish that
made them the richest tribes north of Mexico.
These parties, which the Indians called a potlatch, had a strange twist.
When you have a birthday party, you hope that people will bring you gifts,
right? Well, at a potlatch the host of the party gave away gifts to the
guests. And the more he gave away, the more status he had. He would
hand out blankets (it can get chilly in Vancouver) and carved masks.
Whole canoes were presented as gifts. The most valuable objects you
could own at that time were hand-beaten copper shields. Even those
“coppers” were given away.
Each chief who threw a potlatch party tried to outdo the one before. And
then things started getting weird. Chiefs would show how rich they were
by how much they could afford to waste. One thing they liked to drink at
potlatches was fish oil (yum!). As they drank the stinky goo from a cup,
they would make a show of letting it spill out of the sides of their mouths.
Then they would make bonfires and throw valuables on them just because
they could. They would take their copper shields to cliffs overlooking the
ocean and toss them into the sea. And finally—this is pretty sad—they got
to where they would kill a slave for no other purpose than to show they
could afford it.
The potlatch is an example of how a happy time can be poisoned by
pride and even progress to evil acts of murder. Next time you throw a
party, be sure to leave pride off the guest list.

—Kim

“For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes,
and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world” (1 John
2:16).
 February 12

Kindness is the only service that will

stand the storm of life and not wash out.
—Abraham Lincoln

A
braham Lincoln may be the most widely admired of Americans.
You can tell this by the number of states in the country that claim
him. In Illinois, the license plates say “Land of Lincoln.” In Kentucky,
they say “Birthplace of Lincoln.” And if you look around in Indiana, you
can find some license plates that say “Lincoln’s Boyhood Home.” I
wonder if California has a plate in the works that says, “The Place Lincoln
Really Wanted to Visit.”
We admire Lincoln as a great leader. But he is also remembered for his
kindness, which is obvious in this story he told about his childhood.
“When we lived in Indiana,” he said, “once in a while my mother used
to get some sorghum and ginger and make some gingerbread. It wasn’t
often, and it was our biggest treat.
“One day I smelled the gingerbread and came into the house to get my
share while it was still hot. My mother had baked me three gingerbread
men. I took them out under a hickory tree to eat them.
“There was a family near us poorer than we were, and their boy came
along as I sat down. ‘Abe,’ he said, ‘gimme a man?’ I gave him one. He
crammed it into his mouth in two bites and looked at me while I was biting
the legs off my first one. ‘Abe,’ he said, ‘gimme that other’n.’
“I wanted it myself, but I gave it to him and as it followed the first I said
to him, ‘You seem to like gingerbread.’
 “ ‘Abe,’ he said, ‘I don’t s’pose anybody on earth likes gingerbread
better’n I do—and gets less’n I do.’ ”
Is there a kid you know who longs to share something you have? Maybe
they love birthday parties but never get invited. Or maybe they enjoy
swimming but never have a chance to go to the pool. Look for an
opportunity to be kind today. You may not get your name on a license
plate, but you’ll make an impression that won’t soon be forgotten.

—Kim

“Is this not the fast that I have chosen . . . to share your bread with the
hungry, and that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out . . . ?”
(Isaiah 58:6, 7).
 February 13

Most good things have been said far

too many times and just need to be lived.
—Shane Claiborne

S
andra White, a student at Union College, sat in church listening to a
sermon about the parable of the great banquet. That’s the banquet
where the host’s friends make lame excuses for why they can’t come. So
finally the host tells his servant, “Go out quickly into the streets and lanes
of the city, and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the
blind.”
The young preacher paused. “What if Jesus really meant what He said?
What if He really meant for us to go out into the streets and invite the poor
to a banquet?”
Sandra thought about that. Was God asking her to do something? She
couldn’t get it out of her head, and one day she heard herself ask the
school chaplain, “What if we did a Valentine’s banquet for the homeless?”
Though she felt overwhelmed by the amount of work in organizing a
banquet, Sandra began to make plans. She invited residents from the city
homeless shelter. They were a bit suspicious, but she kept at it. She lined
up the food and found other students to provide musical entertainment.
What would her guests wear? They had only the clothes they could
carry with them. Other students helped Sandra drum up donations of
tuxedos and formal dresses. They even found matching shoes for the
women.
“God worked a miracle,” remembers Sandra. The donated dresses came
in the exact colors and sizes that the guests wanted.
Student volunteers did the women’s hair and makeup. “I feel pretty! Oh,
so pretty!” two women sang as they sashayed into the banquet hall.
The suspicion of the homeless turned into enthusiasm. “By the time we
got there, everyone was laughing and hugging,” Sandra recalled when she
talked to The Clocktower, the Union College newspaper.
The evening was a brilliant success for both the homeless and the forty
student volunteers who pitched in to help. “I thought it was ridiculous for
God to ask this of me,” Sandra admitted. “But when we give time to God,
it’s amazing how He gives back.”

—Kim

“Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here
the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind” (Luke 14:21).
 February 14

Dear Valentine, I love you. Whoever you are.

—Charlie Brown

P
oor Charles Schulz. He was desperately in love with the red-headed
girl in the accounting department at work. When he finally worked
up the courage to propose, she said, “No, I’m already engaged.”
Would she have changed her mind if she knew that Charles would
become the most famous cartoonist of all time? Who knows? But if she
had said “yes,” maybe Charles would never have been inspired to create
Charlie Brown, an always sad character who never failed to make us
laugh.
Charlie always got his kite stuck in a tree. “Good grief,” he would say.
When he wanted to kick a football, his “friend” Lucy would pull it away at
the last instant, leaving Charlie sprawled on the ground.
Somehow, Charlie Brown’s failures made us feel better. We laughed
when he said, “Sometimes I lie awake at night, and ask, ‘Where have I
gone wrong?’ Then a voice says to me, ‘This is going to take more than
one night.’ ”
We could also sympathize with Charlie’s pet beagle Snoopy, who said,
“Yesterday I was a dog. Today I’m a dog. Tomorrow I’ll probably still be
a dog. Sigh! There’s so little hope for advancement.”
The Charlie Brown comic strip appeared in twenty-six hundred papers
in twenty-one different languages. It made Charles Schulz rich and
famous. But he was always able to tap into that sense of failure that we
often feel at school and at home. He once said, “You can’t create humor
out of happiness. I’m astonished at the number of people who write to me
saying, ‘Why does Charlie Brown always have to lose? Why can’t you let
him kick the football?’ Well, there is nothing funny about the person who
gets to kick the football.”
Maybe Charles Schulz would not have been able to make as many
people laugh if he hadn’t known what it was like to be sad. And it also
means a lot to me that Jesus lived as a human being and knows what we
are going through. Maybe there really is a “good grief.”

—Kim

“We do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our
weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as
we are” (Hebrews 4:15, NIV).
 February 15

Only in the agony of parting do we

look into the depths of love.
—George Eliot

M
y German relatives had a very hard time saying goodbye.
Uncle Bruno, Aunt Elsie, Great-Aunt Blondina, and my cousins
Heidi and Lisa would vacation with us every summer at my grandparents’
house. When the day came for them to leave, they’d pile into their station
wagon, riding low from beach chairs stacked on the roof and a cooler
crammed with leftovers.
Then Uncle Bruno would begin driving very slowly down Yorkshire
Avenue. The rest of the family hung out of the open windows, crying,
waving, and blowing kisses. Great-Aunt Blondina always waved her tear-
stained handkerchief.
Inching along at no more than five miles per hour, the old car took a
good six minutes to reach the end of the street. That whole time they
waved and blew kisses, while my grandparents, my parents, my sister, and
I stood in the middle of the street doing the same.
We waved until we saw the brake lights illuminate at the stop sign.
Then, just as Uncle Bruno turned right to go to the expressway, he’d beep
twice, signaling a final farewell. We didn’t go inside the house until we
heard that sound.
When we visited them at their home in Long Island, they gave us the
same send-off. One day as we were driving away, my mother dabbed her
eyes and said, “I think the best thing about heaven will be never having to
say goodbye again.”
That next Friday evening for family worship my mom played hymns on
the piano as the rest of us sang along. As usual, she played one of her
favorites: “Never Part Again.” And as usual, I sang the familiar words:
“What! Never part again? No, never part again, and soon we shall with
Jesus reign, and never, never part again.”
Since those childhood summers we’ve buried my mother, my
grandparents, Uncle Bruno, Aunt Elsie, and Great-Aunt Blondina. We’ve
said goodbye to them for the last time.
No, not the last time. They will awake to a different signal—the trumpet
of God. Then the tears will be happy ones, and we will never part again.

—Lori

“This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come
in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11).
 February 16

The propitious smiles of heaven, can never be expected

on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order
and right, which Heaven itself has ordained.
—George Washington

L
ooking across the backyard of his Virginia home, George
Washington could see the Potomac River. He dreamed of making the
river a highway for boats to carry goods from Washington, DC, to Western
Maryland.
The dream came true, but it took a lot of work. For a wage of eight
dollars a day and three square meals, laborers dug a canal along the river
for fifty miles. Every so often they made a gated “lock” that could be filled
with water to raise boats to the next level of the canal.
Boats were pulled by mules along a path beside the canal. A single mule
could tow a boat with one hundred tons of cargo. The main cargo was coal,
coming down from the mountains to warm homes in the capital city.
Captains lived on the boats with their families from April to December.
They kept small kids on leashes so they wouldn’t tumble overboard.
Captains always kept their boats moving because they were paid by the
trip. “It never rains, snows, or blows for a boatman, and a boatman never
has no Sundays,” said one captain. “We don’t know it’s Sunday, till we see
some folks along the way, dressed up and a-gin’ to Sunday School.”
The Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Canal Company felt guilty that the
boatmen didn’t keep a Sabbath of any kind. So they decided to close the
canal on Sundays. But the boatmen would have none of it. They broke
padlocks on the lock gates and turned to violence when confronted. The
company gave up.
When God gave us the Sabbath commandment, He wanted us to have a
holiday every week! He wanted to give busy moms and dads a day when
they could relax with the kids. But many families miss out because, like
the boatmen, they feel they can’t lay down their burdens for even one day.
These days, the C&O Canal towpath still exists. Sometimes I take a
walk on the towpath with the family. And guess what day of the week I
have the time to do that? You guessed it—the Sabbath.

—Kim

“Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is
the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work” (Exodus
20:9, 10).
 February 17

Isn’t it nice to think that tomorrow

is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?
—Anne of Green Gables

I will admit that I made a mistake. But I still blame Eddie for what
happened.
Eddie and I were taking swimming lessons at the local YMCA.
Apparently our parents were frustrated that we were lumbering land
mammals and wanted us to behave more like the fish of the sea. I
remember that we could not pass the class until we could float for twenty-
five minutes without touching the sides or the bottom of the pool. What
were we supposed to do? Stick Styrofoam in our swimming trunks?
After class one day I was in the locker room waiting for Eddie to finish
changing when I noticed an open locker. It looked empty and as tall as I
was. I wonder if I could fit in there, I thought. That’s when I made my
mistake. I squeezed into the locker. Then Eddie made his mistake. He
came into the room, and seeing me in the locker, slammed the metal door
shut.
“Hey!” I said from within the darkness of the locker. “Let me out.”
“I can’t,” said Eddie, who sounded a little worried. “There’s a padlock
on the door.” He hadn’t seen the lock until the door had clicked shut.
“Let me out,” I hollered again, completely losing my cool and instantly
developing a fear of tight spaces that would last me for the rest of my life.
Eddie asked the grown-ups nearby for help. I remember their voices
saying, “How did he get locked in there?” After hearing the story several
times, a resourceful adult went to the exercise room and came back with a
weight-lifting bar. He started smashing the padlock. The locker clanged
and shook with each explosive hit.
And then the door opened and I was back in the light.
We all make mistakes. I’m glad that God is ready to forgive us for our
mistakes. The Bible says that His mercies “are new every morning.” To
me that sounds like we get a fresh start every day. And when you make as
many mistakes as this lumbering land mammal does, that sounds pretty
good.

—Kim

“Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed, because His

compassions fail not. They are new every morning” (Lamentations 3:22,
23).
 February 18

The most powerful weapon to conquer the devil is humility.

For, as he does not know at all how to employ it, neither
does he know how to defend himself from it.
—Vincent de Paul

T
he lawyer Edwin Stanton was miffed. He found out that another
young lawyer from Illinois named Abraham Lincoln had been hired
to work on the same important case that he was working on. Edwin
immediately asked that the “long-arm ape” be removed from the case.
Ed had other names for Abe, sometimes calling him a “nincompoop.” If
someone called you an ape and a nincompoop, would you want to work
with him? Probably not. But when Lincoln became president, he made
Stanton his Secretary of War.
During this time, a congressman called on the president to urge that
soldiers from the Eastern states and from the West be mingled within
Army groups. The president agreed that this would promote a spirit of
national unity and wrote a note to the Secretary of War, suggesting a
transfer of some of the regiments.
Edwin Stanton refused to carry it out. “But we have the president’s
order, sir,” said the congressman.
“Did Lincoln give you an order of that kind?” asked the secretary.
“He did, sir.”
“Then he is a fool!” was the response.
Returning to the executive mansion, the congressman reported what had
happened.
 “Did Stanton say I was a fool?” asked Mr. Lincoln.
“He did, sir; and repeated it.”
“If Stanton said I was a fool,” concluded the president thoughtfully,
“then I must be one; for he is nearly always right.”
Lincoln wandered over to the office of his Secretary of War and—after
discussing the matter—ended up agreeing with him.
This little story shows the beauty of real humility. Humility doesn’t get
angry about insults. There is no need to defend your pride by fighting with
those who have a low opinion of you. Real humility means being willing
to admit you made a mistake.
Lincoln’s humility may have been one reason that Edwin Stanton
stopped insulting Lincoln and called him “the most perfect ruler of men
the world has ever seen.”

—Kim

“Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another
in love” (Ephesians 4:2, NIV).
 February 19

Until one has loved an animal, a part

of one’s soul remains unawakened.
—Anatole Francis

T
he posters showed up on telephone poles and shop windows all over
the London neighborhood. It was a picture of a brown Labrador
retriever standing at attention. The main headline said “Missing.” But the
next line was the one that got my attention: “£5,000 reward for any
information leading to the safe return of our adored family dog.”
That reward was equivalent to $6,500 at the time, which sounds like a
lot of money. But three months earlier, a $20,000 reward had been posted
for a missing cat in Marina Del Ray, California. The reward for the
leopard-like Savannah cat had started at $5,000, then the owner had
bumped it up twice. And they did get their pet back.
If you’re not a cat person, twenty grand seems like too much to spend
on a cat when you could use it to buy a swimming pool or maybe a car.
But if you’re a cat person, then you might understand how any amount of
money would be worth getting back Mr. Cuddleston.
If I ever write my own paraphrase of the Bible, I might change the story
of the lost sheep. That’s the story that shows how much Jesus would do to
get one of us back if we strayed from the church community. It’s a great
story, but I’ve never had any sheep. So I’ve never come close to
experiencing the loss of a sheep. The closest I’ve come is misplacing a
wool sweater.
I would make it the parable of the lost pet. We all know the panic when
we can’t find a pet. We remember calling our pet’s name at full volume
around the neighborhood. Maybe we drove around with Mom or Dad with
our eyes sweeping back and forth in super-scanning radar mode.
This represents God’s concern about you. If you went missing, it would
be like losing a part of His family. What reward would He offer for you?
Well, I guess the answer to that is in the price He has already paid.

—Kim

“When he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors,

saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was
lost!’ ” (Luke 15:6).
 February 20

What we give to the poor, we lend to the Lord.

—Sojourner Truth

I need a place to hide,” said Isabella, who held a baby girl in her arms. She
was obviously an escaped slave.
Isaac and Maria looked at each other. They were members of a Christian
group called Quakers, who were opposed to slavery. Of course they would
help. They took Isabella into their home and offered her a job. But their
life was about to get more complicated. Isabella’s former owner, a man
named Dumont, arrived at the home, threatening “Bella” with punishment
for running away.
“You must go back with me,” he commanded.
“No, I won’t go back with you,” she replied decisively.
“Well, I shall take the child,” he said.
That’s when Isaac stepped into the conversation. Rather than have
Isabella taken by force, he would buy her services. Dumont demanded
twenty-five dollars, about six hundred dollars in today’s money. Isaac paid
it, buying the freedom of mother and child.
Isabella would eventually change her name to Sojourner Truth and
become a traveling preacher, speaking out for equal rights for slaves and
for women. She would walk into a town and set up a banner that said,
“Proclaim liberty throughout all the land and to all the inhabitants thereof.”
She sang hymns until a crowd gathered, and then she would begin to
speak.
People were amazed at the power of her words. Even though she could
not read, she seemed to know the Bible by memory. Listeners loved her
quick wit. At one meeting a man called out, “Old woman, I don’t care any
more for your talk than I do for the bite of a flea.”
“The Lord willing,” replied Sojourner, “I’ll keep you scratching.
She did keep America scratching at the problem of slavery until the
Civil War broke out and brought about its end in North America. Her
freedom, purchased by a kindly Christian many years before, helped buy
freedom for every slave.

—Kim

“You shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout
all the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you; and each of
you shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his
family” (Leviticus 25:10).
 February 21

The way to love anything is to realize that it may be lost.

—G. K. Chesterton

I had never seen fourteen-year-old Reef so upset in church. His world had
been turned upside down, and he gave full vent to his anguish. Without
consulting him, the deacons had replaced the church water fountain. They
didn’t know that Reef had formed a sentimental attachment to the old
appliance.
“Ever since I was a baby, I drank from that fountain,” explained Reef.
“It was the coldest water. It was so great! I loved it like my stuffed
animals. I promised it that I would never let anything happen to it and that
it would always be my precious drinking fountain.” And then he shuffled
into church one day and discovered it was gone!
It could be that Reef feels the loss of things more than the average kid.
I’ve known him for a long time, and I remember his soul-rending grief
over losing a Hot Wheels car at the beach. Then there was the time his
parents decided to sell their ratty old car, and Reef threw himself over the
windshield, his body heaving with great, wet sobs.
And there was the time when he was walking through the woods as a
little tyke and found a small tree branch he could use as a walking stick.
Later, when he realized that it was lost, he mourned for that stick as if it
had been a collie dog.
Reef may go in for a little more drama than the rest of us, but we all hate
to lose stuff. Sometimes we take things for granted until they are gone.
Then we get all wet in the face. Today, it might be nice to take a moment
to appreciate the things—and the people—that we would hate to lose. Call
up your grandparents. Give your pet a good scratch. Play with your
favorite toy. Enjoy them while you can. Because nothing lasts forever in
this world. Not even drinking fountains.

—Kim

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Matthew
5:4).
 February 22

The things I want to know are in books; my best

friend is a man who’ll get me a book I ain’t read.
—Abraham Lincoln

I
magine a world without books. If you go back in time six hundred
years, that’s the way the world was. Oh, there were a few books, but
they were as rare as dancing bears. You might have found a few books in
the homes of the very rich or in monasteries, but most people never saw
one.
When Oxford University in England opened its first library for students,
all the books fit in one room. Unlike the libraries you know, this one didn’t
allow people to check out books. They were all chained to the wall.
That collection grew when a wealthy duke donated his “priceless”
collection of 281 manuscripts. You’ve probably seen more books at a yard
sale.
Anyone who used this library had to speak an oath that they would
follow the rules: not injure any volume and “not to bring into the Library,
or kindle therein, any fire or flame.” The librarians were so serious about
not risking the books being lost in a fire that the library was left unheated
all year long. At least one early librarian succumbed to pneumonia.
Of course you couldn’t bring in a candle to help you read in the dark.
The librarian would decide when the evening light was too low and would
simply close the place.
Now we have so many books that it’s easy to take them for granted.
Because we live in a world filled with books, we have easy access to
knowledge and experiences that can change our lives. Even though we no
longer have to chain books to the wall, they can still be unspeakably
valuable.

—Kim

“Bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas when you come—and
the books, especially the parchments” (2 Timothy 4:13).
 February 23

If to be feelingly alive to the sufferings of my

fellow-creatures is to be a fanatic, I am one of the
most incurable fanatics ever permitted to be at large.
—William Wilberforce

W
illiam Wilberforce impressed many people as a fanatic. As a
member of the English Parliament, he kept bringing up the same
cause for a vote. Between 1791 and 1805, he introduced laws supporting
his cause eight different times. They all failed. On one occasion he was
sure he was going to get a majority, but he lost when several of his
supporters skipped the vote in Parliament to attend a comic opera.
What was William’s hopeless cause? He was working for the end of the
slave trade in the British Empire. It was hopeless, people said. You had to
have slaves to work the sugarcane fields, so you obviously couldn’t avoid
buying slaves in Africa and selling them in the Caribbean.
But he knew about the horrific trip across the Atlantic for the slaves,
shackled side by side in the stifling hold of the ship for months at a time.
“Before this great cause,” William wrote, “all others dwindle in my eyes
. . . may I be the instrument of stopping such a course of wickedness and
cruelty as never before disgraced a Christian country.”
Working with a circle of Christian friends, William wrote a book against
the slave trade, distributed pamphlets, and held public meetings.
On this day in 1807, a final reading of a bill for the end of the slave
trade came to the House of Commons. Other ministers of Parliament spoke
in tribute to William’s efforts as tears streamed down his face. The law
against the slave trade passed.
William’s compassion for people extended far beyond his work to end
slavery. He was involved with sixty-nine different charities, including ones
that helped single mothers, orphans, and chimney sweeps—young boys
sent to do the dangerous work of climbing inside chimneys. He even
joined a society to prevent cruelty to animals.
Today, we can see how right William was and how terribly wrong his
opponents were. He wasn’t a fanatic. He was a hero.

—Kim

“Let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall
reap if we do not lose heart” (Galatians 6:9).
 February 24

Any port in a storm.

—Proverb

W
ell, the day had started out great.
Ian Watson was proud to be a new fighter pilot. Today was his
first military exercise. He and his flight leader had taken off from the
British carrier HMS Illustrious in their Harrier “Jump Jets.” Their mission
was to find a combat ship. To make the exercise as real as possible, they
maintained radio silence.
They split up to cover a wider area in their search and planned to meet
up at a spot marked on their navigation system. Ian, whom his friends
called “Soapy,” had returned to the spot, but there was no sign of his flight
leader. He was beginning to think his navigation system wasn’t working.
This was bad, because his fuel was low and all he could see out of his
cockpit was ocean.
He switched on his radios, but all his calls for assistance went
unanswered. Soapy was nervous now. He was about to get wet.
On his radar, a ship appeared fifty miles away. Soapy decided he would
fly near the ship and then eject close enough that the crew could pick him
up. As he made a low pass by the merchant vessel, he noticed that the
shipping containers on top of the deck created a flat spot where he just
might possibly land. He brought the Jump Jet into a hover and set it down
with a roar in front of the surprised sailors. He had one minute of fuel left
in his tanks.
When you get in trouble, you know you can always turn to God for
comfort and direction. But why wait until the situation is desperate? He
can give you the direction you need now to land in the right place.

—Kim

“They cry out to the LORD in their trouble,

And He brings them out of their distresses.
He calms the storm,
So that its waves are still.
Then they are glad because they are quiet;
So He guides them to their desired haven” (Psalm 107:28–30).
 February 25

If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.

—Booker T. Washington

B
ooker Washington was about the poorest boy on the planet. He had
no toys. He had no clothes except a single long shirt made out of a
rough material that he later said “made one feel as if a thousand needle
points were pricking his flesh.” Born a slave, he lived in a wooden shack
with a dirt floor and no windows.
Poor as he was, Booker didn’t dream of being rich. He dreamed of
learning to read. His mother couldn’t read either but tried to help by
getting him a book. He couldn’t go to school because the family hired him
out for every dime he could earn.
Booker begged and argued, and finally his stepfather agreed that he
could attend school if he got as much work as possible done before class
started. Booker started working at a factory at four in the morning. He
remembers the first day he could attend school as the happiest day of his
whole life.
But that didn’t last long. Soon he had to leave his studies to work in a
coal mine. Sometimes he would try to read a book by the flickering light
on his helmet. While deep underground, he heard other miners talking
about a school in Hampton, Virginia, that would accept boys of his race
and let them work off their tuition. He resolved to go there. In the fall of
his sixteenth year, he started walking the five hundred miles from his
home to the boarding school. Along the way, he slept on the ground and
worked odd jobs to get a little food.
 Can you imagine wanting to go to school that badly? Me neither.
After finishing at the Hampton school, Booker thought about becoming
a lawyer. Then he decided the best thing he could do with his life was to
give others what he had found so valuable—an education. He started the
Tuskegee Institute, which provided schooling for the children of slaves. He
started out as the poorest of the poor, but soon he and the thousands he
helped educate were lifted out of poverty.

—Kim

“How much better to get wisdom than gold! And to get understanding is
to be chosen rather than silver” (Proverbs 16:16).
 February 26

If evolution really works, how come

mothers only have two hands?
—Milton Berle

D
uring Creation, Jesus had a brilliant idea. “Here’s what We’re going
to do next,” He said. “We’re going to make animals that can swim
through the air.”
I like to think there was an audience of angels there, and I imagine that
when they saw the sky fill with bright, feathered creatures, they broke into
applause.
Maybe you like to watch birds at a feeder in your yard. You have to
admit that they are amazing. You may want to go ahead and give Jesus
some applause of your own.
Of course, there are many people who don’t give Jesus any credit at all
for our feathered friends. They have been taught that birds evolved from
dinosaurs. What that means is that a small dinosaur had a mutation or
deformity that made it a little bit like a bird. Then one of its great-
grandbabies had another mutation that happened to make it more like a
bird.
But here’s a big problem: The evolutionary theory of natural selection
says that each of these small changes must help the creature survive. If it
has wings and feathers and hollow bones, it can take off and escape its
earthbound predators. But if a creature has limbs that are partway between
arms and wings, they won’t work very well as either, and it will feel
horribly awkward when a toothy predator starts chasing it. Our partially
evolved friend can’t say, “Please come back in a million years when I’m
finished working on these feathers.”
Evolutionary scientists are trying to figure out how the ancestors of
birds survived during the time after having useful arms and before those
limbs became useful wings. It is not a puzzle for us because we know the
Creator.

—Kim

“God created . . . every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw
that it was good” (Genesis 1:21).
 February 27

If we had no faults, we should not take

so much pleasure in noting those of others.
—François de La Rochefoucauld

A
t the close of one of those many wars that make up European
history, the chancellor of Germany, Otto von Bismarck, had a
meeting with Harry von Arnim, one of his top diplomats. While the two
great men talked in Bismarck’s office, the British prime minister, Lord
John Russell, waited outside for his appointment.
As Harry emerged from his meeting, he greeted the Brit. “I don’t know
how Bismarck can stand it!” said the diplomat. “He never stops smoking
those strong Havana cigars of his. I had to request him to open the
window.”
When it was Lord Russell’s turn to meet with the chancellor, he walked
in to find the leader of Germany standing at the open window laughing.
“Russell, Arnim was just in here, and he had so much cologne on him that
I simply couldn’t stand it. I had to open the window.
It’s easy to get in trouble when you criticize others because you might
be guilty of a similar fault. When my son was young, he shared a
grievance with me. He said, “I don’t like it when I’m looking for one of
my toys and you say, ‘You should be more careful.’ What about that time
when we were in a store and you lost me?”
Yeah, the boy had me there. It reminds me of that expression “People in
glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.” Actually, Jesus said it better when
He told those who had brought a woman to Him for punishment, “Let any
one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” I think
His advice applies whether you’re getting ready to chuck a stone or throw
out a criticism.

—Kim

“Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at
her” (John 8:7, NIV).
 February 28

Respect old people: they graduated

high school without Google and Wikipedia.
—Unknown

O
ne day my ninety-three-year-old grandmother called me. She had
bad news. “They took away my driver’s license,” she said.
She had gone to the Department of Motor Vehicles to get her license
renewed. But they took her old one and didn’t give her a new one.
In her heavy German accent she explained what she did wrong during
her driving test (according to the driving inspector): “I didn’t turn my head
at one street. I knew no one was coming!”
Grandma continued: “And the inspector said to me, ‘You can’t make
your signs.’ ”
“What?” I asked her. “You mean hand signals?”
“Yes!” Grandma exclaimed. “We made those signs sixty years ago!
Now we have everything inside the car—signals and lights. Why do we
have to make signs out the window?”
I felt bad for Grandma because this was a real blow to her. She owned a
car, yet she couldn’t drive it anymore. “When things go like this,” she said
to me, “you feel very old and ready to die.”
The day is coming when you’ll be getting your driver’s license. And I
think about my grandma losing hers.
So I just have this to say: When you’re out there on the road and you see
someone like my grandma—someone older who’s maybe driving slower
than you like, or not the way you learned to drive—be patient. Because
driving means as much to them as it will to you.

—Lori

“Show respect for the elderly and revere your God” (Leviticus 19:32,
NIV).
 March 1

A God wise enough to create me and the world I live in is wise

enough to watch out for me.
—Philip Yancey

T
he church went boom! Joyce Black, who lived across the street from
the West Side Baptist Church in Beatrice, Nebraska, was just going
out the door when she saw the church explode in front of her. She watched
sheet music floating down from the air. It gave her a funny feeling because
she realized she should have been in that church when it detonated at 7:25
P.M. Choir practice started at 7:20, and she was in choir. But she had felt

lazy and had put off going outside on that cold March evening.
But what about the other fourteen choir members? Were they blown to
pieces by the natural gas leak? According to Unsolved Mysteries and the
Beatrice Daily Sun, this is what happened:
Rowena Vandegrift and her sister weren’t there because their car had
broken down and their alternate ride was late. Two high school students,
who usually rode together to choir practice, were also tardy because one
insisted on listening to the end of a radio program.
The pastor, his wife, and his daughter were late because the daughter’s
dress got stained and the wife was ironing another. One choir member was
working on an important letter. Another man was late because he lost track
of time. The pianist for the choir had planned to arrive thirty minutes early,
but fell asleep after dinner, causing her and her mother to be late.
That’s right. All of the people who were usually on time for choir
practice were delayed by one thing or another. What a coincidence! Or
was it?
“It was an absolute miracle,” Rowena told the Beatrice Daily Sun. “It’s
a reminder that God watches over all of us.”

—Kim

“He shall give His angels charge over you,

To keep you in all your ways.
In their hands they shall bear you up,
Lest you dash your foot against a stone” (Psalm 91:11, 12).
 March 2

Do not judge, and you will never be mistaken.

—Jean-Jacques Rousseau

T
he British author Douglas Adams tells about a strange encounter he
had in a train station in Cambridge, England. He was early for his
train, so he went to get a newspaper and a package of cookies. He sat at a
table, opened up the paper, and began to do the crossword puzzle.
There was another man sitting at the same table. Douglas described him
as a “perfectly ordinary-looking guy wearing a business suit, carrying a
briefcase. It didn’t look like he was going to do anything weird. What he
did was this: he suddenly leaned across, picked up the packet of cookies,
tore it open, took one out, and ate it.”
Douglas was shocked. “There’s nothing in our background, upbringing,
or education that teaches you how to deal with someone who in broad
daylight has just stolen your cookies. . . . In the end, I did what any red-
blooded Englishman would do: I ignored it. And I stared at the
newspaper.”
He decided to go ahead and take a cookie for himself. That settled him,
thought Douglas. But it hadn’t, because a moment or two later his
tablemate took another cookie. Douglas couldn’t believe the boldness of
this thief. There was nothing sneaky about the way he took it. Did this
sinner have no shame—no sense of guilt?
The two men went through all the cookies, never saying anything. After
the cookies were gone, the other man stood up to leave. “We exchanged
meaningful looks,” remembers Douglas. “Then he walked away, and I
breathed a sigh of relief.” But when Douglas stood up and picked up his
newspaper, underneath sat his unopened package of cookies!
This story is a good example of why God tells us not to judge one
another. The minute we call someone a sinner, our own sins may be
revealed.

—Kim

“Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall
not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven” (Luke 6:37).
 March 3

I miss you like the mismatching sock

I can’t find. You’re out there somewhere.
—Karen Quan

D
o you ever lose something in the house? You know it’s there
somewhere, but it seems like an evil gremlin has hidden it. When
I’m looking for a charging cable, I find that the evil gremlin was usually a
family member who needed to power up their phone.
But there are deeper mysteries. For example, I lose a lot of socks. They
just disappear. They can’t be in the house because their combined mass
would be the size of a refrigerator. Stranger still, only one sock in a pair
will disappear. I have a sad little box with the single socks that have been
left behind. I keep hoping they will be reunited with their missing twins
and that there will be scenes of rejoicing in Sockville.
Actually, some people in New Zealand found a believable answer to the
mystery of missing socks. According to the Independent newspaper, a cat
has been stealing socks from the East Hamilton neighborhood and bringing
them back to her home. Six-year-old Brigit has stolen fifty socks and
eleven pairs of underwear. “It’s all men’s. It’s really, really weird,” says
the cat’s owner, Sarah Nathan.
Sarah has posted leaflets around the local area apologizing for her cat’s
thievery and offering to return socks and underwear. Maybe the owners are
too embarrassed to claim them.
Jesus told a story about a woman who lost a silver coin in her house.
She had no idea where it went. So she went over every inch of the place
with a broom, looking for the precious coin. When she found it, she called
the neighbors and said, “Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which
I lost!”
That is a story about how much God does not want to lose you. It says
you are more precious in His sight than silver. And much more precious
than socks.

—Kim

“What woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not
light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it?”
(Luke 15:8).
 March 4

When God closes a door, He always opens a window.

—Oscar Hammerstein

H
ey, here’s a riddle. What ancient invention allows you to look
through walls? Can you guess?
A window! Windows are a pretty amazing invention, aren’t they? They
let you look outside without having to go outside. Without windows, some
of us wouldn’t know when to complain about the weather. Windows also
let light in the house without letting in the cold air, which is important at
this time of year.
Humans waited a long time for windows because they needed someone
to invent plate glass. In the meantime, China, Korea, and Japan used paper
to let in some light while keeping out the chilly winds. In other countries
they used flattened pieces of transparent animal horns and even thinly
sliced pieces of marble.
Shortly after the time of Christ, the Romans began to flatten lumps of
glass that were hard to see through, but could still let sunlight into their
homes. Clear glass panes didn’t start showing up in homes until the time of
the Pilgrims.
Of course, everyone who could afford windows bought them. Then,
almost immediately, governments began to tax them. In England, you paid
the tax if you had more than ten windows in your house. If you had more
than twenty windows, they figured you were doing pretty well for
yourself, so you paid even more.
So, what did people do? They bricked over their windows so they could
pay less. And they complained. “Why are you taxing us for light and air?”
they asked. So after 155 years of hearing the public grumble, the
government of Great Britain decided to get their money elsewhere.
In the Bible, windows represent God’s goodness and generosity to each
of us. His light and blessings shine down on us from the windows of
heaven. Let’s see a government try to tax that!

—Kim

“ ‘Try Me now in this,’

Says the LORD of hosts,
‘If I will not open for you the windows of heaven
And pour out for you such blessing
That there will not be room enough to receive it’ ” (Malachi 3:10).
 March 5

I am a great believer in luck, and I find the

harder I work, the more I have of it.
—Thomas Jefferson

I am indebted to Sarah Coleman for writing about the Australian

expression “pulling a Bradbury.” She says it means “to unexpectedly
achieve success.”
The term comes from a surprising turn of events at the 2002 Winter
Olympics.
On the evening of the one-thousand-meter short-course speed skate in
Salt Lake City, Australian Steven Bradbury lined up to race the
quarterfinals. Already the story is strange. What was an Australian doing
in the winter games to begin with? They hardly have winter. The weather
bureau doesn’t even measure snowfall in most of the country. Lakes don’t
freeze, so where Steven learned to skate, I don’t know.
But he had competed in international speed skating for twelve years.
During his career he was cut by a competitor’s skates, losing a gallon of
blood and needing 111 stitches. Later he broke his neck and was told he
would never skate again. Steven pushed on and made it to Salt Lake City.
He did well enough to get to the quarters.
When the starting pistol fired, Steven raced with all he had. He came in
third, yet advanced to the semi-final when another skater was disqualified.
After a spill sent his opponents sprawling in the next race, our hero found
himself lining up for an Olympic final.
Steven skated his best, but trailed the pack the entire race. As they
rounded the last turn, the Chinese skater fell, wiping out the rest of the
field with him. All except for Steven Bradbury.
Steven dodged the falling bodies and swept across the finish line in first
place. Sarah says that was Australia’s first winter Olympic gold medal.
Ever.
That’s pulling a Bradbury. Some people might say that he was just
lucky. And maybe he was. But if he had never practiced and trained to be a
good speed skater, he would never have been in the Olympics in the first
place. All the luck in the world wouldn’t have helped him.
Success usually takes some combination of your own hard work and a
blessing from somewhere else. Sometimes that blessing comes from
above.

—Kim

“The horse is prepared for the day of battle, but deliverance is of the
LORD” (Proverbs 21:31).
 March 6

Wherever there is a human being

there is an opportunity for a kindness.
—Seneca the Younger

L
enny knocked on the door of a house trailer parked in the backwoods
of Arkansas. An elderly woman invited him in, and he showed her
the Bible books he was selling to earn tuition for school. Soon it became
clear that she had no money to spare. Elsie had just lost her home in a fire.
She had escaped with her life but not much else. Even her dentures had
burned up in the flames.
“How do you eat?” asked Lenny.
“I have to mash up the food,” she said. “It sort of hurts to chew some
things. Especially rice.”
Lenny had prayer with Elsie and left. He kept thinking about what it
must be like to eat rice without teeth. Surely there was some government
program to help this woman, he thought. But after making some phone
calls, Lenny realized that it was up to him.
He called a local Christian dentist to find out how much dentures cost.
Dr. Clark tried to help by quoting a bottom-dollar price. It still sounded
like an adult amount of money, and Lenny was just a student. But if he
used some savings, he could make it work.
Lenny made arrangements for Elsie to visit the dentist, and the truth is,
he never missed the money. I mean, he really didn’t. Because later he got a
check from Dr. Clark. For some reason that no one could understand,
Elsie’s pension check had doubled for one month. She felt it was only right
to bring the extra money to the dentist who had made her dentures.
Many years have passed since then, and Lenny has never forgotten how
God gave him a kindness rebate.

—Kim

“Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will reward
them for what they have done” (Proverbs 19:17, NIV).
 March 7

I never would have been able to tithe the first

million dollars I ever made if I had not tithed
my first salary, which was $1.50 per week.
—John D. Rockefeller Sr.

B
efore Nathan Greene became a noted artist with illustrations
appearing on magazine covers, in hospital lobbies, and on your
bedroom wall, he was just a fresh college graduate who was no more
famous than your homeroom teacher. He did illustrations for whoever
would pay him and made just enough money for he and his wife, Patty, to
pay the bills.
“We were just scraping by,” says Nathan. And then a month came when
they simply didn’t have enough money to pay all the bills. They could
either pay tithe or pay the $175 rent on their tiny house in Berrien Springs,
Michigan.
Raised by parents who believed in giving God 10 percent of their
income, Nathan and Patty didn’t waver over the decision. That Sabbath
they put their tithe in the offering plate at church.
Later that week Nathan got a call from a high school art teacher who
wanted to stop by for a visit. “Sure. Come on over,” said Nathan. The next
day he welcomed his former teacher into his art studio, which was just a
bedroom in their rented house.
The teacher looked at some of Nathan’s drawings and pointed out three
of them. “I like to collect art from my former students,” he said. “Would
you be willing to sell these to me?”
 He took a wad of cash from his pocket. “This is all I have,” he said. “It’s
a hundred and seventy-five dollars. Is this enough?”
“It’s just enough,” said Nathan with a smile.
Nathan’s paintings often show Jesus standing beside us. Sometimes He
is guiding the hand of a surgeon or joining a family for worship. Nathan
believes that our Savior is involved in our lives because of that day when
God delivered the rent money—the exact amount they needed.

—Kim

“ ‘Bring all the tithes into the storehouse,

That there may be food in My house,
And try Me now in this,’
Says the LORD of hosts,
‘If I will not open for you the windows of heaven
And pour out for you such blessing
That there will not be room enough to receive it’ ” (Malachi 3:10).
 March 8

When my kids become wild and unruly, I use a nice,

safe playpen. When they’re finished, I climb out.
—Erma Bombeck

P
oor parents. They spend their days trying to get us to be nice to our
sister, get out of bed on time, and not be a person of interest in a
police investigation. But it’s not easy. We kids aren’t really trying to be
bad. We just forget to be good sometimes.
So parents are always trying to think of ways to help us remember how
we are supposed to act. Here, four kids recall their parents’ best
punishment ideas.
“When my sister was three, she kept biting me, which made me—her
baby sister—cry. My mom told her to stop several times, but with no
effect. Finally, fed up with my sister misbehaving, she leaned down,
picked up my sister, and bit her on the ear. My sister never bit me again.”
“When I was a kid I used to pretend I was going to throw a stick or ball
for my dogs, but then not let go. Until one day. After seeing my dogs’
crushing disappointment one time too many, my mom asked me if I
wanted a big slice of chocolate cake. To which I, naturally, replied ‘yes,’
only to be told, ‘Oh, sorry, we don’t have any.’ ”
“One time my father duct taped my brother and me back-to-back and sat
us on a stool until we could get along.”
“I had two chances to get out of bed for school before my mom did
something about it. ‘Time to get up,’ she said very nicely the first time.
Then, ‘Get out of bed,’ a little meaner. Finally, she would pour frozen
glass marbles under the covers with me.”
Parents keep trying to teach us to do what is right. They worry that
without their help, we won’t sit up straight at the table and will never send
thank-you notes after Christmas. That is their fear. But the real reason for
their punishments may be based in hope—the hope that we’ll be as good
as they wanted to be themselves.

—Kim

“No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on,
however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who
have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:11, NIV).
 March 9

If Barbie is so popular, why do you have to buy her friends?

—Steven Wright

I
t was on this day, sixty years ago, that the Barbie doll made its debut at
the American International Toy Fair. At that time, girls had not seen
dolls that looked like a grown-up. Most dolls resembled babies, designed
for girls to cradle, rock, and feed.
Ruth Handler had the idea for Barbies when she saw her daughter,
Barbara, and her friends playing with paper dolls. “They used the dolls to
reflect the adult world around them,” remembered Ruth. “They would sit
and carry on conversations, making the dolls real people.”
When Ruth took the idea for a teenage doll to her husband, a cofounder
at Mattel toy company, he didn’t get it. But when she found an actual doll
based on an adult being sold in Germany, the Mattel executives began to
see what Ruth was talking about.
Good thing they did, because Barbie—named after Ruth’s daughter—
became Mattel’s most successful toy ever. Even Ruth was surprised. “I did
not think this doll could ever be this huge,” she said. Over one billion
Barbie dolls have been sold, along with all her accessories, which include
houses, a Corvette convertible, and forty different pets. She has lots of
friends as well as siblings and cousins that you can buy.
Barbie has helped girls imagine themselves in almost any career. You
can get her in box sets with the outfits of an astronaut, a doctor, or a race
car driver. She has been both an airline attendant and an airline pilot.
Like Barbie, you can choose from lots of careers. Do you know what
you want to be when you grow up? You can pick a job just like picking a
Barbie off the toy shelf—choose whatever looks interesting at the moment.
Or you can ask Jesus to lead you into the career He wants for you. Since
He loves you and knows you better than anyone else, He understands what
line of work will bring you the most joy. Make Jesus your career
counselor, and just like with Barbie, everyone might be surprised by how
successful you are.

—Kim

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide
you with My eye” (Psalm 32:8).
 March 10

Mr. Watson—come here—I want to see you.

—Alexander Graham Bell

T
homas Watson achieved fame in the easiest way possible. He didn’t
invent anything. He didn’t say anything. Believe me, he didn’t
actually do anything. All he did was pay attention.
The event that earned him lasting fame happened on this very day in
1876. Alexander Graham Bell was experimenting with a way to transmit
the human voice over a telegraph wire. He had wires running to the next
room and a strange microphone that used a piece of stiff paper, a needle,
and a small reservoir of diluted acid. Thomas, the inventor’s assistant, was
stationed at the other end of the wire.
As a test, Alexander spoke into the microphone. “Mr. Watson—come
here—I want to see you.” Wonder of wonders, Thomas heard him in the
next room. All he provided was a listening ear, and now he is permanently
remembered as the first person to ever get a phone call. Alexander Graham
Bell is only slightly more famous for having invented the telephone, which
has had a bigger influence on our lives than any other modern gadget. In
fact, you probably stopped reading this devotional several sentences ago so
that you could check your phone for messages.
Do you think Thomas deserved to become famous? Well, we should
give him credit for paying attention. He heard the voice coming over the
wires. Wouldn’t it have been embarrassing if he missed his boss’s historic
phone call because he was busy checking sports scores?
Paying attention is one of the nicest things you can do for anybody,
including parents, teachers, and employers. And who knows? Maybe your
listening ear will find its place in history, just like Mr. Watson’s.

—Kim

“Listen and hear my voice; pay attention and hear what I say” (Isaiah
28:23, NIV).
 March 11

The things of nature are the Lord’s silent ministers,

given to us to teach us spiritual truths. They speak to
us of the love of God and declare the wisdom of
the great Master Artist.
—Ellen G. White

A
s a kid, Ashley was legally blind. She told her friends that she could
see light and dark, but no colors. So her friends tried to explain to
her what the different colors looked like. On the list-making site li.st,
Ashley remembered their descriptions.
Red: “They had me stand outside in the sun. They told me that the heat I
was feeling is red. They explained that red is the color of a burn, from
heat, embarrassment, or even anger.”
Green: “I held soft leaves and wet grass. They told me green felt like
life.”
Yellow: “I didn’t touch anything for this; they just told me that
whenever you laugh so hard you can’t stop, that is what yellow looks
like.”
Blue: “They put my hands in their pool. They told me that that sensation
I felt while swimming, that omnipresent coolness, that’s blue. Blue feels
like relaxation.”
Brown: “I held dirt, and I touched a tree. They told me brown felt like
earth and like crunchy leaves.”
Gray: “They told me that the rain is gray and that so is concrete or
cement.”
 Her friends did the best job they could to describe things that Ashley
couldn’t sense on her own. The Bible is like those friends. It tries to
explain God’s love to us, which is really beyond our understanding. The
Bible says that God’s love is like a mother’s love for her baby. It is like a
father’s love. It is as protective as a hen that covers her baby chicks with
her wings.
Spend some time reading the Bible today, and maybe you’ll see God’s
love in a way that you didn’t before.

—Kim

“O God, be merciful to me!

For my soul trusts in You;
And in the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge,
Until these calamities have passed by” (Psalm 57:1).
 March 12

Life sometimes gives you a second chance.

—Maya Angelou

G
uard this backpack with your life,” said Karen with a bright smile.
“I’m serious,” she added. “Take it with you to the bathroom, and
keep it beside you when you’re sleeping. These are all the documents we
need to get into the Dominican Republic—and get everyone home again.”
“OK,” I said. “No problem.”
I was at the Miami airport with thirty teenagers ready to embark on a
mission trip. Our next flight left in an hour, so I slung the backpack over
my shoulder and headed to the gift shop. Oh, those are fun sweatshirts, I
thought. Let me try one on.
Soon I noticed the time. I better head to the departure gate, I decided.
“We’ll need to get out everyone’s passports now,” Karen instructed as
she saw me.
“Sure,” I said. And then I felt a sudden flop and drop in my stomach.
Where was the pack?
“Oh—oh, no! Oh, my! I can’t believe this. I—I left the pack in the gift
shop!” I gasped as the realization hit me. I began to run, weaving my way
through travelers to reach the store.
Spotting the backpack lying on a display of sweatshirts, I grabbed it and
bolted back to the group. “Here,” I gulped to Karen. “It’s here—but I can’t
be trusted to guard it. Give this job to someone else.”
Karen smiled. “No, you keep it. You won’t lose it again.” Gently she
pushed the backpack into my hands.
 Her willingness to trust me surprised me—and challenged me. I won’t
let her down again! I determined.
Fortunately, I didn’t. When it came time to leave the Dominican
Republic, I handed everyone their passport and airline ticket home. As I
looked at each teenager, I realized that most had slapped mortar and laid
brick for the first time. They—like me—had been unskilled amateurs
entrusted with an important job, and we’d been given the grace and
strength to accomplish it. It dawned on me that God can use each of us,
even though we sometimes mess up and lose track of the pack.

—Lori

“The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases;

his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22, 23, ESV).
 March 13

Until you’re ready to look foolish, you’ll

never have the possibility of being great.
—Cher

W
hen Rick Barry made the basketball team in high school, his father
had a suggestion: Try making your free throw shots underhanded.
“I can’t do that,” Rick told him. “They’re going to make fun of me.”
Later, Rick changed his mind. He would try a “granny shot” during a
game. “My first time doing it, I was in Scotch Plains, N.J.,” Rick told the
Washington Post. “I hear this guy in the stands yell, ‘Hey, Barry, you big
sissy, why are you shooting like that?’ The guy next to him, I remember
hearing him so clearly as if it was yesterday, says to him, ‘What are you
making fun of him for? He doesn’t miss.’ That’s the bottom line. It’s not
how you do it. It’s whether it goes in or not.”
Rick became a professional player and kept shooting free throws from
his waist. He led the NBA in free throw percentage for the last three
seasons of his career, topping out at 94.7 in 1979. The NBA free throw
average is around 75 percent.
Shooting underhand creates a slower, softer shot, which is more likely
to go in the basket. So, why don’t all players use the granny shot? Rick
told the Post how he coached one unnamed NBA player to shoot
underhanded until the player was hitting 80 to 90 percent of his free
throws in practice. But the mystery player never used it in a game. It was
too embarrassing.
Basketball legend Wilt Chamberlain tried shooting underhanded and
saw a significant improvement in his free throw percentage. But he gave it
up. “I felt silly,” Chamberlain wrote in his autobiography. “Like a sissy.”
Sometimes you might feel embarrassed to be seen praying or reading
your Bible around your classmates. You may not even want to listen to
Christian music around them. What if they poke fun at you? When you
feel like that, it might help to remember that when you’re with Jesus,
you’re on the winning team. And nothing helps overcome embarrassment
like winning.

—Kim

“I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to

salvation for everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16).
 March 14

A calm and modest life brings more happiness than the

pursuit of success combined with constant restlessness.
—Albert Einstein

T
he bellboy knocked on the hotel room door, and it was soon opened
by the most famous guest in the city of Tokyo. Albert Einstein was
on a world tour giving lectures about his groundbreaking discoveries in
physics. Even if you didn’t understand his theory of relativity, you knew
he was one of the smartest men who ever lived.
But right now, as he looked at the bellboy, Dr. Einstein had a problem.
He had no money to give as a tip. The massive brain whirred into action,
and he came up with a plan. He took two pieces of stationery from his
room and wrote down two “tips” for happiness. “Keep these,” he told the
bellboy. “They may be worth far more than your usual tip.”
You may be interested to know that the bellboy never sold his two
notes. Maybe he liked showing them to friends more than he needed the
money. Almost one hundred years after Einstein stayed in the Tokyo
Imperial Hotel, a relative of the bellboy put the notes up for auction. One
note had today’s quotation. The auction house thought they would be
fortunate to get eight thousand dollars for the old piece of stationery. But
bidding soon shot by that mark and didn’t stop until it reached more than
one and a half million dollars!
That’s a big tip for a bellboy.
Of course, there was nothing special about the paper or the words that
were written on the paper. The value came from the person who wrote the
words.
The same thing happens when Jesus touches your life. Right now, you
may not feel very smart or strong or popular; but whenever Jesus speaks a
kind word through you or reaches out with your hands to help someone,
He makes you into someone special. It is Jesus in you that keeps your
value going up.

—Kim

“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself,
unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me” (John
15:4).
 March 15

Sympathy is two hearts tugging at one load.

—Charles Henry Parkhurst

N
o one likes to be sick. But it does have two advantages: You don’t
have to go to school, and you can get sympathy. Mom may feel your
head and say, “You poor baby!” Then she’ll set you up in front of the TV
with a bunch of fluffy pillows and a tall glass of OJ. Moms are the best.
Dads can be a little more skeptical. They want to know if you are really
sick.
“Let me see the thermometer,” they say. “Can we get a doctor to order a
white blood cell count?”
Or they might put you to the test: “Hey, kid. Try carrying this load of
bricks across the backyard. If you faint, I’ll believe you’re sick.”
I’m a father myself, and I’ve dragged my son out of the house when he
was sincerely ill. Once I took him to Sabbath School and the teacher was
like, “Are you nuts? This kid has strep throat. Take him home now!”
As bad as dads can be, brothers or sisters can be even worse. You aren’t
going to get any sympathy from them unless they see blood. And it can’t
be just a drop or two. They won’t show concern until your blood is
actually squirting far enough to get on their clothes.
I wonder why sympathy is so important to us. It doesn’t take away the
headache like Tylenol. So what good is it? I suppose sympathy serves as
proof that someone cares.
And when we need proof that God cares, we can remember that He
humbled Himself to inhabit a body just like ours. Jesus knows what it’s
like to have a toothache or an upset stomach. And, when sympathy isn’t
enough, we can remember that He’s the physician too.

—Kim

“Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows” (Isaiah
53:4).
 March 16

Some are born great, some achieve greatness,

and some have greatness thrust upon them.
—William Shakespeare

I
t was a dark and moonless night in 1943 as the US Navy PT (patrol
torpedo) boat patrolled the South Pacific looking for Japanese ships.
And then they saw one—coming right toward them at high speed. The
Japanese destroyer sliced their boat in half and continued into the night.
After the explosion, the survivors clung to the front part of the boat until
it began sinking. Then they started swimming to a tiny island. At this
point, we introduce the first of three heroes in today’s devotional: Jack
Kennedy, the commander of PT-109. Taking the strap of a life jacket in his
teeth, he began to tow a badly burned sailor toward the island. The other
Navy men kicked through the water while holding on to pieces of wood.
They were trapped on the island in enemy waters for six days, surviving
on coconuts, when the next two heroes arrived. Biuku and Eroni were
paddling a canoe past the island when they saw Jack jumping and waving.
The two Solomon Island natives were graduates of a Seventh-day
Adventist mission school. Now they secretly worked as spies. Jack asked
them to take a message, scratched in a coconut, to the nearest Navy base.
It meant paddling through forty miles of ocean patrolled by the
Japanese, who had already tortured and killed other native spies. But they
agreed to the mission, which saved the lives of the eleven sailors. Several
years later, Jack (John F. Kennedy) invited Biuku and Eroni to his
inauguration as president of the United States.
 When the crew looked back on the rescue, they remembered the two
Solomon Islanders singing “Yes, Jesus Loves Me” as they paddled across
the waves.
People wanted to praise Jack for what he had done to save the lives of
his crew, but he would humbly say that he didn’t deserve to be called a
hero. “It was involuntary,” he claimed. “They sunk my boat.”

—Kim

“When pride comes, then comes shame; but with the humble is wisdom”
(Proverbs 11:2).
 March 17

All movies assault the viewer in one way or another.

—Michael Haneke

M
any things in life seem like a good idea until you try them. Like fat-
free potato chips. It might also seem like a good idea to invite your
church friends over to watch a movie. But it never goes well for me.
First of all, how do you find a movie everyone can agree on? I don’t
think that’s happened since The Lego Movie. Girls want to watch stories of
love triumphing against impossible odds. The boys want explosions. The
girls in the group will vote for a movie like Sarah, Plain and Tall. “No
thanks,” the boys will say. “We’d rather not watch a woman write letters
about her cat.”
You might be tempted to just pick out a movie you want to watch. But
that leaves no one to share the blame when the movie ambushes you with a
scene that makes everyone in the room cringe.
Perhaps the actors are spouting language you haven’t heard since Uncle
Tony slammed a car door on his finger. Or you’re witnessing a murder in
as much detail as possible without actually attaching a camera to the
bullet. Or the leading lady is participating with the leading man in an
activity that—according to large parts of the Bible—they should not.
There’s nothing you can do to stop this. You can’t get all the actors
together beforehand and say, “Look, I’m having some respectable friends
over, and I would appreciate it if everyone would remain modestly
clothed. And by the way—all of you with speaking parts—don’t make me
wash your mouth out with soap.”
 Why do we so often feel ambushed by movies? Perhaps it’s because
Hollywood doesn’t have much in common with Christians. They think that
a family value refers to the savings when you buy the big box of Cheerios.
Once, Paul asked the Corinthians, “What does a believer have in
common with an unbeliever?”
When I watch a video with my Christian friends, I remember that Paul is
right. And the sooner we push the “stop” button, the sooner we’ll have a
happy ending.

—Kim

“What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a

believer have in common with an unbeliever?” (2 Corinthians 6:15, NIV).
 March 18

Don’t be afraid of making mistakes because they

are like teachers; they may annoy you, but you
always learn something invaluable from them.
—Unknown

I
’m a little worried about writing this devotional. You see, it is about
spelling mistakes, and that means I will almost certainly make one and
then all of you readers will point and laugh at me. Well, before that
happens, let’s begin by pointing and laughing at other people.
In 2010 Gregorio Iniguez, managing director of the Chilean Mint, lost
his job after producing 1.5 million coins that spelled his country’s name
“C-H-I-I-E.” Oops!
A misspelled sign that was trying to indicate a dead end instead had the
message: “Not a through toad.”
Then there was the warning sign that turned its message upside down by
leaving off a “d.” It read “Illegally parked cars will be fine.”
A story in the Mount Vernon, Illinois, Morning Sentinel reported on
musician Jon Henninger and introduced the other members of his Christian
praise band. They mentioned Eric Lyday, whom they wrote was on drugs.
They meant that he was on drums.
Then this misspelling appeared in a local church bulletin: “The senior
choir invites any member of the congregation that enjoys sinning to join
the choir.”
Even pharmacists can make a goof, like the one who wrote on a
prescription bottle: “Take one capsule by mouth 3 hours before ded.”
 A Bible published in 1562 made a mistake in Jesus’ Sermon on the
Mount. Instead of saying “Blessed are the peacemakers,” it read “Blessed
on the platemakers.”
So, are you afraid of doing some things because you’ll make a mistake?
I understand. I was afraid to make a spelling error on this page. But if you
push your fears of goofing up aside, you can do more things, meet more
people, have more fun, and learn more stuff. Give yourself permission to
make a misteak, and I think you’ll find that other people will as well.
(Did you find the typo?)

—Kim

“The LORD makes firm the steps

of the one who delights in him;
though he may stumble, he will not fall,
for the LORD upholds him with his hand” (Psalm 37:23, 24, NIV).
 March 19

No pain, no gain.
—Old expression

S
teve Pete has a kind of superpower. He feels no pain. He told
news.com about a time he was on the swing set at his school: “I
jumped off the swing, landed incorrectly, and my bones shattered in my
right arm. I didn’t feel it, but there was bone sticking out, which was a
pretty good indication I’d injured myself.”
The problem with his superpower is that he actually gets hurt much
more than the average guy. If you asked him how many bones he has
broken, he would guess at somewhere around seventy or eighty.
With each fracture, he doesn’t feel much of anything. He didn’t bother
to see a doctor for minor breaks. “A toe or a finger, I’d just take care of
that myself,” he told Wired magazine, wagging a bent index finger. “Duct
tape.”
He recalls a time he was snow tubing: “Well, I did a scorpion, where
you take a running start and jump on the tube. You’re supposed to land on
your stomach, but I hit it at the wrong angle. I face-planted on the hill, and
my back legs just went straight up over my head.”
Pete got up and returned to tubing, and for the next eight months he
went on as usual. But then he started noticing that the movement in his left
arm and shoulder felt off. His back felt funny too. When he saw a doctor,
the physician peered at the X-rays with curiosity. “Have you been in a car
accident? About six months ago?” he asked. “Were you skydiving?”
It turns out that Steve had broken his back and didn’t even know it.
 Nobody likes pain, but it is really good for alerting us before we
seriously hurt ourselves. That’s why you have broken a whole lot fewer
bones than Steve.
For now, pain warns us to avoid dangerous situations. It protects us in a
sinful world. But the day is coming when we will live in a better place.
And in that place, not feeling pain will be the least of our superpowers.

—Kim

“There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away”
(Revelation 21:4).
 March 20

When you’ve learned to laugh at the things that should

be laughed at, and not to laugh at those that shouldn’t,
you’ve got wisdom and understanding.
—L. M. Montgomery

W
hat is this?” asked Randy, holding up a can marked “Florida
Sunshine” for his mom to see.
“Oh, the Snyders brought us that after their trip to Daytona,” she said.
Randy shook it. “It seems empty.”
“Yeah,” said mom. “It’s just a gag.”
Randy thought it was funny that someone could make money selling an
empty can.
It happens quite a lot. You can buy empty cans of “dehydrated water.”
You can also get canned cans. You open up one can, and there is another
empty can inside.
There is another popular canned item that you come across often—
canned laughter. That’s the laugh track you frequently hear on TV shows.
You know, when something isn’t really very funny but you hear a crowd
of people howling with laughter? It doesn’t matter if it’s obscene or corny;
the laugh track tells you it’s time to hold on to your sides because they are
about to be split with glee.
Don’t fall for that kind of manipulation. If you’re offended by some
crass trash on TV, choose not to laugh at it. You don’t have to go along
with the laugh track. The same goes for other areas. If you don’t really
want to do drugs or lead an otherwise impure life, step away from those
who are encouraging you to go along with their bad choices.
Like a laugh track, they may be making a lot of noise about what a good
time you’ll have, but their promises are really just canned sunshine.

—Kim

“To what shall I liken this generation? It is like children sitting in the
marketplaces and calling to their companions, and saying: ‘We played the
flute for you, and you did not dance; we mourned to you, and you did not
lament’ ” (Matthew 11:16, 17).
 March 21

Our willingness to wait reveals the

value we place on what we’re waiting for.
—Charles Stanley

T
he old professor called his gardener. “Look what I have.” It was a
golden-brown Akita.
The gardener scratched behind the dog’s ears. “He is a beautiful animal.
What have you named him?”
“Eightfold affection,” said the professor. Being Japanese, the professor
pronounced it Hachikō.
Professor Ueno had a routine, and the dog quickly adapted to it. Every
afternoon the professor arrived at the train station from his job at Tokyo
University. And every afternoon Hachikō left the house to meet him at the
train station and walk him home.
Then one day the professor didn’t come home. He had suffered a fatal
stroke in the middle of a lecture. Hachikō didn’t know what happened, so
he came to the train station at the usual time. He waited, then went home
to stay with the gardener. Day after day, the dog continued to come meet
the afternoon train. Employees at the station tried to chase him away.
It was a former student of the professor who noticed the loyalty of the
dog and shared the story in a popular newspaper. Train passengers began
to look for the dog and give him food and treats. For nine years and nine
months, Hachikō came every day to wait for his master. Today, there is a
statue at the train station of the dog sitting in loyal expectation.
Do you have a friend as loyal and trustworthy as Hachikō? Maybe you
do or maybe you don’t. But you have a heavenly Father who will never
give up on you. Even if you run away on a selfish impulse, He will still
wait for you to return. Maybe you can return the favor by waiting in
patient expectation for His return.

—Kim

“The mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who

fear Him, and His righteousness to children’s children” (Psalm 103:17).
 March 22

It is better in prayer to have a heart

without words than words without a heart.
—Mahatma Gandhi

F
or some people, talking on the phone is hard. Have you noticed that
granddads have a difficult time keeping a conversation going? Their
calls usually sound like this: “Hi. How are you? Here’s your
grandmother.”
Maybe they keep it short because they can never forget the olden days
when people paid for every minute of talk time. You’d be saying, “Hello,
Grandpa. We just called to wish you a happy birth—”
And he’d jump in, “Thanks for calling, but I don’t want to run up your
phone bill.” Click.
Small kids can be weird on the phone. In fact, about all they do is listen
because they haven’t learned how to hold up their end of the conversation.
They usually pick up the phone with a simple “Hello?”
“Hello,” you say in your friendliest voice. “Is this Emma?”
“Yes.” Long pause as Emma waits to hear what else you will say.
“How are you today?”
“Fine.” Another long pause.
“What have you been doing?”
“Playing.” A long pause. You hear the clock ticking on the mantel. The
shadows in the room move as the sun inches across the sky.
“Is there an adult there that I can talk to?”
“Yes.”
 “I’ll give you a dollar if you’ll go get them.”
Many people have described prayer as a phone line to heaven. I see the
similarities. Most of the time when God answers a call, it’s somebody
asking for something. And most of us don’t stay on the line very long, as if
we’re afraid we’re paying thirty cents a minute.
Of course, He’s happy for every prayer. But perhaps He takes special
pleasure in the ones that most resemble a little kid on the phone—those
times when we stop trying to keep up our end of the conversation and we
just hold the receiver, listening . . . listening for the voice on the other end.

—Kim

“When you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they
think that they will be heard for their many words” (Matthew 6:7).
 March 23

In the shadow of my hurt, forgiveness feels like a decision to

reward my enemy. But in the shadow of the cross, forgiveness
is merely a gift from one undeserving soul to another.
—Andy Stanley

W
hen Josh’s parents let him pick the instrument he wanted to learn,
he chose the trombone because it is the loudest instrument you can
play without legally being required to wear ear protection. When Josh
plays, the dog whimpers and runs to the farthest corner of the house.
Josh took lessons from Mr. Gomez, who sometimes brought his two-
year-old son, Melvin, to hang out in the school band room during the
lesson.
Melvin was at a recent lesson when Mr. Gomez got things going. “Put
your instrument together,” he ordered Josh, clapping his hands sharply.
“Start playing!”
So Josh began playing. The song got off to a good start—until his
trombone slide came to an abrupt stop. Melvin had grabbed the slide when
it got down to his level.
“Why aren’t you playing?” asked Mr. Gomez. He sounded irritated. “I
need you to focus!”
I’m trying, Josh thought as he started playing again. Then out of the
corner of his eye he spotted Melvin reaching into his book bag and pulling
something out. Then Melvin waddled up to the drums and repeatedly
whacked them with the stolen item.
What does he have? Josh wondered. My phone? It was at that point that
he stumbled in the song.
“Why aren’t you playing right?” barked the instructor.
“Well, because your—” Josh began.
“Are you not practicing enough?” Mr. Gomez interrupted. “Read the
notes and try to focus!”
Josh shook his head and began to play. That was when Melvin knocked
a music stand down. Now, if you’ve ever been in a band room, you know
that there are a lot of music stands all lined up in a row. As soon as Melvin
pushed one over, the other twenty-four came crashing down.
Josh looked up at his teacher to see if he’d noticed. Finally, that little
tyke will get it!
But Mr. Gomez turned to Josh. “Why can’t you focus?” he exploded.
“Now, clean up this mess immediately.”
Life isn’t fair, Josh thought as he looked over at little Melvin. And it’s
just possible that Melvin was grinning.

—Kim

“If you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly
Father will also forgive you” (Matthew 6:14, NIV).
 March 24

Short is the joy that guilty pleasure brings.

—Euripides

I thought I would give you some dolphin training tips, in case you get a
dolphin for your birthday. Which would be great, wouldn’t it? Some
people want a pony for their birthday, but dolphins are less likely to kick
you over the pasture fence.
Today’s dolphin training tip is this: reward them with a fish every time
they do something right. This is how trainers teach dolphins to shoot out of
the water and do a twisting backward flip. Besides encouraging the
dolphins with fish, trainers also reward them with toys and praise.
We’re a little like dolphins. Of course, we don’t smile as much, and we
eat a lot less seafood, but we tend to do whatever gets us a reward. For
example, some of us learn to make our hair do a twisting backward flip so
that we get compliments from our friends.
There’s another kind of reward you’ve probably never thought about.
Researchers at the University of California in Los Angeles have looked
into the brains of teenagers who are using social media such as Instagram.
They found that when teens saw that their picture was “liked,” the pleasure
centers in their brains lit up. These are the same parts of the brain that are
activated when people win the lottery.
Rewards are being offered to you all the time. Which rewards you
follow may shape your future. Following the thrills you get when you win
at a video game may take you in a different direction than if you follow the
excitement of learning new things in history class.
 Moses in the Bible had to choose what rewards he would follow. One
direction would pay off with power and wealth. The other direction gave
him nothing but the comfort of staying by God’s people.
Today, look for the rewards that are motivating you. Then be like
Moses, and choose the ones that lead you in the right direction.

—Kim

“By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of
Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of
God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin” (Hebrews 11:24, 25).
 March 25

Keep calm and carry on.

—World War II Poster

I have a pilot’s license. It is my only real accomplishment in life outside

of the time that I got a hole-in-one at mini golf. What is embarrassing to
me is that my wife will not go up in an airplane with me. It’s not that she’s
afraid to fly. Lori has tens of thousands of frequent flyer miles. She just
doesn’t want to fly with me. If I were to ask her to explain this prejudice,
she would probably say, “No offense, but I prefer not being dead.”
I have shamed her into flying with me on rare occasions, but she gets
nervous. On one landing, I actually heard her scream before the plane
touched down. She had no reason to be concerned. There was an instructor
flying in the right seat.
That particular flight was between islands in Hawaii. It is an amazing
thing to see whales from the air. It’s about the only perspective where you
see the whole length of the creature and the width of its tail flukes.
At one point I asked for the video camera and opened the window. As
the Cessna went into a bank, I taped a mother and calf gray whale. I still
remember the sound of my wife from the backseat urgently asking,
“Who’s flying the plane? Who’s flying the plane?”
Come on, sweetheart, I thought. Show a little confidence in your
husband, who has been duly licensed by the Federal Aviation
Administration.
I think the experience has given me a little glimpse of how God feels
when we don’t trust Him completely. He would like for us to believe that
He’s got things under control and that He knows what He’s doing.
When the panicked disciples woke up Jesus during the storm on the Sea
of Galilee, He sounded a little offended. “Why are you so afraid?” he said.
“Do you still have no faith?”
What challenges do you have today? Relax and put them in God’s
hands. He won’t leave you up in the air.

—Kim

“He said to them, ‘Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no
faith?’ ” (Mark 4:40).
 March 26

People who fly into a rage always make a bad landing.

—Will Rogers

Y
ou can’t blame Denny for being frustrated. Just yesterday he had
been shoveling a pile of gravel off the road when his boss at the
highway department told him to go change the oil in a truck.
“Shouldn’t I finish getting this gravel moved?” asked Denny.
“No,” said the boss. “We need you to change the oil right now.”
Denny stuck his shovel in the gravel pile and went to finish his day
under a dump truck.
As Denny drove onto the work site the next morning, the boss
descended on him like a hawk. “You’ve got to get that pile of gravel
moved right now,” he barked. “It’s blocking the road.”
Denny could see a row of trucks waiting to deliver materials. He didn’t
say it out loud, but he thought, Don’t get upset with me. I wanted to move
the gravel yesterday afternoon. As he walked toward it, he got madder and
madder. By the time he reached the pile, he was full-out angry. He grabbed
the shovel in the middle of the handle and expressed his anger by reaching
his arm back and throwing the implement as if it were a spear.
Unfortunately, he had forgotten something important about the shape of
shovels. As he heaved the tool forward, the wide part of the spade caught
him in the back of the head. It knocked him out cold, and he fell facedown
on the gravel. All the watching truck drivers laughed so loud you could
almost hear them over the diesel engines.
Denny wasn’t hurt too much, and he soon got back to work. But he had
to hear teasing from the truck drivers who passed him. Even if they hadn’t
seen it themselves, they heard other truckers share the story over the
company radios.
Later, Denny laughed as loudly as anyone over the incident. He doesn’t
take himself too seriously. The one thing he does take more seriously is his
temper. He knows the truth of today’s quote: “People who fly into a rage
always make a bad landing.”

—Kim

“My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be
quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human
anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires” (James 1:19,
20, NIV).
 March 27

Some think that holding on makes

us strong; but sometimes it’s letting go.
—Herman Hesse

M
om bustled around the house that morning before we left for
church. She placed the casseroles in the oven on time bake, gave
my sister and me a quick inspection, and then pushed us out the front door.
On the way to join Dad at church, we asked Mom, “What’s going on?”
“The conference president will be here today,” she announced.
Growing up in a pastor’s family, we got periodic visits from conference
presidents, and we knew what they meant—soon a moving van would pull
into our driveway and carry all our furniture away. We would follow, of
course. Away from our friends. Away from our home. Away from
everything familiar.
That day the conference president had come all the way from California.
He invited Dad to pastor a church on the other side of the United States.
My sister and I ran out of the house and sat by the creek. We cried and
vowed to stay behind and live with our friends. But somehow we ended up
in the car heading to California.
When we got to our destination, I dreaded starting a new school. But
once I’d settled in, I discovered that my new teacher actually liked me.
Evidently my teacher back East hadn’t sent word of how I’d always been
in trouble. I’d spent most school days sitting at my desk out in the hall,
where my teacher would banish me.
Now suddenly my new teacher thought I had some writing ability and
encouraged me. She even sent some of my poems to a local newspaper,
and one got printed. I began to love school.
When I’d seen that moving van pull into our driveway, my heart had
sunk. But I hadn’t counted on God’s principle of “something better.”
Since grade school I’ve made other moves. And although moves are
always painful and involve loss, God inevitably brings us something
better. A new experience to help us grow. A new friend. A new
understanding of His presence.
I’m not as afraid of moving vans anymore.

—Lori

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews

13:8).
 March 28

You’re never too young or old to make a difference.

—Ryan Hreljac

R
yan was six years old when he heard about people in Africa who
have to walk miles to collect clean water. Literally miles. To
compare, he counted the few steps that took him from his classroom to the
water fountain. It made him want to do something to bring water to kids in
Africa. So he started doing chores at home to raise some money. He
cleaned up tree limbs after an ice storm. He helped neighbors.
When he had raised seventy dollars, he went to a charity that built wells
in Africa. That’s when he found out that seventy dollars doesn’t buy very
much. He needed two thousand to pay for a hand pump. So he went back
to raising money. A newspaper article about his project helped him reach
his goal. Then his story started to spread, and even more money came in.
He went to speak at the Rotary Club in his Canadian town. “It was
hard,” he remembers. “I went to speech therapy as a kid because I couldn’t
pronounce words. It was probably the worst speech ever given.” But
people began to share his passion. Soon he had raised fifteen thousand
dollars. Then forty-five thousand.
His first well was drilled at Angolo Primary School in northern Uganda.
A neighbor donated frequent flyer miles so that Ryan could go see the
project. As he arrived, five thousand Ugandans came out to welcome him
and celebrate their new well. He got to pump out the cool, clear water and
take a drink. And even though he was just a kid, the school declared that
every July 27 would be Ryan’s Day.
 Ryan didn’t stop with one well. At last count, he has helped provide
more than eight hundred wells for people who would otherwise be high
and dry.
Ryan is in his twenties now, but you can believe him when he says,
“You’re never too young or old to make a difference.”

—Kim

“If anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who
is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their
reward” (Matthew 10:42, NIV).
 March 29

God gives us people to love and things to use,

not things to love and people to use.
—Max Lucado

W
e love Grandpa Jack. But let’s be honest, he took the absolute
worst home movies. The exposure wasn’t bad, and he kept the
camera from going jiggly and making you seasick while you watched. So
that was good. The problem with Grandpa Jack’s home movies was that he
hardly ever pointed the camera at his family.
He liked to take movies of things that never move, such as flowers and
buildings and statues. For some reason he took movies of trees. He took
pictures of sightseeing spots, such as the Petrified Forest and Hoover Dam,
both of which have remained more or less unchanged for a hundred years.
I mean, you can get a movie of Hoover Dam anytime. But when it comes
to his wife and his kids and his grandkids (who were mighty cute, if I do
say so myself), you can hardly catch the briefest glimpses of them. And
that was only when they accidentally walked in front of a building he was
trying to record on film.
But every once in a while, Grandpa Jack would hand his movie camera
to someone else. Then we get to look in the faces of people we love who
have grown much older or who have, in some cases, passed away. We get
to see what they looked like when they were young, and how they tilted
their heads when they laughed, and the funny fashions they wore. These
rare moments in his movies are as precious as jewels.
Grandpa Jack can teach us something about life. It’s the people around
us who are important. Sometimes we, like his movie camera, tend to focus
on the things around us—smartphones, gadgets, shoes, and other stuff—
while we take our family and friends for granted. Today, maybe we could
all pay a little more attention to human beings who come into our lives.
Let’s change our focus and see what develops.

—Kim

“Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works”
(Hebrews 10:24).
 March 30

Luck may not be on my side, but I know God is.

—Daffy Catalan

I was born lucky. At least that’s what my grandpa always told me. And he
seemed to be right. I mean, just about every time I put my finger into a
vending machine coin return slot, I’d feel something thin and cold. A
dime. Or a quarter. I’d run to Grandpa and show him, and he would grin.
After all, he’d taught me to check those places.
Then there were all the friends I made every time we went to the beach.
Grandpa would build elaborate castles with our picnic supplies: turrets
from paper cups, flags from straws and napkins, bridges from Popsicle
sticks. Kids would gather around, and I’d get a bunch of playmates for the
afternoon.
And then there was the summer I was seventeen. I’d just broken up with
my first boyfriend and went to visit my grandparents. Usually I loved
being at their home near the ocean, but this time I felt pretty down.
Grandpa and I were walking the beach one day when someone yelled,
“Hi, Lori!” I looked up. Two lifeguards were smiling and waving at me
from their lifeguard stand. Then I saw one give Grandpa a thumbs-up.
“Grandpa, how do they know my name?” I asked suspiciously.
He shrugged.
“You wouldn’t happen to have anything to do with it?” I probed.
Again he shrugged. And then I began to put all the years of “luck”
together and realized that Grandpa had been behind all of it. Sneaking his
pocket change into the coin returns. Creating fun activities that would
attract friends for me. Telling the lifeguards that his granddaughter needed
a friendly hello.
Grandpa planned special surprises—just like God does. Every day God
places things in our path to make us feel happy and loved. Maybe a
beautiful sunset. An open talk with a parent. A laugh with a friend. An
encouraging passage in the Bible. He works at making life better for us,
and every good thing we encounter comes from Him.
Yeah, Grandpa was right. I was born “lucky.” All of us were.

—Lori

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the
Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows”
(James 1:17, NIV).
 March 31

If you can’t laugh at yourself, call me. I’ll laugh at you.

—Unknown

D
ah doom dah dah!” Alvin was doing it again. He was a student at
Oakwood University who had come to Insight magazine as a
summer intern. His desk was placed in my office. (I was the assistant
editor.) So all day as we worked I’d hear him riff: “Boom bah bah bah!”
It sounded amazing—and he assured me that it sounded much better
with the other voices in the group. He was just one of six. (Alvin Chea and
Take 6 have gone on to win ten Grammy awards.)
I enjoyed Alvin’s singing, his writing, and his bright smile. But one day
his smile shocked me.
Chris Blake, the Insight editor then, asked Alvin to shred certain writing
contest entries. (If an author included a self-addressed stamped envelope,
their manuscript would be returned to them. If they didn’t, it would be
shredded.)
Alvin came back a little while later with a big grin on his face. “Um, I
really messed up,” he confessed, still smiling broadly, his white teeth
gleaming. “I shredded all the contest entries, even the ones with return
envelopes.”
We thought Alvin was joking. Why else would he be smiling like that?
But he wasn’t. “I’m sorry I’m smiling,” he explained, pointing to his
happy face. “When I get nervous or mess up, I grin. I don’t want to, and I
really am sorry.”
That’s when I remembered my nervous laughter in grade school. When
my friend Julie fell off the swing, I cackled.
“It’s not funny!” she yelled tearfully.
“I—I know it’s not funny,” I said between guffaws of laughter. Why am
I doing this? I asked myself. Stop it!
It happened again and again—when Sonja got hit by a soccer ball, when
Joanne dropped her lunchbox, when Mrs. Schindler tripped over a
student’s desk.
That’s when I prayed, “God, I’m a mess! I can’t even control my
reactions sometimes. I need You.”
Now I know that I need God every day to help me speak wisely—and to
stay silent when I feel the giggles coming on.

—Lori

“Be happy with those who are happy, and weep with those who weep”
(Romans 12:15, NLT).
 April 1

The world is governed more by appearances than realities.

—Daniel Webster

E
arly-morning commuters on the highway to London couldn’t believe
their eyes. As the sky was just beginning to turn from black to violet,
they could see a glowing flying saucer. Drivers pulled off the road and got
out to get a better look. The strange ship appeared to be slowly descending
on the city.
Concerned citizens called the police, the army was alerted, and radio
and TV stations reported on the unidentified flying object. When the
saucer settled on a soccer field, it was surrounded by police. They kept at a
safe distance. Finally, they convinced one of their men to go closer. The
brave officer moved forward with his billy club extended. A door in the
craft opened very slowly, and steam billowed out. A small, silver-suited
figure emerged and walked toward the police officer, who promptly turned
and ran in the opposite direction.
The saucer turned out to be a hot-air balloon that had been specially
built to look like a UFO by Richard Branson, the owner of a record
company. The alien was a disguised dwarf, and the steam was just dry ice.
Richard thought his April Fools’ prank was funny, but the police were
not amused, at least not at first. Branson says, “The police initially didn’t
see the funny side of it and threatened to arrest us for wasting their time.
But they soon joined in the general merriment of it.”
Some tricks are fun for everyone. Other tricks are mean-spirited plots to
hurt or embarrass people. If you’re involved in any April Fools’ pranks
today, make sure they’re the first kind. Like Mr. Branson’s UFO, make it a
happy landing for everyone. And unlike the UFO, make sure it doesn’t
involve the cops.

—Kim

“Deceit is in the heart of those who devise evil, but counselors of peace
have joy” (Proverbs 12:20).
 April 2

What’s in a name? That which we call a

rose by any other name would smell as sweet.
—William Shakespeare

I am not kidding when I say that there is a place called Lick Skillet,
Alabama. I found this out on the website AL.com, where they said that
the little community was named for a fight. A local man, Hut Malone, got
into a brawl inside the general store. Suddenly he grabbed a skillet on a
shelf in the store and bopped his opponent on the head, ending the fight.
They called the place Lick Skillet because Hut “licked” his opponent “with
a skillet.”
Another great name for an Alabama town is Slick Lizard. They say it
got the name from a nearby coal mine. The name describes miners who
had to crawl on their bellies through clay tunnels about two feet high and
then popped out “slick as a lizard.”
There is also an Alabama town called Slapout. This town got its name
from an old general store that never seemed to have anything that shoppers
needed. When asked about his stock, the owner would usually respond,
“I’m slap out.”
The town of Scratch Ankle, Alabama, got its name from an invasion of
fleas, or possibly mosquitos. The residents were often seen scratching their
ankles.
As I think about the weird ways these towns got labeled, it makes me
think about how we call each other names. This girl named Claire really
liked pancakes, so her friends nicknamed her “Short stack.” One guy got
the name “Pumpkin” because he had bright-orange hair and a pudgy face.
I don’t know if anyone has tagged you with a name you don’t like. If so,
maybe it would help to know that God can give you a new nickname. In
the Bible we see that Jesus changed the name of the disciple Simon and
gave him the name Peter. The old name meant “listening.” The new name
meant “stone.” It was a hint that Peter would have a big part in building up
God’s church.
Don’t you wonder what plans God has for your life and if He has a
nickname for you? Whatever it is, it’s got to be better than Slick Lizard.

—Kim

“A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches” (Proverbs

22:1).
 April 3

Excuses are the nails used to build a house of failure.

—Jim Rohn

T
he tough thing about getting into trouble is that you sometimes have
only a second to make up an excuse. Bobby had hurled a stuffed
animal across the classroom, and it flew into a window, breaking it. He felt
it was not his fault. It was the window’s. “The window was old and
breakable,” he said. No one bought his excuse, and he had to bust open his
piggy bank and pay for the repair.
Perhaps the best excuse I ever heard from someone in trouble with the
authorities came from my friend Randy. He had been pulled over by a
police officer while going down a Michigan road at full gallop.
The officer rushed up to his car window. “You almost lost control back
there at that intersection!” he barked, flipping open his ticket pad.
Randy was in trouble, and he knew it. He reached for the first excuse
that came to mind. “Sir, I just came from the car wash,” he began. It was
true. The car sparkled.
Randy cleared his throat and continued. “And, well, I was blow-drying
my car so it wouldn’t have any water spots left on it.”
The officer blinked. Not convinced of the importance of avoiding water
spots on cars, he wrote Randy a ticket.
Sometimes excuses can get you out of trouble. But excuses can also
keep you from succeeding. Those are the excuses that you use to feel
better about not studying hard enough for a test or not finishing that job
that Mom asked you to do. They keep you from reaching your full
potential.
The next time you accept a responsibility, skip the excuses and go for
success.

—Kim

“Then said I:

‘Ah, Lord GOD!

Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth.’

“But the LORD said to me:

‘Do not say, “I am a youth,”

For you shall go to all to whom I send you,
And whatever I command you, you shall speak’ ” (Jeremiah 1:6, 7).
 April 4

To be trusted is a greater compliment than being loved.

—George MacDonald

O
ur dog cannot be trusted.
Davey is a rescue dog. He followed a girl to her home in rural
West Virginia, and no one knew where he had come from. They put up
signs and everything. We’re afraid that someone pushed him out of their
car and drove off.
So we did our best to make him feel welcome in our home. We fussed
over him and petted him and fed him treats. But we learned we had to keep
an eye on him. If we left any food in the dining area, he would wait until
we left the room, then jump up on the table and enjoy a banquet. Once he
ate a whole stick of butter. So we always had to leave a family member on
guard until the table was cleared.
We put the food up on the kitchen countertop. After he savaged a cake,
we discovered that he could jump from a step stool up to the counter. We
had to remember to move the step stool.
Davey started going to Grandma and Grandpa’s apartment downstairs
and stealing their food. So we had to keep the door closed at the top of the
stairs.
Our boy, Reef, still had a bunch of stuffed animals at this time in his
life, and whenever Davey found one on the bed or the floor, he tore the
stuffing out of it. So we had to shut the door to Reef’s room.
Then the dog started stealing socks from my bedroom closet. Now we
had to keep the door closed to our bedroom. Soon our little furry friend
was allowed in only three rooms of the house, not including the laundry
room. If we had been able to trust him, he would have been allowed
anywhere.
You’ll find that the more trustworthy you are, the more freedom you’ll
be given. And the less that people trust you, the more likely you’ll be kept
on a short leash. And that’s no fun for human or beast.

—Kim

“The LORD detests lying lips, but he delights in people who are
trustworthy” (Proverbs 12:22, NIV).
 April 5

All art is autobiographical; the pearl

is the oyster’s autobiography.
—Federico Fellini

L
ucy’s life was not one you would envy. She was still a baby when
her mother died and her father packed her off to live with her
grandparents on Prince Edward Island.
The Macneills were farmers and wanted Lucy to follow their strict and
formal approach to life. That was hard for a free spirit like Lucy. She liked
to be outside picking berries, fishing, and going to the beach. She tended to
name everything she saw. Even the apple trees around the farm had names
like Little Syrup, Gavin, and Spider. She called the cow path behind the
pasture Lover’s Lane. There were no kids her age living nearby, so most of
her childhood friends were imaginary.
When she was fifteen, she went to spend a year with her father, but that
was not a happy time either because she didn’t get along with her
stepmother.
Later she got work as a teacher, but it wasn’t her dream job. What she
really liked to do was write, yet her grandparents considered it a waste of
time. So she worked in secret, even going so far as to smuggle candles to
her room so that she could write at night.
“I struggled on alone, in secrecy and silence,” she said later. “I never
told my ambitions and efforts and failures to any one. Down, deep down,
under all discouragement and rebuff, I knew I would ‘arrive’ some day.”
And she did “arrive.” Lucy Maud Montgomery’s first book was Anne of
Green Gables, and it was an immediate hit. If you’ve read the book or seen
the television shows, you might recognize that Anne has a lot in common
with Lucy. Out of the author’s unhappy experiences grew the stories that
have inspired and entertained millions.
God doesn’t want you to have a sad, difficult life. But if you trust Him,
you might find that He can take the irritating and painful grit in your past
and use it to create something as beautiful as pearls.

—Kim

“To console those who mourn in Zion,

To give them beauty for ashes,
The oil of joy for mourning,
The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;
That they may be called trees of righteousness,
The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified” (Isaiah 61:3).
 April 6

Honesty is the best policy.

—Proverb

W esmall
don’t have enough money, Cheryl thought as she drove through the
town where her family had just moved. The expenses of the
move had been more than they expected. And they had bills from the
academy where their teenagers attended.
As she drove, she saw a flutter of green along the edge of the road.
Bills! She turned into a grocery store parking lot and walked back along
the road.
She picked up a twenty dollar bill. Then another. And another. There
were tens and fives. “I gathered them up as quickly as I could,” says
Cheryl. All the while she thought about how this extra money would help
them get through the month.
Then she saw something else. She walked to the middle of the road and
picked up a billfold. Back at home, she lined the bills up on the kitchen
counter. They totaled $270! She held them in her hands. It felt good.
Her eyes fell on the billfold. She hoped there was no ID in it. She
wondered if she should even look inside or just throw it away. After all:
finders, keepers.
Cheryl finally opened it. It was empty except for a library card. The
phone book had many listings with the same last name that was on the
card. She picked one and dialed the number.
It didn’t take long before she answered the knock at her door. It was a
young woman who worked at Sonic. She had cashed her paycheck at the
bank and had left her billfold on top of her car. She desperately needed the
money for her car payment.
I also needed the money, Cheryl thought. After the girl left, she walked
out to the mailbox. There was a card from Grandma. Inside was a check
for $250 and a note that said she wanted to send them something to put on
the kids’ school bill.
Now Cheryl knew for sure she had made the right choice. It almost
seemed that God was so happy with her honesty that He put the money
right back in her hands.

—Kim

“Better is a poor person who walks in his integrity than one who is
crooked in speech and is a fool” (Proverbs 19:1, ESV).
 April 7

The person who says it cannot be done

should not interrupt the person who is doing it.
—Chinese proverb

H
ave you ever been white-water rafting? Was it scary to rush between
rocks and down cascades? And white-water kayaking looks even
more dangerous, doesn’t it? So it’s impressive that Erik Weihenmayer and
Lonnie Bedwell chose to go down the Grand Canyon in kayaks.
They faced 277 miles of boiling water. “I felt like I was getting worked
in a washing machine in agitation mode on steroids,” says Lonnie.
But I haven’t told you the most impressive part of their adventure. Erik
and Lonnie are both blind. Lonnie learned to kayak in a cow pond, where
he practiced flipping upside down and rolling right side more than a
thousand times.
Their trip down the Colorado River between the walls of the Grand
Canyon took them twenty-seven days. Lonnie followed a guide in front of
him who yelled instructions. Two guides followed Erik, feeding him
directions by radio. According to National Geographic, both men flipped
countless times, but always rolled back up—until they hit the most
dangerous rapid: Lava Falls.
As Erik paddled in, the massive rapid grabbed his boat and flipped it,
sending him over the falls upside down, head underwater! He popped out
of his kayak and swam to the bottom to avoid getting smashed into a rock
or sucked into a hole.
The next day he hiked back to try the rapid again. “Part of me wanted to
just say, ‘No way! Why would I ever go back to that and do that thing
again?’ ” Erik admits. “I just felt like I had to. Three rolls later, I was
upright in my boat at the bottom of the rapid. There was a lot of hugging
and crying. Mostly from me,” he laughs.
Sometimes we see challenges that we can’t imagine overcoming. We
look at math class or running a long distance in PE and say, “I can never
do that.” Lonnie and Erik want us to think again.

—Kim

“Do not fear, for you will not be ashamed; neither be disgraced, for you
will not be put to shame” (Isaiah 54:4).
 April 8

If you are irritated by every rub,

how will your mirror be polished?
—Rumi

I stopped at a shop in Athens, Greece, to watch a group of customers

giggle and squirm. They sat on long benches with their pants rolled up to
the knees. Their bare feet dangled in tanks of water, where little fish
nibbled at their soles.
Called “Doctor Fish,” this shop features multiple tanks of Garra rufa
fish. Apparently, the fish eat dead skin cells. Using their suction cup
mouths, they nibble away until the customers’ feet are smooth. It’s called a
fish pedicure.
Judging by all the jumping and laughing, most people felt a little ticklish
during the process. But they all claimed to like the feel of their feet
afterward.
Sometimes removing rough calluses and ugly stains on our body can
tickle or even hurt. And removing tough calluses and nasty spots on our
character can be even more uncomfortable.
During my visit to Athens I also climbed the Areopagus (Mars Hill), a
rock outcropping where Paul preached to the people about “the Unknown
God.” He pointed them to Jesus, God’s Son, who died for our sins and was
raised from the dead. He told the listeners that this God commands
“everyone everywhere to repent of their sins and turn to him” (Acts 17:30,
NLT).
Many of the people there didn’t like what Paul was saying. They
sneered at him and told him to leave town.
But some became followers, and their lives were changed. They
believed Paul’s teaching that the way to remove the roughness of sin and
enjoy a smooth conscience is not with fish but with the Fisherman.

—Lori

“Let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and
let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus,
the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before
him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand
of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1, 2, ESV).
 April 9

The smell of gunpowder is sweeter

to me than all the perfumes of Arabia.
—Pope Julius II

T
hey called him Terribilita, which means “awesome” or “fearsome” in
Latin. Some of the reasons for the awesomeness of Pope Julius II are
good, and some are, well, not so good.
One of the good reasons we still remember him after five hundred years
is that he hired Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in
Rome. You’ve seen the painting of God’s finger reaching out to connect
with the hand of Adam. That’s just one detail from a painting of more than
three hundred figures covering the area of a football field. It is considered
one of the greatest works of art in the world.
One of the more shocking things about this church leader was his love
of war. An old man with a white beard, he would dress up in helmet and
chain mail and lead his troops on the attack. When Michelangelo was
working on a giant bronze statue of Julius, he asked the pope whether he
should place a book in the left hand. “Put a sword there,” answered the
man who pretended to represent Christ. “I know nothing of letters.”
One of Julius’ ambitions was to tear down the old church of St. Peter
and build something that would represent his awesomeness. The new
cathedral, which had the tallest dome in the world, was staggeringly
expensive. In order to raise money for the construction, Julius sold
indulgences, which promised to forgive sins. This moneygrubbing
behavior shocked a German monk named Martin Luther, who believed
that salvation was a free gift.
As people like Luther looked at this pope who eagerly started wars of
conquest and loved erecting buildings to his glory, they began to lose faith
in the Catholic church. And so he made one more contribution to history
that he didn’t plan to make. He helped spark the Protestant Reformation,
which started the Lutheran Church and eventually the Seventh-day
Adventist Church.
Maybe it is appropriate that the bronze statue of Julius was later melted
down and made into a cannon. The soldiers nicknamed it La Giulia after
the warrior pope.

—Kim

“If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I

should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from
here” (John 18:36).
 April 10

I cannot and will not recant.

—Martin Luther

T
he trouble began in 1517 when the Catholic church offered
indulgences for sale. These were certificates that promised to release
you from punishment for your sins. Give the priest some money, and you
got a “get out of jail free” card for hell or purgatory. The priest selling the
indulgences had an advertising slogan: “Once the coin into the coffer
clings, a soul from purgatory heavenward springs!”
After reading the Bible, Martin Luther was convinced that salvation was
a gift from God, not something you bought to help the pope pay for
painting his ceilings. Martin wrote down his objections to indulgences in
ninety-five statements that he nailed to the door of the church. People read
the statements and said, “Yeah!” Soon copies of his statements spread
across Germany and sparked calls for change.
At a public debate two years later, Luther declared that “a simple
layman armed with the Scriptures” was superior to both pope and councils
without them. That was too much for the church. It threatened to throw
him out.
Luther didn’t stop. He wrote books that showed the difference between
what the Bible said and what the church was telling people.
In 1521 he was called to an assembly at Worms, Germany. Luther
arrived prepared for another debate but quickly discovered it was a trial at
which he was ordered to renounce his views.
Luther replied, “Unless I can be instructed and convinced with evidence
from the Holy Scriptures or with open, clear, and distinct grounds of
reasoning . . . then I cannot and will not recant, because acting against
one’s conscience is neither safe nor sound.” Then he added “God help me.
Amen.”
God did help him. He was able to escape to a castle where he was safe
from the church’s attempts to arrest him. Over time he was able to
influence changes to the Catholic church and to start new churches that
stuck to what the Bible said about salvation. Every Protestant church you
see today owes a little something to a man who said, “I can’t recant.”

—Kim

“For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law”
(Romans 3:28, ESV).
 April 11

All the chatter, the name-calling, the doubting—all of it

was just noise. It did not define me. It didn’t change who
I was. And most importantly, it couldn’t hold me back.
—Michelle Obama

N
obody remembers what Preston insisted on doing—or not doing.
Maybe he refused to eat his vegetables at supper. All his family
recalls is that the boy was being stubborn about something. His mother
shook her head in frustration. “You’re as stubborn as our neighbor’s
donkey, Tobias,” she said.
Preston’s brother and sister laughed. “Please pass the butter, Tobias,”
they mocked as they giggled some more.
This was back in the day when families had horses and donkeys just like
they have cars today. They needed the animals to pull wagons and plows.
Donkeys had a reputation for refusing to do jobs that they didn’t want to
do.
His brother and sister never gave up their nickname for Preston, though
they did shorten it to Toby. His family and friends continued to call him
Toby until he had a little boy of his own, who took up the nickname and
has proudly held onto it until today.
Something similar happened to Andrew Jackson when he campaigned
for president of the United States in 1828. As with other elections, there
was a lot of name-calling. Andrew’s opponents often called him a
“jackass.” It’s the actual name of a male donkey, but they meant it in a
rude way.
 Instead of feeling bad, Andrew smiled and began putting pictures of a
donkey on his campaign posters. Soon people forgot that it was an insult,
and the donkey became the symbol for the whole Democratic political
party.
When someone is rude enough to call you a name, it is entirely up to
you what happens next. You can feel bad about it for days. You can ignore
it. You can learn from it. Or you can even embrace it in the same way that
Andrew Jackson did.
The insults of other people don’t change how much God loves you. And
His opinion is the only one that matters.

—Kim
“Listen to me, you who know right from wrong,
you who cherish my law in your hearts.
Do not be afraid of people’s scorn,
nor fear their insults” (Isaiah 51:7, NLT).
 April 12

Sometimes it is better to lose and do the

right thing than to win and do the wrong thing.
—Tony Blair

O
ne spring an evangelist and his family arrived at our church to
conduct meetings. They parked their RV in the church parking lot.
One evening my dad and I noticed a teenage girl pacing outside the
camper with a large backpack. “Can we help you?” my dad asked,
explaining that he was the pastor.
With irritation she said that her parents had dropped her off to spend the
night with the evangelist’s daughter, her friend.
“They’ve gone away for a few days,” my dad informed her. “Do you
want to call someone?”
She shrugged. “My parents won’t be back home until tomorrow, and I
don’t know anyone around here.”
So my dad invited her to our house for the night. She wasn’t very
friendly during supper and afterward marched straight into the guest room
and shut the door. The next morning her parents picked her up and took
her back to her boarding academy.
A few days later I went into the guest room closet, where I stored my
special clothes. I scowled as I saw a bunch of empty hangers. Then I
started looking for specific items: my blue mohair sweater, my banquet
dress. They were missing!
My dad called the dean at the boarding academy, and she told us to
come to campus. When we arrived she led my mom and me to the girl’s
dorm room and said, “Check to see if your clothes are here.”
Sure enough, I found my mohair sweater, my banquet dress, and other
familiar items, crumpled and worn. I reclaimed my possessions, and my
dad and the dean talked to the girl. “She just said, ‘I saw all those pretty
clothes, and I wanted them,’ ” my dad told me.
“I can’t believe she did that!” I yelled. “We fed her and gave her a place
to stay—”
“People don’t always reward us for doing good. But that doesn’t mean
we shouldn’t still do the right thing,” he said gently.
Today I don’t have any of those clothes anymore. But I do have the
confidence that we did the right thing.

—Lori

“I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me
drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in” (Matthew 25:35).
 April 13

Houston, we’ve had a problem.

—James Lovell

W
hen you’re traveling through the black silence of space on your
way to the moon, the last thing you want to hear is a loud bang
coming from outside your spaceship. It tends to make you nervous.
The Apollo 13 spacecraft rocked. Warning lights came on. Mission
commander James Lovell checked his gauges. One power source had
failed. One oxygen tank was reading empty, and he could actually watch
the needle going down on the other tank. Looking out the side window, he
saw a jet of gas escaping into space. “That’s when the old lead weight
went down to the bottom of my stomach and I thought that we were really
in deep trouble,” he remembers.
They were two hundred thousand miles from earth without air, without
power, and without water. James announced their problem to the NASA
Mission Control Center in Houston, Texas. Immediately, the best minds in
the space program began to figure out a way to rescue the three Apollo
astronauts. To save power, they shut down all the electronics. The
temperature dropped to thirty-nine degrees.
They could get oxygen from the Lunar Module, but how could they
remove the poisonous carbon dioxide that would build up in the air as they
breathed? Engineers on the ground figured out a way to make an “air
scrubber” out of duct tape, hoses, and a sock.
Riding in the cold, dark spacecraft, the three men looped around the
moon, using its gravity to hurl them back toward earth. Now several things
had to go exactly right. And everything did, thanks to the calculations
made by the engineers on the ground.
When you’re in trouble, you can always say, “God, we’ve had a
problem.” Then trust Him to bring all of heaven to work on your difficulty.
The mission control team in Houston was pretty good, but the one in
heaven is even better.

—Kim

“When they call on me, I will answer; I will be with them in trouble. I
will rescue and honor them” (Psalm 91:15, NLT).
 April 14

Sic semper tyrannis. (Thus always to tyrants.)

—Marcus Junius Brutus

J
ohn lived in a time of war. He sided with a spunky group of rebels
who were fighting to keep their way of life against an evil tyrant who
ruled in the north of the country. A handsome and popular actor, John
became part of a daring plan to kidnap the tyrant and bring victory to the
rebels.
When the war turned against the rebel force, John decided to bravely
kill the tyrant himself. He happened to be acting in a play that the ruler
attended. During the intermission, he shot the man in his private viewing
box, then jumped from the box down to the stage, where he shouted, “Sic
semper tyrannis!” in front of the theater audience. He dashed out of the
building and escaped on a fast horse.
John thought he was a hero. “Our cause being almost lost, something
decisive and great must be done,” he wrote in his journal. “I struck
boldly.”
Perhaps you recognize John by now. He may have been a hero in his
own mind, but he is remembered in history as the assassin who brought an
end to the great American president Abraham Lincoln. The way of life that
he wanted to protect was slavery, which John called “one of the greatest
blessings (both for themselves and us,) that God has ever bestowed upon a
favored nation.”
John Wilkes Booth may have known how to speak Latin, but he didn’t
know good from evil. This kind of confusion can happen to anyone who
doesn’t study their Bible. As President Lincoln himself said about
Scripture: “But for this book we could not know right from wrong.”

—Kim

“There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of
death” (Proverbs 14:12).
 April 15

I make myself a leper with the lepers

to gain all to Jesus Christ.
—Father Damien

W
hen leprosy came to the Hawaiian Islands, it was a terror. The
majority of islanders had already died from strange diseases
brought by European sailors, but this was the strangest. It ate away at the
skin, consuming fingers and toes.
Frightened by the spreading disease, the government found a spit of land
on the island of Molokai that was cut off from the rest of the population by
a seventeen-hundred-foot cliff. Here they isolated the patients.
No one wanted to go to this colony. Ship captains had to be forced to
transport patients, and sometimes they would throw the lepers overboard
in deep water and make them swim to shore. The lonely lepers were too
sick to grow food or even to bury their dead. There was a doctor, but he set
their medicines out on his fence post so that he wouldn’t have to touch
them. Just like the lepers in the Bible, they felt rejected by everyone, even
God.
That began to change when a young priest volunteered to go to the
colony. He had nothing when he arrived, sleeping under a tree for several
weeks. He helped where he could. He bandaged sores, built a water
reservoir, constructed homes and furniture, made coffins, and dug graves.
He became a hero to the residents of the colony, and soon stories of his
work spread beyond the islands. People of other denominations sent
money to help his work. He was able to build an orphanage for the
children of lepers.
While getting ready for a bath one day, Father Damien accidentally put
his foot into scalding water. He felt no pain, and it dawned on him that this
was a symptom of leprosy. He had contracted the disease himself.
Today is Father Damien Day in Hawaii, a day to remember this
Christian who reached out to touch lepers just like his Savior did before
him.

—Kim

“Now a leper came to Him, imploring Him, kneeling down to Him and
saying to Him, ‘If You are willing, You can make me clean.’ Then Jesus,
moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched him, and said
to him, ‘I am willing; be cleansed’ ” (Mark 1:40, 41).
 April 16

Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.

—Babe Ruth

I want to join the school band,” I told my parents as my sophomore year

in academy began.
“That’s a good idea,” they encouraged. “What instrument would you
like to play?”
“I see myself as a flutist,” I replied.
And so the next day I approached the band teacher and asked him if he
needed any more flute players.
“I can always use another flute player,” he said with a smile.
So I rented an instrument from him and began lessons. But it wasn’t as
easy to get a sound out of that silver wand as I’d hoped. I tried and tried to
maneuver my lips into the right position to expel more than puffs of air.
Every afternoon I sat on the floor in front of the full-length mirror in my
bedroom, pursing my lips in different ways and trying to mimic how I’d
seen other flutists produce a clear note. But I was lucky if I emitted a
squeak.
So after a week I blamed it on my orthodontic braces and quit. I
returned the shiny instrument to the band teacher and explained, “I guess
I’m not a flutist after all.”
Then for the rest of the school year I watched my friends go off on band
trips. They gave concerts on weekends and even went to Southern
California to play at Disneyland. And I stayed home.
During those times I wished I’d shown more perseverance in my
lessons. Sometimes not persevering means you get left behind on band
trips. Sometimes it means you lose out on a lot more.

—Lori

“Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood
the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has
promised to those who love him” (James 1:12, NIV).
 April 17

In order to hear God’s voice you

must turn down the world’s volume.
—Holly Taylor

J
ack Phillips was busy that night sending and receiving texts. Only he
wasn’t doing it on a cell phone. He was doing it on a Marconi radio
telegraph—a massive collection of wires and dials that filled the room
where he worked. And instead of typing letters, he sent signals in Morse
code that went from the luxury ship on which he was stationed to other
radio telegraph offices on shore.
The technology was different, but messages resembled the chatty
messages we send today. “I am very well,” went one of the messages he
sent for a passenger. “Calm weather. Wonderful ship. I am enjoying
myself.”
“Hello Boy. Dining with you tonight in spirit, heart with you always.
Best love, Girl” read one romantic message.
Jack had just come within range of a station in Newfoundland, Canada,
and he quickly tapped his way through a backlog of messages passengers
wanted sent to loved ones ashore. Each was worth money to his employer.
He was interrupted by a signal from a nearby ship. “Ice warning. Three
large bergs five miles to southward of us.”
“It is alright. . . . I have got it,” replied Jack as he moved on to send
another message from a passenger. “Arrive Wednesday, Titanic maiden
voyage. Meet me. Vessel worth seeing.”
Again Jack was interrupted by an incoming message: “Californian to
Titanic. Say old man. We are stopped and surrounded by ice.”
Jack was annoyed. He had a lot of messages to send while he was still in
range of the land station. “Keep out,” he tapped. “Shut up.”
Shortly thereafter, the Titanic hit an iceberg and Jack started sending
distress signals. But the Morse operator on the nearby ship, Californian,
had gone to bed and never heard them.
If Jack had stopped sending trivial messages long enough to deliver the
important ice warning to his captain, the tragedy of the Titanic might have
been averted. Maybe that is a lesson to all of us to not get so involved in
texting that we don’t have time to absorb important messages from the
Bible. There are texts in that book that may save our lives.

—Kim

“Give attention to my words;

Incline your ear to my sayings.
Do not let them depart from your eyes;
Keep them in the midst of your heart;
For they are life to those who find them,
And health to all their flesh” (Proverbs 4:20–22).
 April 18

Jesus didn’t say, “Follow Christians.” He said, “Follow Me.”

—Unknown

C
ome on! You should do it too!” My family urged me to join them on
the FlowRider.
“Oh, I don’t think so,” I responded.
“Come on! Don’t you want adventure?”
We had just boarded a boat for a spring break cruise. This particular
boat boasted “the ultimate surf machine.”
With apprehension I joined my family in line. We would be some of the
first guests to try this stand-up surfing experience.
When my turn came, I hesitantly stepped onto the trampoline-like
surface. Water rushed over the inclined platform as a cruise employee
named Dragonya helped me onto the surfboard.
“I’m going to let go now,” she asserted.
“Wait! I don’t have my balance,” I countered, feeling the surfboard
wobble under my feet. “Please don’t let go,” I begged. “Please.” I clung to
her arm.
She rolled her eyes. Then, ignoring my pleas, she pulled away and
insisted, “I’m letting go.”
Bam! I crashed onto the wet trampoline, and a strange combination of
numbness and pain shot through my arm. Then a wave flung me against
the back wall of the FlowRider, where I stayed, grasping my left arm. It
dangled by my side, throbbing and immobile.
When Dragon girl finally realized that I was hurt, she turned off the
machine, stopping the waves from crashing against my injured body. Then
she brusquely phoned for the medical team. They arrived with a
wheelchair, and soon I was in the X-ray room hearing the cruise doctor
announce, “Your arm is broken very badly in two places.”
That was so stupid! Why did I do it? I chastised myself. I really hadn’t
wanted to, but I let myself get talked into it. And I placed myself in the
hands of Dragon girl, who seemingly didn’t care if I had a bad fall.
I decided that I’d be more careful about whose hands I trust to guide and
steady me in the future. If we choose the right Leader, we’ll not only surf
the waves—we’ll walk on water and fly in the heavens!

—Lori

“The Lord stood with me and strengthened me” (2 Timothy 4:17).

 April 19

If I had a dollar for every time someone

made fun of me in high school—oh wait, I do!
—attributed to billionaire Bill Gates

T
here was no money in the Garden of Eden. Which was fine, because
Adam had no place to keep a wallet.
Even after leaving their Garden home, Adam and Eve never got around
to inventing money. They were too busy scratching a living out of the hard
earth and waiting until they had enough kids to start a church school.
So the ancient world spun along without money for a long time. But it
was hard to tell who was successful, so one of our ancestors suggested,
“Why don’t we see who has the most sheep?”
Sheep worked like money in most ways. You could exchange them for
goods and services. They were easy to count. And they tended to wander
off and get lost about the time your rent was due.
The difficulty with sheep was their size. On the one hand, they wouldn’t
get lost under the sofa cushions as modern coins do. But when you wanted
to take a trip, they tended to slow you down more than a pack of traveler’s
checks.
So people began to look for a more compact kind of currency, and their
attention was drawn to bright, shiny objects such as gold and gems. Later,
people tried carrying several pounds of coins around in their pockets; then
they began to use banknotes. Basically this amounts to the government
giving everyone bits of paper and telling them to pretend it’s worth
something.
 But paper money works. And it works better than sheep because if you
buy a candy bar with a lamb, how does the store make change?
However, we miss out on one thing when we have a checking account
instead of a woolly flock. We have less of an understanding of what God
means when He says we are “the sheep of His pasture.” He is saying that
even though we are silly and confused and unable to care for ourselves, we
are as valuable to Him as money in the bank.

—Kim

“For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the
sheep of His hand” (Psalm 95:7).
 April 20

Anyone can claim to be God, but

Jesus backed it up with an empty tomb.
—Lee Strobel

C
aptain, take a look at this ship,” said the helmsman as he handed
David Morehouse a spyglass. “It keeps changing course.” They
were in the eastern Atlantic on course to Italy in the winter of 1872.
As the ships came closer together, the captain saw that the sails were set
oddly on the strange ship, and he could see no one on deck. He sent his
first mate over to investigate. The name on the stern of the one-hundred-
foot-long ship was Mary Celeste. Climbing on board, they noticed the sails
in poor condition, and tattered ropes hung over the side. They called out as
they walked across the deck, but no one answered.
The last entry in the logbook was from nine days earlier. The Mary
Celeste had drifted four hundred miles from its last recorded location. The
ship’s lifeboat was missing, but none of the crew was ever heard from
again. Their fate remains a mystery to this very day.
There’s something spooky about a large ship on the ocean that is
completely empty of people. Have you ever been in a big building that was
empty? Even that can feel scary. Especially at night.
However, there is one thing that is less frightening when it is empty than
when it is occupied, and that is a tomb. This Easter, we celebrate the
empty tomb that testifies to the resurrection of Jesus. Because that tomb is
empty, we have the hope of eternal life. There’s nothing scary about that,
right?
 —Kim

“Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is
risen!” (Luke 24:5, 6).
 April 21

The birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus means

that one day everything sad will come untrue.
—J. R. R. Tolkien

T
here were two groups of people. Those who believed John Capes
story, and those who didn’t.
A sailor in the British navy during World War II, John told a story about
hitching a ride on a submarine headed to Alexandria, Egypt. They had
given him a torpedo rack as a place to sleep, and that’s where he was when
a massive explosion threw him into the air. Soon he felt a mighty jolt as
the sub hit the seafloor. He was in the dark surrounded by broken and dead
bodies.
He found a flashlight. He fitted himself and two survivors with small
breathing devices. His compartment had an escape hatch, but he couldn’t
open it until he flooded the compartment by opening a valve to the sea.
Submerged in the dark water, he struggled to loosen the bolts on the hatch.
Then he pushed his mates up through the hatch. He began the 170-foot
ascent to the surface, his body in pain from the great depth.
On the surface at night, he found he was alone. His mates hadn’t
survived the ascent. Several miles in the distance he saw the cliffs of the
Greek island of Kefalonia, and he began to swim. There, the Greeks found
him passed out on a beach. They protected him from the Nazis for eighteen
months until he could be smuggled back to his navy.
When he returned, many doubted his story. How could someone escape
a sub at that depth? Weren’t the escape hatches bolted from the outside to
seal against depth charges? Why wasn’t his name on the crew list?
Fifty-six years later Greek divers found the submarine. Nearby was the
anchor of an Italian mine that had caused the sinking. More interesting to
the divers was the open escape hatch at the rear of the sub. Inside,
everything was just as John had described it.
Like John’s story, some people feel the story of Jesus’ resurrection is
hard to believe. But there is the empty tomb. And they will know the story
is true when every eye sees our Savior return.

—Kim

“He said to them, ‘Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who
was crucified. He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid
Him’ ” (Mark 16:6).
 April 22

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a

single moment before starting to improve the world.
—Anne Frank

I
t started with a school project. Katie Stagliano brought home a seedling
cabbage plant from third grade. She planted it near the corner of her
house. Every day she brought out a watering can. The cabbage plant got
bigger. She fertilized the plant. It got even bigger. And bigger. It grew into
a monster cabbage that weighed forty pounds!
It was obvious to everyone that this was a very special cabbage, and
Katie wanted to do something special with it. Her mom made some phone
calls, and they decided to give the cabbage to a local soup kitchen in North
Charleston, South Carolina.
Katie remembers what happened when she and her family showed up
carrying the supersized vegetable: “When I walked in I saw a huge line of
people waiting for what might be the only meal they would have that day.
The people who worked there and who were eating there were so friendly
and nice. As I served my cabbage to the guests and they thanked me for
helping to feed them, I knew I could and I should do more to help.”
And that’s what she did. She asked her school for help, and they
donated a plot of land for a garden. The whole school from kindergarten to
twelfth grade got involved. Next, she established Katie’s Krops to
encourage other kids to grow food to donate to hungry people. At last
count there are eighty-three Katie’s Krops gardens.
“My daughter truly amazes me,” says Katie’s mom. “The lives she
touched, I don’t think I’ll ever know where that ends.”
Katie says her dream is that there are no hungry people. What dream do
you have? You don’t have to wait a single moment to start making it come
true.

—Kim

“Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve
others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms” (1 Peter
4:10, NIV).
 April 23

‘Tis better to have loved and lost,

Than never to have loved at all.

—Alfred Lord Tennyson

Y
ou know it’s morning when you hear birds chirping, the shower
faucet turning on, and one of your parents crying out, “Has anyone
seen my car keys?”
Losing car keys is one of the main things adults do, along with giving
you money and complaining about your table manners. I once lost my keys
for a week. Another time I was late to work because my twelve-year-old
son had thought it would be funny to tape my keys to the ceiling.
I have lost many things, including socks, retainers, and the entire body
of learning from my sophomore year of academy. But this thing with my
keys is starting to wear on me. Now I can hear someone saying, “Why
don’t you put your keys in the same place every time?” Well, maybe I am
putting them in the same place. I just can’t remember where that place is.
The good thing about losing your keys is that it can reinvigorate your
prayer life. I’m almost surprised that the Lord’s Prayer doesn’t make a
place between “Give us our daily bread,” and “forgive us debts” for a little
something about “return to us our keys before we’re late for school.”
People lose things. This is the chief reason that God did not give us
removable body parts.
“Hey, Mom. Have you seen my ear?”
“Check the pool filter, honey.”
 Every bad feeling I can think of is about loss. We’re grieving loss or
fearing loss or just plain angry about loss. When we are losers, we are
weepers.
But Jesus tells us about a place where there are no more tears. That
means that there will be no more death—the worst kind of loss. In fact,
many people we have loved and lost will be returned to us with joy. That is
a key to hope that no one can afford to lose.

—Kim

“You will know that your tent is secure, for you will visit your abode
and fear no loss” (Job 5:24, NASB).
 April 24

You can’t judge a book by its cover.

—Proverb

T
he Robertson family was in New York City to promote a new season
of their hit TV show Duck Dynasty. The show entertained millions
with the silly adventures of three camo-wearing, bearded brothers who run
a company that makes duck calls.
The millionaire brothers and the rest of their family were staying in the
posh Trump Hotel. As they were heading out one morning, Jase Robertson
needed a pit stop and asked a hotel employee where he could find the
bathroom.
The employee took one look at the long beard and led Jase by the
elbow. “Right this way, sir,” he said as he walked the TV star out the front
door. Pointing to Central Park, he added, “Good luck.”
Jase circled back to the hotel, and there his wife asked where he had
gone. “I just got kicked out,” he said. On the show Live! With Kelly and
Michael he joked that he had been a victim of “facial profiling.”
When asked if he was still staying at the hotel after the snub, Jase said,
“Yes. He didn’t know.”
When the owners of the hotel, the Trump family, heard about the
incident, they called to apologize and later offered Jase some “sweet
perks,” according to People.com.
I don’t know if the Trump International Hotel and Tower employee ever
found out about his mistake, but it serves as a great example of the trouble
you get in when you judge people at a glance. You can’t be God and know
everything that is in a person’s heart. But you can take a moment to
remember that there is something inside every person that God values.
That’s why everyone deserves our respect. Beard or no beard.

—Kim

“The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the
outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7,
NIV).
 April 25

The power of choosing good and evil is within the reach of all.
—Origen

I
t was the beginning of the ski season in the Austrian Alps. All was
going well at one luxury hotel until guests came to the front desk
complaining that they couldn’t get into their rooms. Their entry cards
didn’t work. The housekeepers couldn’t open any rooms, and neither could
management. What was going on?
Soon they found out that hackers had accessed the electronic key system
and threatened to hold it ransom until they got eighteen hundred dollars.
The hotel had almost two hundred guests who didn’t want to sleep in the
hallways. So the hackers got their money.
That took some brains.
Meanwhile, on the northern rim of Africa, just above the Sahara Desert,
some new technology was being unfurled on the side of a mountain. It was
a series of high-tech nets set up to snatch water out of the fog that often
covers the mountain. Developed by technology schools in Germany, a
CloudFisher net the size of a billboard can catch three hundred gallons of
pure water each day.
Water in the fog condenses on the thin steel wires that make up the nets,
much like dew collects on blades of grass. Then the water drips down the
wires into collection troughs. From there, pipes carry the water to nearby
villages. Women and children in these communities are especially thankful
for CloudFisher nets. They used to spend four hours each day carrying
water jugs on their heads from wells back to their homes, where they used
it to supply the needs of the family and their cattle.
That took some brains. But in this case, those brains were used to help
people.
Whether you have lots of smarts or just enough to get by, you have the
same choice: you can think of ways to take what you want from people, or
you can think of ways to help them. You can always choose to go through
one door or the other, because God always makes sure that both are
unlocked.

—Kim

“The words of the wicked are, ‘Lie in wait for blood,’ but the mouth of
the upright will deliver them” (Proverbs 12:6).
 April 26

Someone is sitting in the shade today

because someone else planted a tree long ago.
—Warren Buffett

I
f you go to the town of Nova in Ohio, you can see an apple tree planted
179 years ago by Johnny Appleseed. Johnny was known for carrying a
sack of apple seeds across the states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and
Illinois. When he came to unclaimed land, he would plant an orchard and
build a fence around it to protect the growing plants from cattle.
He lived simply, walking barefoot in his travels, wearing a tin pot on his
head to protect him from the sun, then using it to cook his supper. He was
also known for being gentle to animals.
One cool autumn night he was lying by his campfire when he saw that a
mosquito flew into the flames and was burned. Johnny took his tin pot,
filled it with water, and doused his campfire. “God forbid that I should
build a fire for my comfort, that should be the means of destroying any of
His creatures,” he said.
Another story says he made a campfire by a hollow log in which he
sought shelter from a snowstorm. He thought it would be a great place to
sleep until he found it was already occupied by a bear and her cubs. So he
moved his fire and slept in the open air rather than disturb the bears.
As you might guess, his kindness to animals included being a
vegetarian.
Nobody knows how many trees Johnny Appleseed planted in his travels.
But all those trees continued to bless people long after he was gone. People
still come to his tree in Ohio to gather apples for making pies, cider, or
applesauce.
It is interesting to think that any seed of kindness that you plant today
may be remembered for many years, just like we remember Johnny
Appleseed.

—Kim

“The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and whoever captures souls
is wise” (Proverbs 11:30, ESV).
 April 27

Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those

little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.
—Desmond Tutu

T
he country of South Africa had been a mix of races and nationalities
for hundreds of years. But after World War II, the government began
to force a separation between races. Areas of the country were designated
for whites, and Africans were forcibly removed from those areas and
placed in townships just for them. Blacks could not travel outside their
area without passes. Beaches, buses, hospitals, schools, and universities
were for either blacks or whites.
Desmond Tutu grew up in this “apartheid” system. He was poor and
black, but he was bright enough to become a teacher. Desmond was
disturbed at how bad the black schools were compared to the schools for
whites. Less than half of the black schools even had plumbing. To protest
the injustice of the system, he quit teaching and studied theology.
Desmond grew famous when he became the first black person to be
appointed to the position of dean for the Anglican Church in the city of
Johannesburg. He explained, “I realized that I had been given a platform
that was not readily available to many blacks and most of our leaders were
either now in chains or in exile. And I said, ‘Well, I’m going to use this to
seek to try to articulate our aspirations and the anguishes of our people.’ ”
He organized marches against the apartheid system and called for other
countries to refuse to trade with South Africa to pressure the government
to do the right thing. He continued to call for change without ever calling
for violence. He was promoted to bishop and received a Nobel Peace
Prize, which increased his influence.
In the 1990s the apartheid system began to come down, and in 1994
South Africa had an election in which people of every race could vote.
“You remember the rainbow in the Bible is the sign of peace,” says
Bishop Tutu. “The rainbow is the sign of prosperity. We want peace,
prosperity, and justice, and we can have it when all the people of God, the
rainbow people of God, work together.”
Now the nation that was once separated into black and white is called
the Rainbow Nation as it works to include people of all races and colors.

—Kim

“You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of
every tribe and tongue and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9).
 April 28

Why aren’t you doing anything with this?

—Steve Jobs

Y
ou don’t have to believe this if you don’t want to, but there was a
time when personal computers didn’t have a mouse. If you wanted
the computer to do anything, you would type a command that looked like
this:
C:\>TYPE config.sys
It was awful. But it all changed when Steve Jobs, the president of a new
computer company, visited the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center. There
some of the brightest minds in the country had invented the future of
computing. They had the first laser printer. The had a graphical user
interface. And most amazing of all—they had a computer with a mouse.
The engineer who demonstrated the computer remembers Steve’s
reaction. “He was very excited,” says Larry Tesler. “When he began
seeing the things I could do on-screen, he watched for about a minute and
started jumping around the room, shouting, ‘Why aren’t you doing
anything with this? This is the greatest thing. This is revolutionary!’ ”
The next day Steve visited with an industrial designer. “You’ve got to
do a mouse,” said Steve.
“What’s a mouse?” asked the designer.
Steve explained what he had seen. “The Xerox mouse costs three
hundred dollars to build,” he said. “I need you to make one that can be
manufactured for fifteen dollars.” So the designer started to hack
something together with a plastic butter dish, the lid from a jam jar, and
the rollerball from a deodorant stick. Eventually he designed the mouse for
the first Apple Macintosh.
“Creativity is just connecting things,” said Steve after the Mac had
become successful. “When you ask creative people how they did
something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it. They
just saw something.”
Just like Steve saw the potential for the mouse, God sees your potential.
“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works,
which God prepared in advance for us to do,” says the apostle Paul.
Other people may not see that potential, and sometimes you may not see
it yourself, but always remember that God put it there.

—Kim

“We are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works,

which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10, NIV).
 April 29

There’s a lot of difference between listening and hearing.

—G. K. Chesterton

alarmed. While reading The Baby Book, I learned that the average
I was
baby speaks four to six intelligible words by fifteen months. This
worried me because it indicated that “average” babies were speaking a
month before the age of our son. We were falling behind!
Not only was Reef not speaking at that time, but it almost seemed like
Reef had rejected English and was trying to teach us baby language.
One morning we were reading a book about cats. He pointed to a picture
of one of our feline friends and said, “Bap-umm.”
I said, “Cat.”
He pointed again and said, “Bap-umm.”
I replied, “No, it’s a cat.”
The child gave me a look that indicated he was trying hard to be patient
with such a slow learner. He pointed again very insistently. “Bap-umm!”
“Bap-umm” was a favorite word that could describe many things: a cat,
a dog, the car, and—for all I knew—certain aspects of particle physics.
Now, I should point out that both grandmothers held the opinion that
our son had already spoken. Such as the time his stroller came around the
corner in Target, and he saw a display of vacuum cleaners. “Bap-umm,” he
declared, and my mother was certain that he had said “vacuum.” No, I
thought, that’s Reef’s word for cats and the second law of
thermodynamics.
At least that’s what I used to think. Then Reef dragged me to the closet,
pointed at the Hoover, and said, “Bap-umm.” That’s when it dawned on
me. “Vacuum” is his favorite word. Maybe he’d been talking all the time,
and I wasn’t listening.
One of the most difficult things to do, next to adding fractions, is to
really truly listen. To our family. To our schoolmates. To God.

—Kim

“Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” (Luke
11:28).
 April 30

If you could kick the person in the pants responsible

for most of your trouble, you wouldn’t sit for a month.
—Theodore Roosevelt

D
evin’s problem at the moment was pants. “Mom, I need some clean
jeans,” he yelled across the house. “Why didn’t you wash my
jeans?”
“I’m sorry,” replied Mom. “I washed all the clothes that I found in the
laundry basket. I may have missed the ones you left on the floor in your
room.”
“What am I supposed to wear to school?” yelled Devin, waving his
hands at the shocking inability of his parents to meet his needs.
They were always goofing up. Like the time his dad didn’t mail the
package to Devin’s eBay customer. He had to get upset with Dad. “I’m
already three days late in getting this shipped,” said Devin. “I can’t believe
you didn’t put it in the mailbox.”
“I’m sorry,” said Dad. “Let’s see if we can drive to the post office
before it closes. By the way, why are you three days late?”
“Never mind,” said Devin.
You wouldn’t believe the amount of trouble his parents caused. There
was the time his mother made him mad for some reason. He couldn’t
remember exactly what she did wrong, but he was so frustrated that he
threw his phone down on the sofa in disgust. Sadly, it bounced off the sofa
and hit the floor. “Now look what you did,” complained Devin, showing
his mother the cracked screen on his phone.
 Sometimes Devin daydreams about how much better his life would be if
the other members of the family would just get their act together. He can
imagine gliding smoothly through each day without their awkward
blunders. Don’t you wonder if his parents imagine the same thing?

—Kim

“Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not
consider the plank in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:3)
 May 1

The best help you can give is at the end of your own arm.
—Loretta Warsow

I
t was a good day for fishing. John Napoli was on his way back to San
Francisco with 550 pounds of salmon in boxes on the deck. He was still
several miles offshore when he thought he saw a turtle in the water. Then
it was lost in the fog.
A minute later he was surprised to see through the mist the hull of a
freighter. Then a Coast Guard boat appeared and someone shouted at him.
He thought the person said something about a man overboard. With a sick
feeling in his stomach he remembered what he had seen.
He waved for the Coast Guard to follow him and swung his boat around
to the spot where he had seen the “turtle.” It was a man. He was bleeding
from cuts and nearly unconscious. Napoli hauled him aboard. Then the fog
lifted. The fisherman stared around him in horror at the scene of a collision
between two ships.
“Those heads bobbin’ all around like seagulls sitting on the water,” he
said later in his Italian accent. “My hair stand up.” Time was short. Soon
the tide would take them out to sea.
John dragged more survivors over the railing of his boat. Most of them
were blue and shivering, unable to pull themselves aboard. “I have to make
plenty room so they don’t hurt the other guys when they flop down. So I
throw the boxes of fish overboard,” he remembered.
He was a small man, and he barely had the strength to pull each survivor
onto his boat. He would have to wait until a wave lifted the person closer
to the deck. When he came upon a cluster of sailors in the water, he found
he couldn’t lift any one of them over the railing. So he towed them like a
raft to another rescue boat.
John was credited with saving seventy people from drowning. He also
made a sacrifice that day beyond the fish he threw overboard. He injured
his back so seriously that he could never fish again. But sometimes you
just have to lend a hand.

—Kim

“We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we
also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. If someone has
enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows
no compassion—how can God’s love be in that person? Dear children,
let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our
actions” (1 John 3:16–18, NLT).
 May 2

The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection.

—Michelangelo

Y
ou’ve heard of Michelangelo, right? No, not the teenage mutant
ninja turtle. I’m talking about the Italian sculptor and artist. He lived
back when Columbus discovered the New World.
There’s this story about the time he finished his first important work, a
stunningly realistic sculpture of Mary holding the lifeless body of Jesus
after His crucifixion. One day Michelangelo happened to overhear a group
of people admiring his Pieta. One pompous man in the group identified the
artist as “Our Gobbo from Milan.”
Michelangelo was so deeply annoyed that someone else had gotten the
credit for his work that he returned to the sculpture later that evening and
chiseled his name and hometown on a sash running across Mary’s chest.
We all like to get credit when we do something well. Like when we help
win a ball game or we get the high score on a test.
What about God? Do you think that, like Michelangelo, He wants to be
recognized for creating life on earth? Many people give the credit for
Creation to natural processes. They say that life started with a recipe of
one part slime and two parts lightning.
Do you think that God is annoyed by losing credit for His works?
Maybe He wants to say, “The elephant’s nose, that was My idea! And the
dolphin’s smile, also My idea. And you’ve heard of DNA, right? I
invented that.”
Instead, God seems to play it cool, letting people believe what they want
to believe.
It is interesting to me that Michelangelo never signed another work of
art after the Pieta. It’s like he stopped worrying about getting credit and
just did the work. Maybe he trusted that those who really wanted to know
who created his masterpieces would eventually discover the truth.

—Kim

“The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God’ ” (Psalm 14:1).
 May 3

There are but few who realize that, in order to

enjoy health and cheerfulness, they must have
an abundance of sunlight, pure air,
and physical exercise.
—Ellen G. White

S
ister Ward was a bit of a rebel. This nurse was in charge of the
premature baby unit at Rochford General Hospital in Essex,
England. She had this idea that fresh air and sunshine were good for the
babies under her care. On sunny days, she would take infants out into the
hospital courtyard. The doctors told her she was being silly.
So Sister Ward made sure to take the babies outside only when the
doctors weren’t working in her area. Some of the babies in her care were
yellow. They had a condition called jaundice, caused by their liver being
slow in coming up to speed. At this time, in the 1950s, jaundice could
cause brain damage and even death. A yellow baby was a cause of great
worry.
One day, as she was bringing the babies in from their secret recess, she
noticed something unusual. She called the physicians to take a look. She
showed them an undressed infant with pale normal skin except for a
triangle of yellow.
One doctor asked if she had painted the baby’s skin with iodine—a
disinfectant. No, she said, explaining that the infant she held was a
jaundice patient. The typical yellow color had faded except for where the
corner of a sheet had covered the child. The sunlight was breaking down
the toxins that caused the yellowing jaundice.
Nurse Ward’s observation led directly to the regular use of phototherapy
to treat jaundice in infants and has saved millions of babies from the
damaging condition.
Of course, Seventh-day Adventists had known eighty years before that
about the healing powers of sunshine. Our health message, given through
the Spirit of Prophecy, provides proof that God cares about us and wants
us to have a full and happy life.

—Kim

“If you diligently heed the voice of the LORD your God and do what is
right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes,
I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the
Egyptians. For I am the LORD who heals you” (Exodus 15:26).
 May 4

Has this world been so kind to you that

you should leave with regret? There are
better things ahead than any we leave behind.
—C. S. Lewis

I
f heaven were a vacation spot, would it be as popular as Disney World?
I think people would say, “Heaven? Yeah, we intend to go there
sometime. But right now we really want to see the Country Bear
Jamboree.”
Of course, if you ask any group “Who wants to go to heaven?” everyone
will raise their hands. But if you ask “Who wants to go to Waffle House?”
the next thing you know, the whole group has raced to the car and is
honking the horn ready to go. Excuse me for saying so, but it’s just not
right when the eternal reward of the redeemed generates less excitement
than waffles.
Perhaps heaven needs better advertising. Even if you read the Bible
word for word, you don’t find much promotion for heaven. We hear that
it’s the kind of place where the lion lies down with the lamb. That’s great,
but what if you’re allergic to cats? Is there a shopping mall where you can
hang out with friends? Does the Sea of Glass have a waterslide?
Somebody has tried to whip up excitement for heaven by mentioning
free harp lessons. If people were really interested in that kind of
strumming, the video arcade would have a game called Harp Hero. I’m
just saying that heaven would get a lot more out of its advertising dollar if
it promised that all the saved will play the guitar like Bo Diddley.
 Perhaps it’s best not to get hung up on the specifics of heaven. Will
there be a Krispy Kreme doughnut shop? Will there be Wi-Fi? Can you
bring your Lego collection?
There is only one fact about heaven that we need to know. Jesus will be
there. It is His place, and He is in charge of the programming. If you know
Jesus, you know that He has a long history of surprising us with blessings
that are far greater than what we could imagine. Sometimes the best
strategy in advertising is to feature a name that everyone can trust.

—Kim

“This is the LORD; we have waited for Him; we will be glad and rejoice
in His salvation” (Isaiah 25:9).
 May 5

Home is where the heart is.

—Pliny the Elder

M
anjiro was fourteen years old when he left his mother to go fishing
with friends. But he wasn’t coming home anytime soon. A great
storm blew the boat away from the shores of Japan. After eight days,
Manjiro and his friends came near a rocky island and swam ashore. The
island was empty, except for birds and the graves of previous castaways.
Six months passed before they were rescued by an American whaling
ship. Manjiro became a favorite of the captain, who took him to his home
in Connecticut. At this time, in the 1840s, Americans had never seen a
Japanese native. In fact, Japan forbade anyone from leaving the country
and returning under the penalty of death.
The harsh law did not stop Manjiro’s desire to go back home. He
learned all about navigation and went to work on sailing ships. He hoped
to make enough money to buy a small boat that he could take back to
Japan. In 1850 he traveled to California. His plan was to join the gold rush
and make enough money to buy a boat. In ten weeks he had found enough
gold to pay for his dream. He sailed to Hawaii and bought a boat he named
Adventurer. Then he hoisted his boat onto a larger ship going near Japan.
When he arrived on Japanese land, he knew he might be killed. In fact,
he was locked up as a possible spy and questioned for week after week.
His request to return to his hometown was ignored. Seven months passed
before he was reunited with his mother. She had thought he was dead for
ten years.
 Can you imagine that reunion? You know, many years have passed
since Jesus ascended to heaven. But I believe there is a bond between us
and Jesus that makes Him think about coming back as often as Manjiro
thought about returning to his boyhood fishing village. Jesus will come
back to the place He once called home, and when He does, we’ll go home
too.

—Kim

“In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would
have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a
place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I
am, there you may be also” (John 14:2, 3).
 May 6

There’s no such thing as bad publicity.

—P. T. Barnum

E
very fall an unusual couple lumbered into Bethel, Connecticut. It
was Hack Bailey and his elephant, Old Bet.
Old Bet was one of the first elephants in the United States. Hack had
bought her off a sea captain for one thousand dollars. That was a
staggering amount of money back in the early 1800s, but Old Bet turned
out to be a good investment.
Traveling under the cover of night so that people couldn’t see the
elephant for free, Hack would arrive in a small town and arrange to keep
his partner in a barn. By charging a fee for the villagers to see the exotic
animal up close, he became rich.
When Hack and Old Bet came to Bethel, they made a lasting impression
on a boy known as Tale Barnum. Tale listened with wide eyes to Hack’s
stories of traveling the country and making money on exhibits.
I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that Tale grew up to be the famous
circus showman P. T. Barnum. He said one lesson he learned from Hack
Bailey was that “when entertaining the public, it is best to have an
elephant.”
Of course, Tale always had elephants in his circus, but he also had them
on his farm. He would use an elephant to plow. A neighboring farmer
noticed the beast at work and came over to ask about it. An argument
broke out when Tale insisted that the elephant was just like any other
working farm animal. The farmer challenged Barnum to admit how much
it cost to feed and how much weight it could pull.
“I would just like to know what it can draw,” demanded the farmer.
“It can draw the attention of twenty million American citizens to
Barnum’s Museum,” said the showman.
You know, God also knows how to get attention. But instead of using
elephants, He uses you. That’s right, He uses you to show people His love.
Think about that the next time your life seems like a circus.

—Kim

“Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good
works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16,
ESV).
 May 7

Invest in your hair. It is the crown you never take off.

—Unknown

I must have had a boring childhood because one of my favorite memories

involves hair gel. I’m thinking of an amazing product called Dippity-do
(available in pink or blue) that you combed into your hair. After a few
minutes this space-age polymer would harden your hairstyle into a shiny,
bulletproof helmet. A person could go out into Hurricane Harvey confident
that even if their eyebrows blew off, the rest of their hair would remain as
fixed in place as the Colorado Rockies.
You could shape your hair in all sorts of interesting ways. I once saw a
guy who used mass quantities of gel to create a Mohawk of ten-inch
spikes. He looked like an upside-down garden tool.
Dippity-do made hair fascinating for a boy. I remember sitting in third
grade, taking rigid locks of hair in my fingers and snapping them like
strands of dry pasta.
When Dippity-do fell out of fashion, I lost interest in hair. To me, hair
was like having a big fingernail on the top of your head that needs to be
trimmed every once in a while.
As I became a teenager, hair became important again because I thought
maybe it would make me more popular with the girls. At the same time,
girls worked on their hair to be more popular with the boys. Think of all
the time and anxiety we could save if everyone just wore ball caps.
No matter how much you stress about your hair, God knows more about
it than you do. The Bible says He knows the exact number of hairs on your
head. That’s proof of how much He cares about you. He knows all about
you, and He has plans for your happiness. God will do for your life what
Dippity-do does for hair—He’ll hold it all together.

—Kim

“The very hairs of your head are all numbered” (Matthew 10:30).
 May 8

The buck stops here.

—Harry S. Truman

I
’m not sure Harry Truman ever wanted to be president of the United
States. Franklin Roosevelt could barely convince him to run as his vice
president. Harry had served as vice president for less than three months
when he got an urgent call to come to the White House. Arriving there, he
heard that the president had died. He went to comfort the First Lady,
Eleanor Roosevelt. “Is there anything I can do for you?” he asked.
“Is there anything we can do for you?” she replied. “For you’re the one
in trouble now.”
Harry did feel the enormous weight of his new responsibility. Shortly
after taking the oath of office, Truman told reporters: “If you ever pray,
pray for me now. I don’t know if you fellas ever had a load of hay fall on
you, but when they told me what happened yesterday, I felt like the moon,
the stars, and all the planets had fallen on me.”
As president, Harry had two signs on his desk. The first said: “The buck
stops here.” Buck doesn’t refer to a dollar, but to a polished piece of antler
(from a buck deer) used by card players. The “buck” was placed in front of
the next person to deal the cards. If they didn’t want to deal, they passed
the buck on to the person next to them. “Pass the buck” came to mean
passing on the blame or responsibility to someone else.
“The buck stops here” was Harry’s way of saying that there was no one
else to take the responsibility when he made decisions. And he made some
of the most difficult decisions of any American president. He gave the
order to drop nuclear bombs on Japan, believing that ending the war early
would save hundreds of thousands of soldiers on both sides.
The other sign on his desk was a Mark Twain quote that reflected his
determination to do what was best for the country. It said: “Always do
right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.”

—Kim

“By this I know that You are well pleased with me,
Because my enemy does not triumph over me.
As for me, You uphold me in my integrity,
And set me before Your face forever” (Psalm 41:11, 12).
 May 9

To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable,

because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.
—C. S. Lewis

K
ody had a good life for a dog. His master loved him and took care of
him. His master even took him to work every day at a forestry
company. But life can’t be perfect forever. Word came down that the
company was changing the rules about bringing dogs to work. So Kody
had to stay home. Alone. For hour after hour after hour.
One day when Kody was bored, he went into the bathroom to see if
there was some Kleenex he could tear up and leave all over the house.
While he was in there, the door closed behind him. Kody panicked. The
big dog threw himself at the door and then at the toilet. The toilet broke,
and water started spraying everywhere. Kody was more desperate to get
out. He gnawed at the door handle until it gave way and he was free.
That was the good news. But the water was still running in the
bathroom. For hour after hour after hour. The house began to creak and
moan.
The master got home later than usual, and you may not be surprised to
learn that he was very upset. It was the Friday of a holiday weekend, and
no plumbers could be found to help. When it was all over, the house had
settled four inches. It cost fifty thousand dollars to return the house to a
safe and livable condition.
So did the owner send Kody to the pound after the dog caused him so
much trouble? Nope. The dog was still part of the family.
 The same is true for Christians. We make mistakes. We cause damage
and heartbreak. But God doesn’t throw us out. He forgives us quickly and
continues to count us as part of His family. If we—as humans—can
forgive a dog, how much more will God forgive us?

—Kim

“You are God,

Ready to pardon,
Gracious and merciful,
Slow to anger,
Abundant in kindness,
And did not forsake them” (Nehemiah 9:17).
 May 10

Being a mother is learning about strengths you didn’t

know you had and dealing with fears you didn’t know existed.
—Linda Wooten

H
ave you ever noticed that your parents worry a lot? Well, I’ll tell
you a secret: They were as chill as cucumbers before you came
along. Life was easygoing and stress-free. Then they ended up holding a
wrinkly baby, and they panicked.
They realized that almost everything in their house—except the sofa—
was a choking hazard. During your toddlerhood they began to think of
ways—many of which defy the rules of physics—that you could put your
hand in the garbage disposal. And they hadn’t noticed it before, but the
neighbor’s dog looked just like that pit bull that was in the news.
They put cleaning supplies and anything else that could possibly be
poisonous in the top cupboards where you couldn’t reach them. And they
began to be concerned about germs that might infect you. The other night
at a restaurant, the father of an eight-month-old turned to his wife and
asked, “Did you remember to Clorox the table?”
Now that you’re older, they still worry about you. They worry about you
seeing bad stuff on the internet or getting in a skateboard accident. And
they keep squirting hand sanitizer in your direction because they are still
frightened of germs.
I suppose you occasionally tell your parents not to worry. But if they did
stop worrying, it would be strange, right? What if they said, “So, you’re
going to South Dakota with a motorcycle gang? Have a good time. Don’t
forget to send us a postcard.”
You can always tell who loves you by who is concerned about your
well-being. Be thankful that your folks are worried, but please don’t make
them worry more.

—Kim

“Can a mother forget her nursing child?

Can she feel no love for the child she has borne?
But even if that were possible,
I would not forget you!” (Isaiah 49:15, NLT).
 May 11

God could not be everywhere, so He created mothers.

—Jewish proverb

A
s we approach Mother’s Day, I feel we should take a moment to
recognize Uncle Arthur. While not an actual mother himself, he did
more than any person since Moses to persuade us to honor our mothers.
In case you were raised by wolves in Siberia, I should mention that he
wrote Uncle Arthur’s Bedtime Stories. In the stories, little Bobby or Susan
would disobey their mother, and then—wham!—something awful would
happen to them. Susan’s stubbornness would result in her new watch being
ruined, or Bobby’s rowdy behavior would cause the town to be attacked by
killer bees.
Parents read the stories as we drifted off to sleep, impressing us with the
message that if we obeyed our moms, we would not be buried under a
crashing mountain of jam jars, like little Jimmy when he tried to sneak a
forbidden treat.
Did it work? Not really.
Mothers are wiser and more experienced in every area of life, including
love, politics, and stain removal. So why don’t we listen? We choose
instead to listen to our playmates, who break into giggles when we fall
down and injure ourselves.
The one time we pay attention to Mom is when we’re in trouble. We
ignore her when she tells us not to run with a sharp stick, but she has our
complete attention when we need help pulling the stick out of our little
brother.
 I think God must sympathize with mothers. He’s older and wiser than
anyone, and still He gets little attention. Look in the Bible, and you see all
those stories that sound a lot like Uncle Arthur. Jonah disobeys God and
ends up as a salty snack for a whale. Samson ignores God and becomes a
piñata at a Philistine party.
So when will we listen? When we trust God more than ourselves.
Sometimes it takes a lot of digging out from under the jam jars before that
happens—before we learn to listen to the voice of the One who loves us
most.

—Kim

“Keep your father’s command, and do not forsake the law of your
mother” (Proverbs 6:20).
 May 12

The king upon his throne has no

higher work than has the mother.
—Ellen G. White

J
ust a reminder that Mother’s Day is here, a day when we honor
mothers for making their biggest contribution to society—ourselves.
If someone is responsible for our existence, the least we can do is buy her
a card. Here are some other ideas for making her day special.
Serve her breakfast in bed: Perhaps the best thing about keeping Mom in
bed is that she can’t see what you’re doing to her kitchen.
Reduce her guilt: Mothers often fear that they made mistakes in raising
their children that warped them for life. Make her feel better by telling her
that you are warped for other reasons. I point my mom to those spills I
took on my bicycle before the popularity of helmets.
Bury the pain of the past: I was raised during the golden age of
spanking. Teachers drilled holes in long, wooden paddles to reduce wind
resistance and gave them pet names like “Teacher’s Little Helper.”
Moms found one hundred creative ways to spank—reaching for
flyswatters, flip-flops, magazines, and whatever else fell to hand to make
sure we wouldn’t be spoiled. My friend Cassandra says that her mother
used a wooden spoon on her bottom so consistently that she didn’t even
know it was for cooking. So today you can tell Mom that you’re a better
person because of her “creative discipline.”
Let your mother brag about you: Remind Mom of your recent
achievements. Tell her about your high score on Candy Crush. A mom will
rejoice with you in even your smallest victories. Which, I suppose, is
God’s attitude. He rejoices at our every step forward in the Christian life.
But this is no reason to get a big head and think we’re paying Him back
for all He’s done for us. It’s like Mother’s Day. There are some little
things we can do to show our appreciation, but in the end we’re still the
indebted and grateful child.

—Kim
“Her children rise up and call her blessed;
Her husband also, and he praises her:
‘Many daughters have done well,
But you excel them all’ ” (Proverbs 31:28, 29).
 May 13

If ignorance is bliss, why aren’t more people happy?

—Thomas Jefferson

T
he geography teacher was introducing her elementary students to the
continents of the world. She pointed to North America on a map.
“This is the continent we live on, North America,” she told her
Pennsylvania students. Then she pointed to the land mass to the south.
“Who can guess what this continent is called?” she asked.
The class sat in silence. No one raised a hand. She lifted her pointer up
to the previous continent. “North America . . .” she hinted. Then she
moved her pointer back down south.
“Oh!” responded the class. “South America!”
“Good!” said the teacher and moved her pointer over the Atlantic Ocean
to Europe. “Does anyone know what this continent is called? It starts with
an E.”
One student raised his hand. “East America?” he guessed.
Some students have a lot to learn. Even teachers could be a little
smarter.
A nearsighted student from Washington was getting into the car with
her driving instructor for a practice outing. “Do you have your learner’s
permit?” asked the instructor.
“Yes,” responded the student, handing it over.
The instructor noticed that the permit required corrective lenses. “Do
you have your contact lenses?” he asked.
The student adjusted her glasses. “No. No, I do not,” she responded with
a smile.
So, how do we keep from saying something silly? Well, there’s no
guarantee that we won’t slip up sometimes. That’s part of being human.
But the Bible does point the way to a smarter way of life. “The fear of the
LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good
understanding.”
People who respect God and study His Word avoid making a lot of
stupid mistakes. The Bible doesn’t directly help you pass your geography
test, but it does help you map out a smarter life.

—Kim

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his
precepts have good understanding” (Psalm 111:10, NIV).
 May 14

All the world is made of faith, and trust, and pixie dust.
—Peter Pan

T
he play that James Barrie had just written was a hit. Peter Pan told
the story of a boy who never grew up. He could also fly. When Peter
met the children in the Darling family, he told them that if they believed,
they could fly just like him. And in the play, thanks to some wires and
pulleys, they did.
Parents told James how much their children enjoyed the play. That made
him feel great. But then parents began telling him stories that were not so
great. Their little boys and girls had tried taking off from their beds at
home with the power of belief. Of course, they fell to the floor with bumps
and bruises and some broken bones.
James immediately made a change to Peter Pan’s lines in the play. Peter
still promised his friends that they could fly, but only if they had first been
sprinkled with “fairy dust.” Since fairy dust was in rather short supply in
London, children gave up trying to fly.
The Bible says, “All things are possible to him who believes.” Does that
mean that if you try really hard to believe, all your wishes will come true?
Let’s say you have a sick grandmother. If you believe with all your
strength, will it make her well? Sadly, it doesn’t usually work that way.
You can be sure to see God’s power in your life and in the lives of those
around you, but don’t expect to control that power with your mind. That
would make you more like a magician than a Christian.
The day is coming when sin will end and we will see God’s power to
change sick people into healthy people and to resurrect the dead. We may
not see it very often today, but we will see it when Jesus comes again. And
come to think of it, when you get to your heavenly home, I bet you’ll be
able to jump off your bed and really fly.

—Kim

“If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes” (Mark
9:23).
 May 15

Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame.

—Benjamin Franklin

T
here’s a strange story about the apostle Paul that you may not
remember. Paul had just arrived in Jerusalem, and as happened
everywhere else he went, a bunch of Jews showed up who wanted to kill
him. But this time was different. Forty men bound themselves under a
solemn oath that they would not eat or drink until they had killed Paul.
This was a little insane because Paul was under the protection of the
Roman commander at the time. These guys needed a plan, and they needed
it quick or they were going to get mighty thirsty. So they told the Jewish
leaders to invite Paul to a council meeting as if they wanted to do further
investigation into his case. Then, while the Roman soldiers were
transferring Paul to meet with the council, they would attack them and
murder Paul.
Unfortunately for the Jews, news of the plot reached the Roman
commander, and he sent Paul to another city that night surrounded by a
force of 470 soldiers.
So the forty plotters went to bed very thirsty and a little bit hungry. Five
days passed before Paul got a hearing with Felix, the local governor. The
Jews who took the oath must have been a little less angry and lot more
hungry. And I’m sure most of them were sneaking a quick drink while
they washed their faces in the morning.
Two years passed, and Paul was still under the guard of the Roman
authorities where the conspirators couldn’t get to him. Did they all starve
to death? I doubt it. They probably just showed up at the supper table after
a few days and acted like nothing had happened. The plans that began in
anger ended in shame.

—Kim

“Do not make any vows! Do not say, ‘By heaven!’ because heaven is
God’s throne. And do not say, ‘By the earth!’ because the earth is his
footstool. And do not say, ‘By Jerusalem!’ for Jerusalem is the city of the
great King. Do not even say, ‘By my head!’ for you can’t turn one hair
white or black” (Matthew 5:34–36, NLT).
 May 16

It is really clear that the most precious

resource we have is time.
—Steve Jobs

D
o these lines sound familiar?
“Turn off the TV.”
“Haven’t you spent enough time playing computer games?”
“Put away your phone when you’re at the dinner table.”
It almost sounds like there’s a smackdown fight between your parents
and your media devices. Who will win?
On the one hand, the media is so deliciously entertaining. The games,
the shows, the selfies from your friends—they’re all irresistible. On the
other hand, your parents feed you and take you to the doctor when you
have an earache, so they have a bit of an edge.
Maybe parents are jealous of your devices because of all the attention
that they get. A study by Common Sense Media showed that teens spend
nine hours on media each day—more time than they sleep. Parents
probably feel as ignored as the boiled zucchini at potluck.
They might be like the parent who said, “Let me strap your cell phone to
my forehead so that I can pretend you’re looking at me when you talk.”
But parents may also be worried about all the time you spend on media.
Steve Jobs, the cofounder of Apple computer, was worth one hundred
million dollars by the time he was twenty-five years old. He had a private
jet, a huge yacht, and everything money could buy. But this is what he
said: “My favorite things in life don’t cost any money. It is really clear that
the most precious resource we have is time.”
Once time is gone, you can never get it back. Media devices can suck
the time out of your day like a vacuum cleaner. Occasionally, you may
want to turn off your devices and spend your time learning, making
friends, creating art, or building something useful. The clock is ticking.
Don’t let media steal the most precious thing you have.

—Kim

“Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making
the best use of the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:15, 16,
ESV).
 May 17

For every good reason there is to lie,

there is a better reason to tell the truth.
—Bo Bennett

Y
ou’ve probably heard the expression “Liar, liar, pants on fire.” It
sounds good because it rhymes, but it doesn’t make a lot of sense.
People’s pants don’t catch on fire when they start talking fiction. Except
for this one time in a Miami courtroom.
A lawyer named Stephen was beginning his closing arguments to the
jury. The police accused his client of purposefully setting his car on fire.
But Stephen said that his client did not deserve the charge of arson. He had
not set the car on fire to collect the insurance money. No. The car had
caught on fire on its own. This was not a case for the court. This was a
case of spontaneous combustion.
About this time, the jurors noticed smoking billowing from Stephen’s
pants. The lawyer rushed out of the courtroom. He came back later with
singed pants and said that the fire was caused by a faulty battery in an e-
cigarette.
The court wasn’t sure if they believed his explanation or not, but they
certainly didn’t believe his defense of his client. The jury convicted the
client of second-degree arson.
Most of the time, when people lie, their pants do not catch on fire. The
story of Pinocchio says that lying makes your nose grow longer. But that
doesn’t really happen either. The real result of lying is that people learn
they can’t trust you. You become like a rotten board on a porch that people
fear to put their weight on.
It’s not easy to always tell the truth. It’s especially hard to do when
you’re scared of getting in trouble. Pray for the courage to always tell the
truth because you want to be trustworthy, and not because you’re afraid
your pants will catch on fire.

—Kim

“Lying lips are an abomination to the LORD, but those who deal
truthfully are His delight” (Proverbs 12:22).
 May 18

Sometimes you have to quit wishing for unicorns

and be happy with narwhals and rhinoceroses.
—Reagan McCain

T
here is a strange animal that shows up in the writings of Marco Polo,
a European who traveled to China with his father about 750 years
ago.
Arriving in the province of Carajan, he described “huge serpents, [thirty
feet] in length, and [eight feet] girt of the body. At the fore part, near the
head, they have two short legs, having three claws like those of a tiger,
with eyes larger than a [loaf of bread] and very glaring.
“The jaws are wide enough to swallow a man, the teeth are large and
sharp, and their whole appearance is so formidable, that neither man, nor
any kind of animal can approach them without terror. . . . In the day-time,
by reason of great heat, they lurk in caverns, from whence, at night, they
issue to seek their food, and whatever beast they meet with and can lay
hold of, whether tiger, wolf, or any other, they devour.”
Doesn’t this sound like Marco Polo saw dragons? But just when you get
excited, you can read what one of Maro Polo’s translators said: “It cannot
be doubted that Marco’s serpents here are crocodiles, in spite of his
strange mistakes about their having only two feet and one claw on each,
and his imperfect knowledge of their aquatic habits.”
The translator continued to make his case by saying that crocodile eyes
do seem rather big, and sometimes they are the only part of the animal
above the water when they swim.
 Crocodiles, huh? Of course, crocs are pretty amazing in their own way.
Do you know they can move at twenty-five miles per hour over short
distances? They have glands that filter out salt when they are in salty
water. They also have the most powerful bite of any animal—more than
fifteen times more powerful than a Rottweiler.
I guess there are wonders enough in God’s world even without dragons.
Though dragons would be cool, wouldn’t they?

—Kim

“Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook

or press down his tongue with a cord? . . .
Who can open the doors of his face?
Around his teeth is terror” (Job 41:1–14, ESV).
 May 19

Heaven goes by favor. If it went by merit,

you would stay out and your dog would go in.
—Mark Twain

J
ohn Hobhouse could see that his friend was heartbroken by the loss
of his dog. The big, shaggy Newfoundland had contracted rabies, and
the friend had cared gently for the dog without any fear of getting the
disease himself. John wrote this poem to recognize his friend’s feelings for
his pet:
“Near this Spot are deposited the Remains of one who possessed Beauty
without Vanity, Strength without Insolence, Courage without Ferosity, and
all the virtues of Man without his Vices. This Praise, which would be
unmeaning Flattery if inscribed over human Ashes, is but a just tribute to
the Memory of Boatswain, a Dog.”
Even if you’re a cat person, you have to admit that dogs have a lot of
good qualities. I know a dog that actually brought a family into the church.
Honey was a big, fluffy mutt that was the color of—you know—honey.
In warm weather she would walk her owners down the road. And on one
of these walks she met Fred, the basset hound. Honey liked droopy old
Fred and the funny way he walked on his short legs. Every time she saw
him she would stop for some social time. Of course, the owners of Honey
and Fred also took the opportunity to chat.
One summer Honey’s owner asked if one of the kids in Fred’s home
would like to come to Vacation Bible School. Fred’s owners accepted the
invitation. When they came to the church service at the end of VBS week,
they felt completely at home. So they stayed and became baptized.
It might be a good thing if we picked up some admirable qualities from
dogs. We should be friendly and loyal. But don’t imitate barking at the
mail carrier. That would just be weird.

—Kim

“Never let loyalty and kindness leave you! Tie them around your neck
as a reminder. Write them deep within your heart” (Proverbs 3:3, NLT).
 May 20

I have gotten lots of results! I know

several thousand things that won’t work!
—Thomas Edison

T
homas Edison is the most famous inventor in American history. He
gets the credit for light bulbs, motion pictures, and record players.
(Don’t know what a record player is? Ask your grandparents or that weird
uncle who won’t let you touch his audio equipment.)
What you may not know is that Thomas came close to changing the
kind of car we drive. He lived during the invention of the automobile.
Some of those primitive cars ran on gasoline. Some ran on batteries. And
some even ran on steam. Thomas thought that batteries were the best way
to go. Unfortunately, the batteries of the time were heavy things made out
of lead and filled with acid.
The inventor decided to work on a lighter, better battery. He wanted to
make a battery that would take a car one hundred miles on a charge. He
began testing one idea after another, working sixteen hours a day.
Eventually he had performed more than ten thousand experiments with
different chemicals and materials to develop his alkaline storage battery.
Five months into the process, a friend stopped by Thomas’ workbench.
He felt bad for the inventor. “Isn’t it a shame that with the tremendous
amount of work you have done you haven’t been able to get any results?”
he said.
Thomas smiled. “Results!” he replied. “Why, man, I have gotten lots of
results! I know several thousand things that won’t work!”
 He did come up with a better battery, but it was a little too late. Henry
Ford had introduced the Model T, and the popularity of that gasoline-
powered car overwhelmed the progress of electric cars for the next
hundred years.
So did the inventor fail? Not really. His hard work resulted in the
development of a much-improved battery, and it became the most
profitable invention of his whole career.
Do you feel like you fail so often that you don’t even want to try
anymore? Thomas would tell you not to give up. Soon you might have a
breakthrough just like he did with the battery. Wouldn’t that be shocking?

—Kim

“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will
reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9, NIV).
 May 21

Lowliness and meekness of mind, which ever characterized

the life of the divine Son of God, possessed by His true
followers, bring contentment, peace, and happiness.
—Ellen G. White

W
hen Ellen White was your age, the fashion was for women to have
a tiny waist. A woman knew she had achieved the summit of
perfection if she could put her hands on her waist and touch her fingers on
both sides.
Of course, this is not the way God made waists, so it took some serious
mechanical engineering to make a human into the shape of a wasp. The
main tool was an undergarment called a corset that was strengthened with
whalebone and could be cinched up the back with laces like a Converse
shoe.
Ellen remembers visiting a friend who wanted help lacing up her corset.
“I drew the strings as firmly as I possibly could, which started the blood
from the ends of my fingers,” she remembers. “But this did not satisfy her,
and she declared that I did not know how to lace one. She called for a
stronger person, who also worked to the best of her ability to get her form
squeezed to the desired dimension. But she scolded, and declared that we
did not half try. She even shed tears.
“She then thought of a plan that might bring more strength to bear. She
fastened the strings of her corset to the bed-post, and then wrenched from
side to side, gaining a little at each effort, while two of us held fast what
she had gained.”
 Ellen remembers attending meetings with this friend. The girl was
deeply moved but would not decide to follow Christ. Later in life, Ellen
made this observation about her friend: “She thought she could not bear
the cross of Christ; yet she daily imposed upon herself a ten-fold heavier
cross than Christ ever requires his followers to bear for him.”
“My yoke is easy and My burden is light,” says Jesus.
In today’s quote, Ellen sums up her thoughts by saying, “Lowliness and
meekness of mind, which ever characterized the life of the divine Son of
God, possessed by his true followers, bring contentment, peace, and
happiness, that elevate them above the slavery of artificial life.”

—Kim

“Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly
in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My
burden is light” (Matthew 11:29, 30).
 May 22

Hold fast to dreams

For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
—Langston Hughes

A
s Sam Schmidt brought his IndyCar into turn two at the Walt Disney
World Speedway, he must have felt a warning in his gut that he was
going too fast. That was followed immediately by the sensation of the
wheels breaking loose from the pavement.
The car was going backward when it slammed into a wall. Sam, who
had been a rising star in racing, was paralyzed from the neck down. He
couldn’t even brush his own teeth. He had no hope of ever driving again.
Or did he?
Several years after his accident he got a call from an electronics
company. “Arrow called me, wanting to know if I would be interested in
driving again,” remembers Sam. “I think I thought for two seconds and
then I said, ‘Yes, absolutely.’ ” All he asked was that the car go over 100
miles an hour.
So they found a fast car and began modifying it so that Sam could get
behind the wheel. Cameras were installed on the dash to watch him and
instantly translate his head movements into left and right turns. A tube in
his mouth gave him precise control of his speed. Blowing into the tube set
the amount of throttle. Sucking applied the brakes.
In 2014 he took the Arrow Corvette Stingray around the Indianapolis
Motor Speedway at 152 miles an hour. Later, he raced up the winding road
to the top of Colorado’s Pikes Peak.
“It’s the first time in sixteen years that I’ve felt normal,” said Sam in a
video interview.
Now he has a driver’s license making it legal for him to drive on public
roads. The roar of the 450-horsepower engine as he takes off in his
Corvette is a loud reminder that no one ever has to give up hope.

—Kim

“There is hope for a tree, if it is cut down, that it will sprout again, and
that its tender shoots will not cease” (Job 14:7).
 May 23

Harsh words don’t break bones but they often break hearts.
—Joseph Simmons

J
ohn Joseph Merlin invented roller skates way back in 1760. He
thought it was a great idea. It was like an ice skate for the indoors! In
fact, the early roller skates looked like ice skates, only the blade was
replaced with a row of small metal wheels.
He decided to introduce his invention to the world with a dash of drama.
Dressing up as a minstrel from the Middle Ages and playing a violin, he
made a spectacular entrance at an elegant costume party. He dazzled the
guests as he wheeled gracefully around the dance floor.
Then he discovered something that everyone learns when they first start
skating—it can be hard to stop. As his admirers watched, he lost control
and sailed headlong into a mirror, smashing both it and his valuable violin.
So did Merlin get rich off of his new invention? Well, whatever chances
of success the new skates might have had were shattered along with the
mirror. After his Roller Derby crash, people worried that his skates were
unsafe.
It took almost one hundred years before a new “quad skate” was
introduced that was easier to control. Then “rinkmania” swept the country.
When the Chicago Coliseum opened a skating rink in 1902, more than
seven thousand people attended on the opening night.
Joseph’s failure in introducing roller skates shows how much people
value safety. We want safe toys and safe cars. We even want safe friends.
We want to be around people we can trust not to say harsh or hurtful
things. If you want people to stick around, be careful to speak kindly. All it
takes is one angry word to cause people to skate the other direction.

—Kim

“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger”
(Proverbs 15:1).
 May 24

Wine hath drowned more men than the sea.

—Thomas Fuller

D
aniel and Heather walked along the deck of the Disney cruise ship
in the early-morning light. They would have preferred to be in bed,
but their squalling baby had woken them up in the night, and now, unable
to go back to sleep, they were waiting for the sun to come up over the
ocean.
Then the couple heard something like a voice. There was no one else on
the deck. They heard the voice again. Going to the railing on the ship, they
looked down to see a solitary man bobbing in the waves, miles from shore.
He was yelling for help.
Heather ran to tell the crew, and soon the ship’s speakers sounded with
“Mr. Mob, starboard side”—code for man overboard.
A lifeboat was lowered to save the man, whom they discovered was
named Frank Jade. Why was Frank dog-paddling in the middle of the
Caribbean? Five hours earlier he had fallen off a different cruise ship
headed in the same direction.
It’s not easy to fall off a cruise ship, but it happens more often than you
might think.
Sometimes a person jumps off the ship on purpose, like the crazed man
who yelled “I want to go home” before running and throwing himself over
the railing of a ship off the Florida coast. He was rescued, and his family
decided that yes, they would go home.
Other people fall overboard because they are drunk. One twenty-year-
old man, who had been soaking his brain in alcohol, jumped from the
fifteenth deck of a cruise ship to impress a girl. A young woman was so
sloshed that when she leaned back against the railing of her balcony, she
just kept going backward until she fell five stories down to the water. More
than once, drunk men have jumped off cruise ships trying to run away
from security.
It’s a good rule of thumb that if you want to stay safe, stay sober. It is
when people are drinking that they find themselves in deep water.

—Kim

“Wine is a mocker, strong drink is a brawler, and whoever is led astray

by it is not wise” (Proverbs 20:1).
 May 25

Only one life, ’twill soon be past,

Only what’s done for Christ will last.

—C. T. Studd

W
e’re here! Time to get up.”
Reef had fallen asleep in the back of the car. To tell the truth, he
enjoyed sleeping a whole lot more than waking up. But his parents were
determined to drag him blinking into the outside world. They were on
vacation in Cornwall, England, and they had driven almost an hour to see
some “standing stones”—a smaller version of Stonehenge.
Reef was not as excited as his parents about this sightseeing stop. And
even less so when he realized he had to hike more than a half mile to see
the religious stones called Mên-an-Tol. He trudged across the green fields,
then climbed over a stone fence. He stopped and stared at Mên-an-Tol.
“Are you kidding me?” he cried as he approached three stones, which
didn’t even reach his waist. The stone structure consisted of two rocks that
looked like short fence posts. Between them perched a round stone with a
hole in the center like a doughnut.
Reef felt he had been cheated as a tourist. “A group of dedicated ducks
could have built this,” he declared. “It’s not like the builders had to move
the stones across a desert or anything. There’s rock all around.
“If this is religious,” he continued, “the people’s gods were not
impressed. They would have said ‘We provide for you. You worship us,
and is this the best you can do?’ ”
 True, the stones weren’t very impressive. But what those ancient
worshipers did for their imaginary gods has lasted for thousands of years
and still attracts people to that remote spot almost every day. It reminds me
of the saying that it’s only the work we do for God that really lasts. Little
acts of love and kindness can echo down the years. Even if they are things
that any duck could do.

—Kim

“Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does

not need to be ashamed” (2 Timothy 2:15).
 May 26

It is well that war is so terrible—

lest we should grow too fond of it.
—Robert E. Lee

C
hildren’s author Charles Mills grew up in the days before video
games. But he had his own idea of a first-person shooter that he
liked to call “Cowboys and Indians.”
“I would run around with plastic six-shooters on my hip, riding on my
pretend horse, and ducking behind bushes,” he remembers. “Sometimes
the cowboys won the battles. Sometimes the Indians won. If I got shot, I
would get up to fight again.”
Charles left the imaginary Wild West when his parents became
missionaries to Beirut, Lebanon, on the eastern edge of the Mediterranean
Sea. He made many happy memories there. But his strongest memory
comes from the night he was visiting an Arab friend. They were sitting on
the sofa watching Bonanza, a show about cowboys. The phone rang, and it
was Charles’ mother. “Come home right now,” she said.
“Why?” asked Charles. The show wasn’t over, and he didn’t want to
leave if he didn’t have to.
“The airport has been bombed,” she said.
Charles started walking down the hill to his home. “I could see the
airport, and it was lit up like daylight,” he recalls. “I could hear percussive
rumbles in the distance. For the first time in memory I saw war, and war
was serious. War was hurtful. People didn’t jump up after they were shot.”
During the American Civil War, the Confederate troops held a low ridge
at Fredericksburg, Virginia. The Union divisions had to cross open ground
to begin their attack. Wave after wave of Union troops charged with
bayonets and were cut down by the Confederate guns before they could
reach the ridge. Confederate general Robert E. Lee felt the thrill of victory
but also saw the terrible effects on the fifteen thousand men who were
killed or wounded. He turned to another general and said, “It is well that
war is so terrible—lest we should grow too fond of it.”
This Memorial Day remember those who felt the fear of real battle.
Remember those who suffered and died for the sake of their country.

—Kim
“How the mighty have fallen in battle!
Jonathan lies slain on your heights.
I grieve for you, Jonathan my brother;
you were very dear to me” (2 Samuel 1:25, 26, NIV).
 May 27

You silent tents of green

We deck with fragrant flowers;
Yours has the suffering been,
The memory shall be ours.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

T
he USS Tang prowled the Pacific Ocean during World War II, where
it sank a lot of Japanese ships. Unfortunately, it also sank itself.
It was after midnight on October 24, 1944, when Tang’s radar filled
with blips from an enemy convoy. The Navy submarine stalked the
shadows of the convoy through the night. One of the escort ships began
using a large signal light that illuminated the convoy.
Now that he could see the ships clearly, Commander Richard O’Kane
fired torpedoes at two transports and a large tanker. Three explosions lit up
the night, sinking two ships and leaving one dead in the water. The Tang
returned to finish the crippled transport. As it fired its very last torpedo,
those in the conning tower saw it porpoise out of the water and then start
in a circle to the left.
“Emergency speed!” cried the captain. “Right full rudder.” A violent
explosion rocked the submarine as the torpedo struck its own vessel.
Nine survivors, including the captain, were picked up by ships in the
same convoy that they had just attacked.
That night seventy-eight crewmembers of the Tang died. Altogether,
three million Americans, Canadians, and Japanese died during World War
II. It’s hard to understand the amount of tragedy in that number. You can’t
really feel the loss of a sailor, or soldier, or aviator until you know that
person.
In the riverside town of Palatka, Florida, you can find an unusual war
memorial. It is a torpedo on a column of brick. It is the Basil C. Pearce,
Jr./USS Tang Memorial. It’s not often that you see a memorial to a single
sailor. Ensign Pearce is not remembered for any heroic deed. He has a
memorial in his hometown because of all those who knew and loved him.
On Memorial Day we remember the struggles and sufferings of those
who died in battle. We also remember the sacrifice of their mothers and
fathers, sisters and brothers, wives and children and friends who would
never see them come home again.

—Kim

“They mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and for
Jonathan his son, for the people of the LORD and for the house of Israel,
because they had fallen by the sword” (2 Samuel 1:12).
 May 28

Rules are for the obedience of fools

and the guidance of wise men.
—Douglas Bader

I couldn’t wait to take my driving test and get my license. Learning permit
in hand, I practiced in my parents’ old Ford.
The morning of my driving test my dad had the car worked on. He
wanted to make sure it was in good condition. The mechanic adjusted the
acceleration, which I found out as soon as the driver’s license examiner
got in the car and told me to take off.
I lightly touched the gas pedal, and we jerked forward. In my shock I
slammed on the brake. The car came to a dead stop, but the examiner and I
kept going. Oops.
After some more jerky stops and starts, the examiner told me to return to
the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) parking lot. I was pretty sure I
was a borderline fail.
“Just park over there,” she said gruffly, looking down at her clipboard.
I stared at where she was pointing. A sign clearly read: “No Parking.”
“Um, I don’t think I’m supposed to park there,” I squeaked.
She didn’t look up but continued writing. “Just park there,” she barked.
“But—” I began. One of my friends had warned me that the examiner
might try to trick me. Yes, this must be a trick to decide whether I pass or
fail.
“Ma’am,” I almost whispered, “the sign says not to park there.”
She slammed her fist on the clipboard and then wrote in big letters
across my scoreboard: FAIL. “I’ve never seen anything like this!” she
yelled, getting out of the car.
I met my mom in the waiting area. She could tell by the look on my face
that I wasn’t getting my license that day.
As we drove away, I showed her the sign: “No Parking.” But suddenly I
noticed the small print below: “Official DMV vehicles only.”
Oops again. I guess the examiner wasn’t trying to trick me after all. And
I’m sure glad God never does. He gives us clear rules in His
commandments, and they’re the keys to our success on the road of life.

—Lori

“You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear Him, and keep His
commandments and obey His voice; you shall serve Him and hold fast to
Him” (Deuteronomy 13:4).
 May 29

The deepest principle in human nature

is the craving to be appreciated.
—Dale Carnegie

H
enry “Harry” Heth was not the best student attending the Army’s
college at West Point. In fact, the poor guy graduated at the very
bottom of the class. And then there was the incident when he got stabbed
in the leg during bayonet practice.
He had some colorful events in his career. Like the time he accidentally
started the Battle of Gettysburg by sending Confederate soldiers into the
town to rummage for shoes to wear. And then there was the time he
couldn’t find a hat that would fit him properly, so he stuffed papers into
one that was a few sizes too large. Actually, the papers may have saved his
life when he was shot in the head. The musket ball just knocked him out.
One of the more interesting tales from his life happened when he was
out in the plains fighting Native Americans. After the Battle of Blue
Waters, a notice ran in The New York Times that he had been killed in the
battle. His West Point chums were sad because everybody loved him.
Harry had lots of personality, he was good looking, he was witty, and he
was always having fun. So they set up a memorial for him and published a
poem in the Times about how gallant he was.
But Harry was very much alive. He hadn’t even been wounded. He
collected all the clippings of everybody saying nice things about him and
said, “It’s a wonderful thing to be dead to read what people say about
you.”
 Just like all of us, Harry probably had times when he didn’t feel so great
about himself. When he read his obituary, it lifted his spirit to know how
much he was appreciated. Maybe you can say something to one of your
friends to make them feel appreciated. Harry’s chums waited until they
thought he was shot full of arrows. You can do better than that.

—Kim

“Encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone”

(1 Thessalonians 5:14, NIV).
 May 30

Try to exclude the possibility of suffering . . .

and you find that you have excluded life itself.
—C. S. Lewis

I
t occurs to me that I haven’t been to the dentist in a while. He used to
send me little postcard reminders: “It’s been six months since your last
checkup.” Then “It’s been two years since your last checkup.” And finally,
“We have filed a missing person’s report with the local authorities.”
The people at the dentist’s office are nice enough. I like the charming
way they act surprised when the process of stabbing my gums with sharp
metal instruments draws blood. But I still can’t get enthused about making
an appointment. Isn’t there enough suffering in the world already?
But avoiding the dentist will not protect you from all pain. To do that,
you need to go to bed and stay there until the Second Coming. If you do
anything, you’ll get hurt. Even if you try to eat a bagel. About two
thousand people every year end up in the emergency room trying to cut
open a breakfast bagel. And maybe you should tell your parents that it isn’t
safe for you to clean up after dinner because seven thousand visits to the
ER each year are caused by dishwashing machines.
Also, if you want to avoid pain, you should never ride a bicycle. I’m
thinking of the time I rode a friend’s bike down a hill by my house. It was
my first experience with riding a bike with a back brake pedal. About
halfway down the hill, I wished I had done more study into how that kind
of brake worked. The bike went faster and faster, and I discovered that
screaming loudly did very little to help slow me down. What did work is
falling down and letting the friction of my face on asphalt bring me to a
stop. Ouch!
Pain is not something we’re going to be able to avoid on this earth, no
matter how hard we try. It’s a part of living, loving, and learning. Speaking
of learning, next time you get on a bicycle, check the brakes.

—Kim

“We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces

endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces
hope” (Romans 5:3, 4, ESV).
 May 31

Nothing is more short-lived than pride.

—Ben Jonson

L
ori and I put on masks and snorkels and stepped into the Red Sea.
This was the same Red Sea that the Israelites had walked through,
and I wondered if they were able to see through the water as clearly as we
could. The fish were brilliantly colored. We saw an eel with a gold head
swimming through the water. We found a spiral seashell about twenty feet
down, and I brought it up as a souvenir.
We paddled along the reef until our fingertips were all wrinkly, and then
it was time to return to our life as land mammals. We caught a cab and
headed back to our hotel. The cab was a clean, white Mercedes, but the
driver smelled a bit off. Lori and I looked at each other and raised our
eyebrows. We silently acknowledged the fact that people in other countries
don’t have the same standards of personal cleanliness as we Americans.
Oh, well. We would be gracious and overlook the festering stench for our
short ride.
Back in our hotel room, we were busying ourselves with getting ready
for supper when we noticed the same smell. Strange. Where was it coming
from? We began to sniff around the hotel room like a couple of basset
hounds.
Our noses ended up at the pocket of my swimming trunks where—you
guessed it—I had put the souvenir seashell. This was a lesson to us to take
nothing but pictures when visiting nature reserves. But it was also a lesson
in humility. While we were looking down on the taxi driver for his poor
hygiene habits, he was kindly overlooking the fact that his passengers
smelled like the inside of a dumpster. We should have tipped him more.

—Kim

“Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall”

(Proverbs 16:18).
 June 1

Smile. It enhances your face value.

—Truvy Jones in Steel Magnolias

W
hat is the most famous smile in the world? If you want a hint, I’ll
tell you that the famous smile is part of the most famous painting
in the world. Now you know the answer, right?
The Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci is not just a little famous; it’s a lot
famous. In fact, 80 percent of the visitors to The Louvre in Paris are there
only to see the Mona Lisa. They literally rush by walls filled with other art
masterpieces just so they can point their eyeballs at this one painting.
The funny thing about this painting is that it was not always the
Beyoncé of the art world. It turned the corner to superstardom in 1911
when a museum visitor noticed that there were four iron pegs where the
painting had been hanging. Perhaps it had been removed to be
photographed? No, it had been stolen.
Authorities shut down the museum for a week to look for clues. They
found none. There were suspects, but there was no proof. The mystery
continued for two years, making the Mona Lisa more and more famous.
Then the thief came forward. A Louvre employee named Vincenzo
Peruggia had smuggled the painting back to Italy as an act of patriotism.
He believed it belonged in the home country of Leonardo da Vinci.
His plan for stealing the Mona Lisa involved hiding in a broom closet
until the museum closed, then walking out the door with the priceless
piece of art under his coat.
This story of thievery, mystery, and patriotism made the Mona Lisa the
most famous painting of all time. It was always great art, but now it had a
story.
You may feel like an ordinary person—not too different from other
folks. But you also have a story to tell of what God is doing in your life.
You may only be at the beginning of the adventure. But stay tuned. I’m
sure that what God has planned for you will make you smile.

—Kim

“He has filled them with skill to do all manner of work of the engraver
and the designer and the tapestry maker” (Exodus 35:35).
 June 2

You can’t do big things if you’re distracted by small things.

—Unknown

A
rchitect Rafael Viñoly was about to leave his mark on the great city
of London. The skyscraper he designed was impressive because the
front of the building curved smoothly up and out so that the top floors
overhung the lower floors.
But then something unexpected happened. An owner of a Jaguar XJ
luxury car that had been parked near the building discovered that his side
mirror was melted. Another driver came back to his car to find his
dashboard melted. A barbershop across the street noticed smoke from their
welcome mat. A hole was being burned into the rubber.
The concave design of the building was taking the afternoon sun and
focusing it in a powerful beam. One journalist found he could fry an egg
with the solar power coming off the skyscraper.
This phenomenon happened only for a couple of weeks in the summer,
but it required the installation of sunshades on the front of the building.
The melted Jaguar is a reminder of the power of focus in our lives. It
really is amazing what you can accomplish if you concentrate your
attention and energy on one thing. Remember how much you learned as a
kid when you were obsessed with dinosaurs or Magic School Bus books?
Of course, it’s hard to stay focused when we are distracted by social
media, video games, and shopping opportunities. Maybe you want to block
off some time each day when you turn off the distractions and concentrate
on devotions or studies or creating something beautiful. Getting a little
focus might light a fire in exactly the right place.

—Kim

“Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these
things shall be added to you” (Matthew 6:33).
 June 3

It’s so great to find that one special person

you want to annoy for the rest of your life.
—Rita Rudner

T
his summer, you’ll probably go to a wedding. You may not be
excited about that. You might wish you could watch cartoons instead
of watching all the marching, the preaching, and the vows. Actually, the
groom would probably rather watch cartoons.
But he has to go so that the bride has someone to kiss when it is all over,
and you have to go so that someone will be there to clap when they do the
kissing.
But don’t feel too bad about attending a wedding. If you have a little bit
of luck and you keep your eyes open, you might see something even more
entertaining than cartoons. We had a good turnout at our nuptials because
word had gotten around that Lori had fainted twice while getting fitted for
her gown, so chances looked good for her to take a dive during the service.
That would have been fun to watch, but Lori was able to finish the
ceremony in the upright position. I think some guests were so disappointed
they wanted their gifts back.
Bible boys and flower girls can also add a lot of entertainment value to a
wedding. I’m thinking of a flower girl who got bored during an extended
ceremony and finally blurted out, “Aren’t they married yet?”
A bridesmaid named Shona McDermott added a considerable amount of
excitement to a ceremony when her hair caught on fire. Apparently she
had exceeded the legal limit for hair spray, and when she stood too close to
the candelabra, poof, she was a human tiki torch. She suffered no injuries
thanks to her ten-year-old son, who started beating her over the head with
a pillow.
Of course, the most interesting wedding you’ll attend in your whole life
is the one where you will say “I do.” Then you’ll understand what a great
thing God made when He invented marriage. You may not believe me
right now, but it’s even better than cartoons.

—Kim

“A man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and
they shall become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24).
 June 4

When a new Christian stands up and tells how

God has revolutionized his or her life, no one dozes off.
—Jim Cymbala

A
s a boy, Amar had a knack with electronics. His family didn’t have
money to buy him a new train set, but he could pick up broken train
parts that other boys had discarded and fix them. Later he started his own
radio repair business.
He was such a disciplined student at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology that he allowed himself to listen to only classical music. As
his studies advanced, he treated himself to buying a new sound system. It
was supposed to be the best. But it didn’t sound good to him, so he took it
back and began to think about how to design a speaker that would sound
just like sitting in a concert hall.
He eventually designed a strange speaker cabinet in which eight small
drivers (the round individual speakers that generate the sound) faced the
back wall and only one driver faced the listener. It seemed crazy to most
people.
He could try to explain it, but the best thing he could do was let people
listen to it. He took it to a respected writer for an audio magazine. “I put
this little thing on top of the big speakers he had,” remembers Amar,
“turned it on, and within five minutes he said: ‘I don’t care if this is made
of green cheese, it’s the best sound, most accurate sound, I’ve ever
heard.’ ”
The writer came out with such a glowing article about the Bose 901
speaker that sales took off, and the same speaker is being sold more than
fifty years later.
Amar Bose can teach us something about witnessing. We can explain to
people about why they should follow Jesus with diagrams and logical
arguments. But what will really impress them is if they see the difference
Jesus makes in our lives. Put Jesus at the center of your life and turn up the
volume. It’s sure to rock the world.

—Kim

“Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds
and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16, NIV).
 June 5

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and

pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and
soul alike.
—John Muir

W
here would you rather play: inside or outside? If you like the
outdoors, you would have had a great time with John Muir.
John found nature as exciting as a good book. He was amazed by
flowers and impressed by trees. As a young man, he wanted to see as much
of nature as he could, so he started walking through the country from
Kentucky to Florida. His travels took him to California, where he went to
see the Yosemite Valley. John recalled that he “was overwhelmed by the
landscape, scrambling down steep cliff faces to get a closer look at the
waterfalls, whooping and howling at the vistas, jumping tirelessly from
flower to flower.”
Sometimes he had to come indoors to get out of the rain. But even then
he wanted to feel like he was outdoors. So when he built a cabin for
himself, he let ferns grow up between the floorboards. He ran a small
stream through the cabin so that he could hear the music of the water as he
lay in bed.
A sunrise delighted him as much as music might thrill somebody else.
“How glorious a greeting the sun gives the mountains!” he wrote. It was
all part of what he called “God’s big show.”
John began writing books and articles for magazines that shared his love
for nature. He went on to help establish the national parks that may be a
part of your summer vacation plans. Today, take some time to enjoy the
outdoors. Explore a lake or hike in the woods. Will you find nature to be
as exciting as Mr. Muir? I don’t know, but you may find that God puts on
a pretty good show.

—Kim

“Stand still and consider the wondrous works of God” (Job 37:14).
 June 6

A life in Christ is a life of restfulness. . . .

Your weakness is united to His strength,
your ignorance to His wisdom, your
frailty to His enduring might.
—Ellen G. White

E
very summer when I’d arrive at my grandparents’ house, I’d run to
“my” bedroom. About the size of a walk-in closet, the room didn’t
have a bed, just a gold couch.
At nighttime my grandpa would yank on the front of the couch until the
seat slid forward and the back dropped down, with the armrests serving as
a low headboard on one end and a footboard on the other. After my growth
spurt, my feet touched the bottom and my head touched the top, so I had to
lie crosswise.
That wasn’t easy, because the center of the bed had a huge canyon. My
grandma tried to cover it with blankets, but I always woke up in that pit.
When I had to share the bed with my sister or cousin, we’d both struggle to
stay on our side.
Fortunately, most nights I had the bed to myself . . . almost. Just as I
would drift to sleep . . . Chirp! Pause. Chirp!
I’d yell down the hall, “Grandpa!”
He’d come rushing into the room and shine his big metal flashlight
under the bed. Sometimes he’d emerge triumphantly with a small brown
cricket, which he’d fling out into the muggy night. But most of the time
the cricket would find an escape in some fold of the upholstery or coil of
the couch. After a long search Grandpa would shake his head and mutter in
German, “Ich bin Fertig!” (“I am finished!”)
Then I would lie in bed listening to the chirp underneath me until I fell
asleep. Yet I’ve never slept as well anywhere else. Perhaps it was because
my grandparents lived near the Jersey Shore, so my grandpa would drive
me over the bridge every day to jump waves, body surf, and dig in the
sand. Or maybe it was because my grandparents let me sleep in as long as I
wanted. It could also be because I read my Bible and prayed there.
That bed felt like a place of safety and peace. Maybe that’s why the
crickets liked it too.

—Lori

“Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed” (Luke 5:16, NIV).
 June 7

There are no secrets that time does not reveal.

—Jean Racine

T
he crowd had gathered at the Coogee Aquarium to see a massive
shark. But they would soon see something more horrifying than they
could have imagined.
The shark had been caught near Sydney, Australia, in April 1935 in a
strange way. Fisherman Bert Hobson was reeling in a different shark when
this one-ton giant came out of the deep and swallowed his first catch.
Hobson provided the tiger shark as an attraction to the aquarium, which
was owned by his brother. It was about a week later when the shark
became agitated. It began to whip up and down its pool. As the spectators
watched, the predator threw up a human arm!
Was this the remnants of an unfortunate swimmer? The police were
called, and they took interest in the knife incisions on the arm. They also
noted a rope tied around the wrist. This was looking like a murder case.
Fingerprints confirmed that the arm belonged to a former boxer and
small-time crook, Jim Smith. A brother, Edwin Smith, came forward to
identify a tattoo that was visible on the arm. The police rounded up two of
Smith’s partners in crime: a check forger and a well-off businessman who
ran a boat-building company. Police believed they had uncovered a
blackmailing scheme that had led to homicide. The murderers had thrown
Jim’s arm—and presumably the rest of his body—into the ocean.
This story teaches us a lesson about sin. When you ask God to forgive
your sins, the Bible says that He will cast them into the depths of the sea,
where they will no longer trouble His memory. But if you try to hide them
there yourself, they may come back to bite you.

—Kim

“You will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the
depths of the sea” (Micah 7:19, NIV).
 June 8

Work like you don’t need the money. Love like

you’ve never been hurt. Dance like nobody’s watching.
—Satchel Paige

G
ary Erickson had a decision to make. Was he here to make money,
or was he here to make energy bars for outdoor athletes?
Gary had started the Clif Bar company after a 175-mile bicycle ride had
left him hungry for something that would keep his energy up and taste
good. He asked his mother if she could make a cookie without butter,
sugar, or oil. Together they experimented in her kitchen until they came up
with a winning product. Now, ten years later, he was being offered sixty
million dollars for the company. It was a lot of money, and everyone told
him it was the right thing to do.
But on the very day when he was to sign the papers, he felt
uncomfortable. He went for a walk around the parking lot. Then he started
weeping. He thought of his employees and how he enjoyed working with
them. He had put up a twenty-foot climbing wall in the office. His
company supported good causes. He wanted to keep doing the work. So he
decided not to sell and left the sixty million dollars on the table.
Today, Clif Bar is bigger than ever and was named one of the best
places to work in America. Even though Gary has given 20 percent of the
company to employees, the part he owns today is worth far more than the
cash he was offered to sell out.
Gary’s story raises the question, do we get jobs to make money, or do
we get jobs that we enjoy? Of course, we need money to survive, but I
believe that God also wants us to find joy and satisfaction in our job. In the
Garden of Eden, He gave us work as a gift.
Watch to see what kind of work He will give you. You may find that
what you do to make the world a better place is worth more than money.

—Kim

“The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend
and keep it” (Genesis 2:15).
 June 9

It’s not what you look at that matters. It’s what you see.
—Henry David Thoreau

B
rothers! They can be annoying, right? Like the high school
sophomore who pranked his sister by replacing her two goldfish
with baby carrots. Then he sat back to see how long it would take her to
notice.
After three days he posted a picture on Twitter that said his sister still
hadn’t noticed the switch. Soon he had two hundred thousand “likes” on
his post. “Man, she doesn’t carrot all about her fish,” quipped one Twitter
user. Others wanted to know what happened to the goldfish. The brother
posted a picture of them safe and swimming in his fish tank.
While the brother became an internet sensation and was peppered with
requests to appear on talk shows, the sister went another day without
realizing that the two orange objects in her goldfish bowl never moved.
I wonder how those goldfish felt. Do you ever feel invisible—like no
one would notice if you were switched out with a sack of potatoes?
There’s some good news for you in the story of Abraham and Sarah.
The Bible says that they had an Egyptian slave named Hagar. She had
been the center of some drama in the camp, and Sarah had been mean to
her. So Hagar ran away into the desert. She was alone and ready to die
when an angel came to her and encouraged her. Right there, Hagar came
up with a new name for God. She called him “El-Roi,” which means “The-
God-Who-Sees.”
Whenever you feel invisible, remember that God is the God who sees.
He sees you, not to judge you but because He cares. If anybody tried to
switch you out with a sack of potatoes, He would be the first to notice.

—Kim

“She called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, You-Are-the-God-
Who-Sees; for she said, ‘Have I also here seen Him who sees
me?’ ”(Genesis 16:13).
 June 10

We ought not to be weary of doing little things for the

love of God, who regards not the greatness of the work,
but the love with which it is performed.
—Brother Lawrence

N
ick felt like such a loser. He had been in the army, but that didn’t go
well. He left after being injured. Next he was a servant to an
important man in the French government. He wore fancy clothes and lived
in a beautiful mansion, but that didn’t go well either. He stumbled and
dropped the plates of food he was serving. Or there was the time he was
running alongside his master’s carriage and he tripped and fell in the mud.
It was embarrassing.
He felt so bad that he decided that he would leave his job and join a
monastery in Paris. He thought he should suffer for all the mistakes he
made and he should sacrifice to God his life, with all its pleasures.
He took on the name Brother Lawrence, and his superiors assigned him
the humble job of working in the kitchen. While there, he began to train
his mind to always recognize that he was in God’s presence. Often he was
distracted, but hard as it was, he kept bringing his mind back to God.
Later he would say, “There is not in the world a kind of life more sweet
and delightful, than that of a continual conversation with God.” The other
men in the monastery noticed the peace and joy evident in Brother
Lawrence’s life and began asking him about it.
Whatever he was doing, he talked to God about it. It didn’t have to be
an important job. “I turn the cake that is frying on the pan for love of him,”
he said. One of the most memorable quotes from Brother Lawrence is
when he said, “It is enough for me to pick up but a straw from the ground
for the love of God.”
Later in life he was telling an interviewer about how he had devoted his
life to God so that he would suffer for his faults: “But God has
disappointed me,” he said with a smile. “I have met with nothing but
satisfaction.”

—Kim

“You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at
Your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11).
 June 11

Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself.
—Michael Pollan

D
avid Selig, a restaurant owner and amateur beekeeper in Brooklyn,
New York, could see that something wasn’t right. His bees were
turning red. When the evening sun hit them just right, they were almost
fluorescent. “It was beautiful,” he told The New York Times.
Red or yellow, black or white. Who cares what color bees are, right?
But what was really disturbing was that the honey they produced was also
red. It was as bright as cough syrup, and it tasted metallic as well as overly
sweet.
What was going on here? Another beekeeper saw the same thing
happening in her hives. Someone joked that maybe the bees were stealing
juice from the nearby Dell’s Maraschino Cherries Company. Nobody
wanted to believe it. The area boasted hundreds of flowering fruit trees and
vegetable gardens. Great reservoirs of healthy nectar lay within flying
distance. Why would bees, some of God’s hardest-working creatures, take
a shortcut and bring home juice from a candied cherry factory?
The evidence continued to mount. Neighbors of the cherry factory had
seen lots of bees nearby. And an analysis of the ruby honey showed it was
riddled with Red Dye No. 40—the same dye used to make maraschino
cherries. Apparently bees, like humans, are drawn to brightly colored
foods with too much corn syrup and other unnatural additives.
Choosing the wrong food ruined the bees’ honey. Don’t make a similar
mistake. The sweet or salty snacks that are so easy to buy at the mini-mart
are not the best for us. They fatten us up and slow us down. You will feel
much better when you make your own meals from scratch with fruits and
vegetables and whole grains. That’s a little lesson you can learn on how to
“bee” healthy.

—Kim

“Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine”
(Daniel 1:8, NIV).
 June 12

No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.

—Aesop

I
t was a hot day, and Carrie, Claire, and Ken were waiting in the longest
line of people they had ever seen. They were on a tour of the Holy
Land, and this was the line waiting to go to the Dome of the Rock where
Solomon’s Temple had once stood. It seemed like every other tourist in
Jerusalem also wanted to visit this sacred site. And some were a little
pushy.
Ken saw a woman walk up beside them, as if she was trying to read a
sign on the wall by them. Then she slipped in line right between Ken and
the girls.
This annoyed Ken. The more he thought about it, the angrier he got. He
wanted to demand that she go to the back of the line. But he was a skinny
guy, and nobody ever listened to him. So he thought of ways to make her
feel bad about what she had done.
He could say, “In our country we never cut in line,” which wasn’t true,
but it might make her feel guilty. Maybe he could quote a Bible text out
loud, such as “Blessed are those who wait.” That might cause her to slink
away in shame from her stolen place in line.
Carrie and Claire also noticed the woman who suddenly appeared in
line. But instead of being angry, they were concerned. They saw that she
had bare arms and bare legs, which were forbidden on the Temple Mount.
Trying to help her, Carrie told her about the need to cover up. “I’d hate for
you to wait in this long line and then not be able to get in.”
 But the woman didn’t understand English. Claire knew some Spanish,
and with some pointing she was able to get the idea across. The woman
thanked Claire and left to change into more modest clothing. She was no
longer cutting in line!
Ken had not fixed the problem by being angry. Carrie and Claire had
shown that you can often change things for the better with a little loving-
kindness.

—Kim

“Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded
toward one another, according to Christ Jesus” (Romans 15:5).
 June 13

When people are bored, it is

primarily with their own selves.
—Eric Hoffer

E
ric Thames was bored. He would have thought that professional
baseball was more exciting than this. His first couple years in the
major leagues had not gone particularly well, and then he played for a
league in South Korea.
“I was so bored over there,” Eric told FanGraphs.com. “The language
barrier was really tough. For me, it was a lot of time by myself. I didn’t
speak any [Korean]. All the other American [players] had families and
stuff, so they are with their kids. So I’m just online reading stuff, and I’m
bored.”
He took the long, lonely hours and began to use them to work on his
swing. He set up his tablet on a countertop and watched videos of pitches
with his bat in hand, trying to decide whether to swing or lay off. In his
empty apartment he would practice a flatter swing.
Over and over again he watched videos of Barry Bonds. He saw how the
home-run champion waited patiently for just the right pitch. As Eric tried
to practice the same type of patience, he began to strike out less and hit
more home runs. As he got better and better, he got the attention of the
Milwaukee Brewers. They offered him a sixteen-million-dollar invitation
to return to major league baseball.
Eric took the time he was given and used it to become a better baseball
player. The next time you’re bored, think of it as a gift. You can use that
time to improve your skills—such as practicing the piano—or learn a new
skill—such as computer programming. When you see how much is out
there to learn and how much is out there in the world to discover, you
never have to be bored again.

—Kim

“Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making
the best use of the time” (Ephesians 5:15, 16, ESV).
 June 14

My father didn’t tell me how to live;

he lived, and let me watch him do it.
—Clarence Budington Kelland

H
ere’s a little secret. You don’t have to buy a Father’s Day gift. There
are two reasons for this. First, fathers can’t think of anything they
want except “a little peace and quiet.” Well, either that or something that’s
totally outside your budget, such as a Camaro.
The second reason a gift is not required is that fathers don’t think they
deserve a big fuss. Their responsibilities are not overwhelming. Mothers
are the ones who give birth—a process that is prone to moments of
discomfort.
Mothers also worry about their children’s safety. But dads are different.
If you think back to your youth, you’ll remember that the most dangerous
activities you engaged in as a family were probably your dad’s idea. When
somebody at Lion Country Safari says, “Let’s see if we can get a better
picture by getting out of the car,” it’s probably Dad talking.
Fathers are the ones who teach you to ride a bicycle by giving you a
good shove down the gravel driveway. Fathers are the ones standing by the
public pool saying, “You just toss ’em in and they’ll learn to swim.”
Splash! “Give the boy a moment; he’ll bob to the surface. It’s instinct,
really . . . um . . . oh, great. I’m going to have to get wet.”
This Father’s Day, remember that your dad gets partial credit for the
fact that you exist, but hardly any that you’re still alive. So don’t break the
bank on a gift. Besides, the joy of a father is to give you gifts—maybe not
everything your heart desires, but still, he wants to be the provider.
This is another reason that God describes himself as a heavenly Father.
He does not guarantee to keep you safe from all trouble. But He takes joy
in providing for your needs. And in return, He doesn’t ask for much—just
that you spend some time with Him in peace and quiet.

—Kim

“As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has

compassion on those who fear him” (Psalm 103:13, NIV).
 June 15

Our heavenly Father has a thousand ways

to provide for us of which we know nothing.
—Ellen G. White

R
eef, like many boys, had a lot to say. Sometimes the words came out
so fast that his brain couldn’t keep up. He would be ready to say
something and couldn’t think of the word fast enough, so Reef would just
make up his own words. For example, when he was talking about the
ocean and wanted the word stingray, he got impatient and just called them
“sea pancakes.”
He once referred to zebras as “Sharpie horses” because they looked like
someone had marked up a regular white horse. He also liked to call a
snake a “danger noodle.”
Reef’s grandmother doesn’t talk as fast as he does, but because of her
age, she also has a hard time thinking of a word. She might call a window
a “light door.” Or she will call a wristwatch a “hand clock.”
These made-up phrases give us a fresh, new way to look at familiar
things. “Sharpie horses” gives you the picture of God designing this
animal with a black marker in His hand.
Speaking of God, He also gave us some phrases that help us see Him in
fresh ways. We all know whom we’re talking about when we say “God.”
But how much more it says about who He is when we call Him our
“Strong Tower” or the “Sun of Righteousness.” And we can understand
His love much better when Jesus called Him our “heavenly Father.”
Of course, you have to have a good father before you can think of a
heavenly Father as a positive thing. This Father’s Day, you might want to
thank your earthly father for demonstrating—in some small ways—what
our heavenly Father is like.

—Kim

“For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father
knows that you need all these things” (Matthew 6:32).
 June 16

One father is more than a hundred schoolmasters.

—George Herbert

R
ecently my dad, a pastor, had cancer surgery. I was really scared of
losing him, and I realized that I still need (and want) a godly father
—as well as my heavenly Father.
I also thought about all the good advice my dad has given me over the
years. Fortunately, it looks like he’ll be around to give me more, but here
are some of his best bits of wisdom:
People are more important than metal. He told me that after I totaled
my first car—and my second car.
Don’t go out looking like Jezebel. He told me that when I painted my
toenails bright red.
Nature is God’s second book. He told me that when he took me on long
nature walks and explained how beautifully God designed an orange, a
chipmunk, and my thumb.
Guard your health; if you don’t, you’ll have less energy when you’re
older. He told me that when I went to college and started pulling all-night
study sessions and skipping meals.
Always pay your debts. He told me that after I borrowed money from
him and forgot about it.
God has given you talents that He will find a use for in His work. He
told me that when I didn’t know what career track to choose.
When you pay tithe, God takes care of your needs and blesses you. He
told me that when I got my first allowance.
 The most important thing in this world is to be in God’s kingdom. He’s
told me that all my life.
What’s some good advice you’ve gotten from your dad, or mom, or
grandparent, or teacher, or pastor, or friend? Write it down so that you
don’t forget it—and thank them for it.
That reminds me. Thanks, Dad.

—Lori

“Hear, my children, the instruction of a father, and give attention to

know understanding” (Proverbs 4:1).
 June 17

You might not make it to the top, but if you

are doing what you love, there is much more
happiness there than being rich or famous.
—Tony Hawk

I
n seventh grade Tony was only four feet tall and skinny. “I looked like
a walking noodle,” he remembers. His popularity didn’t seem to be
helped by the fact that he had a freakish interest in skateboarding.
When the family moved to another California town, things got worse.
Now he was starting high school, yet by his size it looked as though he
belonged in elementary school. He had bleached hair that hung in his eyes
and strange skater-style clothes. He was teased all the time, and the school
authorities took away the only thing he cared about—his board.
What his classmates began to discover was that Tony was a professional
athlete. He was paid to wear those weird clothes. He was making so much
money from winning skateboarding contests and endorsing equipment that
he bought his own house while still in high school. He appeared in a
Mountain Dew commercial and other popular videos.
The attitude toward Tony began to change at school. Instead of
considering him a freak they wanted to avoid, students would try to meet
him. When he invited friends to his house, dozens of people he didn’t
know would show up.
He had now been both unpopular and popular at school. All he knew
was that he loved to skate, and he had a drive to improve his abilities.
Tony Hawk would eventually be the first skater to land a “900”—rotating
two and a half times while in the air above the skate ramp.
In the Bible, Solomon suggests: “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it
with your might” (Ecclesiastes 9:10). As Tony looks back, he believes that
working hard to be a better skater is what brought him the most
satisfaction in life. Not the wealth or the fame. So if you’re thinking about
choosing a life’s work just for the money, you should think about doing a
little trick called a 180.

—Kim

“He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver; nor he who loves
abundance, with increase” (Ecclesiastes 5:10).
 June 18

Beauty begins the moment you decide to be yourself.

—Coco Chanel

P
retty is random. So is handsome. Ideas of what makes you attractive
change from time to time and place to place. Here’s an example:
Take a look at your forehead in the mirror. Nothing wrong there, right?
But if you met a group of Chinookan people from the American Northwest
two hundred years ago, they would probably laugh and call you a
“flathead.”
The parents of these children could hardly imagine anything worse than
their children growing up to look like you. So when their children were
babies, they would bind their heads between two boards for about nine
months. This made their heads nice and pointy. Having a head the shape of
an Egyptian pyramid made you attractive.
In parts of Asia and Africa, groups of women got the idea that having
long necks was pretty. So they would wear stacks of rings around their
necks, gradually adding rings to make them look like a giraffe.
In old-time China, a woman with tiny feet was considered beautiful. So
parents would bind the feet of girls before they turned nine years of age.
This insanely painful process began by breaking the toes and the arch of
the foot. A woman was considered beautiful if her feet never grew more
than four inches long—about as long as a Roku remote.
It’s shocking to think that in the 1800s, half of all Chinese women
suffered through this crippling practice to reach a random standard of
beauty. Among the upper classes, every woman had bound feet.
 There may be times when you are tempted to change something about
yourself to be more attractive. Maybe you’re afraid of looking nerdy if
you’re too smart, so you play it dumb. Or you get involved with sports, not
because you enjoy them, but because that’s what the popular kids are
doing. Consider what the fashion designer Coco Chanel said: “Beauty
begins the moment you decide to be yourself.” You don’t have to have a
pointy head to realize she may be right.

—Kim

“Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing, but a woman who fears the
LORD, she shall be praised” (Proverbs 31:30).
 June 19

The difference between men and

boys is the price of their toys.
—Doris Rowland

T
he construction workers had made a spooky discovery. They were
digging the foundation for a new hotel in the Greek town of Fiskardo
when they uncovered ancient graves filled with bones.
The stone tombs dated all the way back to the centuries before Christ!
And they were particularly interesting because they had more in them than
just bones. They contained jewelry, glass vases, oil lamps, copper coins,
and even a bronze lock. It seemed that these people wanted to be buried
with their favorite stuff.
This makes me think about what I would want buried with me. When I
was a boy, it would definitely have been toys. I would linger in the toy
sections of stores looking at model airplanes and the new Hot Wheels. As I
got older, I shopped for more expensive toys, such as a racing bike and a
stereo. My playthings kept getting more and more pricey. I wanted a car,
and then I wanted a Jet Ski. It makes me sound pretty shallow, but my life
can be summarized as eagerly going from one toy to the next. I would turn
my desires to the next shiny new plaything and forget the old ones.
It never stops. I saw a Facebook post today that said, “Just got a new
toy.” The man was talking about a half-million-dollar airplane!
By the way, people don’t go out of their way to get buried with their
favorite stuff anymore. (I mean, to get buried with an airplane would take
a lot more digging than anyone wants to do.)
 I’m guessing that the reason has a lot to do with Jesus. Before Him, the
Egyptian pharaohs and a lot of other folks would try to drag their toys with
them to the next life. After Jesus, people were content to wait for the
Resurrection empty-handed. Maybe on some level we realize that there’s
no point in taking our Hot Wheels to heaven. Compared to what heaven
has to offer, our favorite toys today will seem like the playthings we left
behind a long, long time ago.

—Kim

“Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall
not be remembered or come to mind” (Isaiah 65:17).
 June 20

Camping is nature’s way of promoting the motel business.

—Dave Barry

E
ver been camping? If so, you know the two great joys of camping.
First, you experience the joy of escaping from the pressures of
civilization to the beauties of nature. This is followed several days later by
the joy of escaping from nature and returning to the pressures of
civilization—especially hot water pressure. Any doubts you might have
about the value of modern civilization are pretty much answered by indoor
plumbing.
But there’s something about camping that keeps drawing me in. Last
spring I convinced my family to go tenting because I said, “I have so many
memories of tenting as a kid.” Unfortunately, I overlooked the fact that
they weren’t good memories.
One of the memories that came back to me on this last outing was the
experience of going to sleep on a full air mattress and waking up on a
deflated mattress at two in the morning with a rock poking me in the left
kidney.* I might as well have gone to sleep on two sheets of Saran Wrap.
I had also forgotten the mosquitos. I am always surprised at the gall of
these tiny animals—that they are literally trying to eat you while hoping
that you don’t notice. They may not be as bad as telemarketers, but they
are still horrible.
Then there are the campground bathrooms. I don’t mind showering in
primitive conditions, but I prefer not being watched by spiders while I do
so. Frankly, I don’t like their attitude. They act as though they own the
shower stall and resent this big, lumbering mammal barging into their
personal space.
But all this doesn’t mean that I won’t go camping again. The hope for
adventure and wildness keep drawing me in. Sometimes, one deep breath
of pine-scented air or one glimpse of God’s stars stretched out across the
night sky makes it all worthwhile.

—Kim

“It is I who made the earth

and created mankind on it.
My own hands stretched out the heavens;
I marshaled their starry hosts” (Isaiah 45:12, NIV).

* See the October 1 devotional.

 June 21

Let the wife make the husband glad to come

home, and let him make her sorry to see him leave.
—Martin Luther

M
artin Luther, the German leader of the Protestant Reformation, was
a longtime bachelor. Not that he had anything against marriage. In
fact, he preached against the tradition of the Catholic church that forbade
both nuns and priests from ever being married. He could see in the Bible
that God intends for men and women to get hitched.
Among those reading Luther’s writings were a group of nuns at a nearby
monastery in Germany. Convinced that he was right about marriage, they
asked for his help in escaping their lonely existence. It was a lot to ask,
since the penalty for aiding a nun in fleeing her cloister was death.
But Luther came through. He conspired with a food merchant, who
visited the monastery and hid the nuns in empty fish barrels he brought out
in his wagon. Once the women had finished their stinky trip to freedom,
Luther found places for them to stay and even helped arrange their
marriages.
One of the nuns was a difficult case. Katharina von Bora’s engagements
never seemed to work out. A little bit put out by the way things were
going, she declared that she would no longer consider marriage to anyone
unless it was Luther or his friend Nikolaus von Amsdorf.
Nikolaus didn’t take her up on the offer, but Luther thought it over. He
decided that marrying Katharina “would please his father, rile the pope,
cause the angels to laugh, and the devils to weep.”
 The marriage turned out to be full of love and children, and Katharina
was a great support to Luther in his work.
Have you ever thought that your future spouse is out there somewhere?
They may be in the same town or thousands of miles away. I wonder
whether God has a plan for bringing you together that is as elaborate as the
plan He had for Luther. Who knows? The next time you see a fish barrel,
you might want to see whether anyone is inside.

—Kim

“The LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and
He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib
which the LORD God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He
brought her to the man” (Genesis 2:21, 22).
 June 22

Slow but steady wins the race.

—Aesop

D
o you go on hikes with your family? Perhaps the most famous
hiking trail in North America is the Appalachian Trail. It is really
too long to cover in a Sabbath afternoon because it reaches all the way
from Georgia to Maine.
Men have set speed records on the trail by running all day for fifty days
in a row. It is an amazing accomplishment, especially when you consider
the many miles they spend running up the slopes of mountains.
Then, in the summer of 2011, a woman set the shortest time for
covering the 2,180-mile distance. And here’s the surprising part. She
didn’t run like the previous record breakers. She walked.
Jennifer Pharr Davis would start walking at 4:45 in the morning and
kept walking for sixteen hours. The runners who had set the speed records
before had gone faster, but they had been able to keep up their pace for
only about twelve hours a day. Jennifer’s willingness to stay on the trail
longer made all the difference. She kept going even if she was sick or her
legs burned with pain. She kept walking through sunshine and rainstorms.
“It’s amazing,” she told National Geographic when they named her an
Adventurer of the Year. “You go through the hard times, but the scenery is
so beautiful. I saw thirty-six black bears. I saw moose and deer. You
become a part of nature.”
Sometimes your goals may seem as far away as the end of the
Appalachian Trail. Like Jennifer, just keep moving in the right direction.
Whether you walk or run, you’ll get there.

—Kim

“We also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces

perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope”
(Romans 5:3, 4).
 June 23

Sometimes when things are falling apart,

they may actually be falling into place.
—J. Lynn

T his was bad. Captain Kompothekras-Kotsoros was steering his old

freighter through heavy weather on the Mediterranean Sea. He had the
experience to handle nasty weather. And he could deal with mechanical
problems. But now they were happening at the same time. His ship was
going to sink on the rocks of the Greek island of Zakynthos.
This was bad. The ship had run aground on the beach of a small cove.
Everybody was alive, but they were trapped by cliffs over six hundred feet
high that surrounded the cove. How would they ever unload the cargo?
This was bad. The problem of offloading the cargo had been solved but
not in a good way. The islanders stole the valuables in the hold and also
the ship’s electronics. The captain called the police, who found the stolen
goods and arrested the culprits.
This was bad. The authorities on the island told the captain that he had
to remove the ship from the cove at his own expense. And that expense
would be huge. As he stared at the ship sitting on the white beach, he
thought it looked beautiful. Other people agreed. Visitors took pictures of
“Shipwreck Beach” and shared them on the internet. Tourists came to the
island to see it for themselves.
Now boats take hundreds of thousands of visitors to the cove, where
they can see the old freighter and even climb aboard. The flow of tourists
has made Zakynthos the wealthiest of the nearby islands. So what seemed
bad wasn’t so bad after all.
The Bible tells about many awful things that happened to Joseph,
including being sold into slavery by his brothers. But, at the end of the
story, we see that the “bad” events were bringing Joseph to the leadership
of the most powerful nation on earth.
The next time your life seems like a wreck, remember that God can still
bring about a happy ending. The situation may be bad. But God is good.

—Kim

“Joseph said to them, ‘Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God?
But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in
order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive’ ”
(Genesis 50:19, 20).
 June 24

“God is love” is written upon every opening bud, upon every

spire of springing grass. . . . all testify to the tender, fatherly
care of our God and to His desire to make His children happy.
—Ellen G. White

T
he boys had been hoping the rain would stop in time for their Little
League baseball game. And it had. That was the good news. But the
ball field in the small town of Enterprise, Kansas, was still too wet. The
infield was covered with shallow puddles, and the outfield was soaked
through like a sponge.
“We’re going to have to call it off,” said one of the parents. The
shoulders of the players sagged with disappointment. They had been
looking forward to the game all day.
Mr. Greening had brought his kids over to the field, and he felt bad
about turning around and driving them home again. Maybe there’s
something I can do for my boys, he thought. He talked to the coaches and
walked over to his team. “Just stay here,” he said. “We might be able to
have a game after all.”
Mr. Greening drove off in his pickup. His boys looked at each other and
waited to see what would happen next. Ten minutes passed. Then twenty.
Thirty. An hour had passed, and everyone was still waiting when they
heard the sound of a helicopter. A large green Huey UH-1 was descending
on the field. Parents and kids moved quickly behind the foul ball fences. It
was Mr. Greening. He had run over to the Army base where he worked
and brought back his idea of a giant blow-dryer.
 Mr. Greening hovered a few feet above the ball diamond, the forty-
eight-foot rotor span creating a massive blast of air, until the puddles of
water were gone.
People in the town of Enterprise still talk about what Mr. Greening did
that day for his kids and the rest of the ball players. If you tried to
compliment him for it, he would probably say he was only doing what any
father would do.
God compared Himself to a father: “If a son asks for bread from any
father among you, will he give him a stone?” God will always be there
when you need Him. Like Mr. Greening, He will show up in unexpected
ways.

—Kim

“If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a
stone? . . . If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your
children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to
those who ask Him!” (Luke 11:11–13).
 June 25

Kids don’t remember their best day of television.

—Unknown

M
y dad wanted his family to see the world. So he packed us up in a
baby-blue Ford, and we hit the highway. We drove and drove.
Then we stopped for gas and drove some more. His idea of vacation
seemed to be confused with long-haul trucking. Other people parked and
climbed to the top of the Empire State Building. We just drove by it. I
think my brother sneezed and missed it completely.
We drove to Philadelphia, stopping just long enough to confirm that the
Liberty Bell had a crack in it. Then we were back on the road.
I have to say that we saw a lot of stuff. The Lincoln Memorial. Mount
Rushmore. I remember a huge statue of Paul Bunyan. And a giant redwood
tree with a tunnel in the trunk that you could drive through in a car.
But while my father wanted to show me the world, what I really wanted
to see was television. When we traveled, I couldn’t wait to stop at a motel
for the night so that I could watch TV.
I looked forward to these motel stays as eagerly as Christmas because
we did not have a television at home (probably because my parents knew
that they would not be able to remove me from in front of the TV set
without a crowbar).
But here’s the thing. I don’t remember any of the television I watched
on those trips. Well, I do remember one time when I was dismayed that all
the channels were showing some political convention instead of something
important like cartoons. Anyway, the shows I did watch have been flushed
from my memory.
What I do remember is seeing Crater Lake, waiting for Old Faithful to
erupt, and trying to sleep in a tent when I knew that bears were out there
somewhere. I guess memories of real adventures stick with you better than
the artificial events that happen on TV or on our phones and gaming
devices. Today, try shutting off your device for a while. Maybe God is
waiting to show you the world.

—Kim

“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I
have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more
abundantly” (John 10:10).
 June 26

Ich bin ein Berliner!

—John F. Kennedy

W
hen the people of West Berlin woke up on the morning of August
13, 1961, they found that their part of the city was encircled by
soldiers and barbed wire. It made them very uneasy.
The country that surrounded them was called East Germany. It had a
Communist government that controlled the lives of its citizens, and many
of the citizens didn’t like it. They wanted to escape to West Berlin, where
everyone lived in a free democracy. In fact, so many Germans snuck from
Communist territory into the free part of the city that the Communist
leaders got worried. They were losing all their best people. So they sealed
off West Berlin with barbed wire. Eventually they built a twelve-foot-high
concrete wall eighty-seven miles long. It was reinforced with dogs, beds of
nails, and guards with machine guns.
Meanwhile people inside West Berlin felt alone and trapped in the circle
of concrete. They worried that their city would be swallowed up by the
Communists. That was when an American president decided to pay them a
visit.
On this day in 1963, President Kennedy stood in front of a crowd of
450,000 people to give a speech.
“Freedom has many difficulties and democracy is not perfect, but we
have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in,” he said. “All free
men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a
free man, I take pride in the words Ich bin ein Berliner!” (I am a Berliner!)
The crowd broke into cheers.
By saying “I am a Berliner!” he promised to stand with the Germans
behind the wall. America remained a loyal friend of West Berlin until the
wall came down twenty-six years later.
When Jesus left heaven and became human, He made a statement of
solidarity with all of us. Whenever you feel trapped by hard circumstances,
remember that Jesus understands and promised to stand by you until the
end.

—Kim

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14,
NIV).
 June 27

Tear down this wall!

—Ronald Reagan

H
olger Bethke and his friend Michael Becker looked both ways
before sneaking into the five-story building. They hoped that they
looked like electricians with loops of wire around their necks. They
hurried up the stairs and hid in the attic for the right time to try their plan.
If they failed, they could be shot.
The two men lived in East Berlin, Germany. In 1983, Berlin was a city
split in two halves. The east side had a Communist dictatorship. And the
west side had a democracy. They were separated by a twelve-foot-high
concrete wall and a 330-foot-wide bed of gravel called a “death strip”
because it was watched by guards with orders to kill any trespassers.
Holger’s older brother, who had escaped to West Berlin earlier, arrived
on the other side of the wall from where Holger and Michael were hiding.
When they caught sight of each other, Holger took out a hunting bow.
Tying fishing line to an arrow, he shot it across the wall. It failed to reach
his brother. He tried again, and again.
Finally his brother found one of the arrows in a bush and used the
fishing line to pull over a six-hundred-foot steel cable. The brother tied the
cable to his car and drove until the line was taut.
Holger and Michael put wooden pulleys over the cable and zip-lined
from East Berlin to freedom.
Not every attempt to get over the wall was successful. At least 138
people died trying to cross. In 1987, President Reagan came to West Berlin
and famously called on the Communist leader to “tear down this wall!”
Two years later, Germans, who got the nickname “woodpeckers,” began
chipping away at the wall with tools, and the two sides of the city were
united.
Sometimes we are separated from classmates or even family members
by a wall of anger and hurt. God calls for you to “tear down this wall,” and
He will give you the forgiveness and love to do it.

—Kim

“For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has
destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility” (Ephesians 2:14,
NIV).
 June 28

One man’s rubbish may be another’s treasure.

—Hector Urquhart

I
’ve never had a bike as cool as the one my grandpa made me. One
summer when I went to visit him, there it sat.
It was freshly painted light blue—my favorite color at the time. And it
had a glittery banana seat (totally awesome!). It even had a woven basket
mounted on the front for snacks and treasures.
I jumped up and down and whooped, “Wow! A new bike! Thanks!”
Grandpa beamed and explained that my bike wasn’t exactly new. He’d
found almost every part at the dump and had deftly put them all together
for me.
I didn’t mind—and I wasn’t surprised. Many summer afternoons
Grandpa and I would meander over heaps of garbage at the city dump near
his house. The dump actually sat in a grove of cedar trees, so the scenery
was pleasant, and the smell wasn’t bad.
I loved to go “dumping” with Grandpa. And I learned a couple of
lessons.
First, people throw away a lot of useful objects. We found pretty
porcelain dishes, a working hot plate, lawn chairs, unfinished rolls of
wallpaper, and even coins. Every visit held a surprise.
Second, “new” doesn’t mean “better.” When Grandpa took those old,
broken bicycle parts and crafted them into a custom-built bike, I couldn’t
have been happier—even if we’d gone to the store and picked out the most
expensive bike. And after Grandma ran those dishes through the
dishwasher, I had the classiest tea parties on the block.
Next time you think you can’t live without the newest, latest item, see
what’s right in your attic or at the yard sale down the street. And
remember, someday this world will be one big dump. Nothing’s worth
keeping (or getting crazy about) except the people Jesus died to save.

—Lori

“He who sat on the throne said, ‘Behold, I make all things new’ ”
(Revelation 21:5).
 June 29

We are witnesses for God as we reveal in

ourselves the working of a power that is divine.
—Ellen G. White

I
t was a lazy Sunday morning, and Andrew slouched as low on the
living room sofa as he could go without actually sitting on his
shoulders. As his brain idled along in power-saving mode, he heard his
father say to no one in particular, “You know the neighbor’s cherry tree
that hangs over the fence into our yard? It didn’t produce any fruit this
year.”
“Yeah, I noticed that,” responded his mother. “That’s really weird.”
“They probably noticed that Emily was picking the cherries and
unplugged it,” said Dad.
Andrew had to agree that his sister, Emily, had picked some cherries the
previous year. Then his warm and fuzzy summer mind began to wonder,
How do you unplug a tree? After a second or two, he realized his father
was joking. Of course you don’t plug in a tree. Or do you?
If you pull a tree out of the ground, you do unplug it from its source of
water and nutrition. Without any power to grow, it dies.
In the Bible, Jesus says, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who
abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do
nothing.” He says that a close friendship with Him is like being plugged
into a power socket. His love begins to flow through us, and we begin to
show the fruit of joy, peace, patience, kindness, and goodness.
Want to feel more plugged in to Jesus? One way to do that is to start the
day with a devotional. Oh, maybe you’re doing that right now. Sounds like
you’re on the right track.

—Kim

“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in
him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).
 June 30

Grace means that all of your mistakes

now serve a purpose instead of serving shame.
—C. S. Lewis

C
. S. Lewis, author of The Chronicles of Narnia, lived for most of his
life in a country estate near Oxford, England. He had a gardener
named Fred who helped with the fruit trees and vegetable garden. Fred
also had another job. Professor Lewis was a lousy driver. So Fred drove
him where he needed to go.
Fred was a good soul, but he was a bit gloomy. When it came to weather
—or anything else—he tended to see the cloud and not the silver lining.
Once, when his boss was leaving on an airplane trip, Fred approached him
with a serious expression on his face. “Professor Lewis, did you read in the
newspaper about the airplane crash? Two hundred people were burned to a
crisp. Burned to a crisp!”
I’m sure Fred’s words didn’t help the author feel relaxed about traveling
by airplane.
Our words can make people feel better or feel worse. In the Bible, Paul
tells the early Christians to encourage one another. Apparently they could
get a little down when people were always threatening to throw them to
the lions. Paul suggested that instead of dwelling on the threats of
persecution, they should talk to each other about the goodness of God.
You might be interested to know that Fred was the inspiration for
Puddleglum, the gloomy but brave Marsh-wiggle from C. S. Lewis’ book
The Silver Chair. Fred might be surprised to learn that he has inspired and
entertained millions of readers. It might even make him smile.

—Kim

“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in
fact you are doing” (1 Thessalonians 5:11, NIV).
 July 1

I don’t want to be in the right place at the right

time. I want to be in the right place for a lifetime.
—Unknown

W
hen Annie heard her mom scream from another part of the house,
the Colorado teenager thought Mom was in trouble. Then she
heard her say, “Annie, there’s a bear in your car!”
Annie had just bought the shiny, silver Subaru as a way to get to work.
She went out to the driveway, and sure enough, a bear was locked in the
car. The bear had clawed the roof upholstery down and was tossing it
around. “I was like, I’m not going to work today,” Annie told news
reporters.
Sheriff deputies came to help. They tried to open the hatchback with the
car’s remote, but that didn’t work. So one deputy carefully lifted the
hatchback and got out of the way as the brown bear scampered off into the
woods.
Annie looked in her car. The steering wheel had teeth marks. A
neighbor said it looked like a hand grenade had gone off in the car.
Nobody knows how the woodland creature got in the car, or how it
managed to close and lock the door after itself. However, both the bear and
the people involved would agree that a bear does not belong in a Subaru.
There are probably some places where you don’t belong. Do you know
what I mean? I’m thinking about those places where other kids often get
into trouble—those shadowy places where fights start or things get broken
or drugs change hands.
 Freedom comes from letting God steer you away from traps and toward
the plans He has for you.

—Kim

“Do not turn to the right or the left; remove your foot from evil”
(Proverbs 4:27).
 July 2

Earth provides enough to satisfy every

man’s needs, but not every man’s greed.
—Mahatma Gandhi

A
uthor of The Blind Side Michael Lewis tells about going to summer
camp when he was fourteen years old. He got out of bed that first
morning, scratching mosquito bites and stumbling to the dining hall. On
each table were small boxes of cereal, enough for each kid to have one
box, but not enough that everyone could have the one cereal they wanted.
There were Froot Loops and Cheerios, but also many boxes of yucky bran
stuff.
When the breakfast bell clanged on the second morning, a mad footrace
began. The winners got the Froot Loops; the losers got the brownish bran.
By the third morning, it was clear that in the race to the Froot Loops, some
kids had an advantage. They were bigger and faster, or they just had a
knack for getting what they wanted.
After that third breakfast, Mr. Kenny, the camp director, called an
assembly. “When I’m in the big city, I never understand the faces of the
people,” he said. “They look so worried! So unsatisfied!” His hands
became lobster claws, pinching the air in front of him. “In the city you see
people grasping, grasping, grasping. Taking, taking, taking. . . . But no
matter how much they have, they never have enough.”
He continued, his tone serious. “You have a choice. You don’t realize it,
but you have a choice. You can be a giver or you can be a taker. . . . You
make that choice every day. You make that choice at breakfast when you
rush to grab the cereal you want so that others can’t have what they want.”
Michael remembers that on the fourth morning, no one ate the Froot
Loops. “Kids were thrusting the colorful boxes at each other and leaping
on the constipation cereal like war heroes jumping on hand grenades,” he
said. “Even the most fantastically selfish kids did what they could to
contribute to the general welfare of the place, and there was not a shred of
doubt that everyone felt happier for it.”
Today, will your life be about taking or giving? The right choice can
help you be a happy camper.

—Kim

“A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be

refreshed” (Proverbs 11:25, NIV).
 July 3

Nobody else can give you a clean heart but God.

—Leonard Ravenhill

W
here do you go to hang out with your friends in the summer? The
mall, maybe? Well, in the time of Jesus, people went to the baths.
These large buildings usually had separate areas for men and women. They
included exercise rooms, areas where sculptures were on display, and
places to lounge in the sun or watch entertainers.
Of course, the main feature was a large, heated pool where everyone
would jump in for a good soak. Around the pool, people sold drinks and
snacks, gave massages, and played music. It was such a fun place that
people who could afford it came every day. When a foreigner once asked a
Roman emperor why he took the trouble to bathe once a day, he replied,
“Because I do not have the time to bathe twice a day.”
The early Romans had public baths everyplace. But here’s a funny
thing. They didn’t have soap. To get clean, they would rub oil on their
bodies to loosen the dirt; then they would take a strigil—a curved, narrow
piece of metal—and scrape off the oil and dirt as if they were shaving. It
didn’t work as well as soap, which cuts through the dirt on our bodies, the
oil in our hair, and the gunk between our toes.
Do you want a clean heart and clear conscious? Then discover the love
of Jesus that forgives you and points you in a new direction. Trying to be
clean without depending on Jesus is like going to your bath without soap.

—Kim
 “Now a leper came to Him, imploring Him, kneeling down to Him and
saying to Him, ‘If You are willing, You can make me clean’ ” (Mark 1:40).
 July 4

And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can
do for you—ask what you can do for your country.
—John F. Kennedy

J
ohn F. Kennedy was about to become the youngest president in the
history of the country. As he made his inaugural address in 1961, he
wanted to call on the optimism and courage of youth to make the world a
better place.
Donna Shalala watched the speech on TV in a room full of college
freshmen. A good student, she was considering going to graduate school or
law school. When she heard him say “ask not what your country can do for
you—ask what you can do for your country,” she felt that the president
was talking directly to her. She told National Public Radio that those
words hit her “like a splash of water.” So she changed her plans for
professional success and joined the Peace Corps, which organized
volunteers to help people in other countries.
Donna went to a mud-brick village in southern Iran. All the Iranians
knew was that these volunteers were sent to help them by an “energetic
young president.” And because of that, she says, they were welcomed.
For two years she taught at an agricultural college before returning to
the United States, where she progressed in public service until she was
appointed Secretary of Health and Human Services for the whole country.
President Kennedy’s famous quote is just another way of saying
something that Jesus told His disciples a long time ago: “The Son of Man
did not come to be served, but to serve.” He was pointing out the
unexpected truth that there is more satisfaction in helping others than in
grabbing something for yourself.

—Kim

“The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give
His life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28).
 July 5

I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good

therefore that I can do, or any kindness I can show to
any fellow creature, let me do it now. Let me not
defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.
—Quaker saying

N
o one in the Mendez family will ever forget the week that Mom
stopped doing laundry. In normal times, Mrs. Mendez kept the
washing machine running so that everyone had piles of clean clothes to
wear and mountains of fresh towels in the bathroom. But this week, she
just stopped. Young Tony ran out of socks to wear. And I hate to mention
it, but Mr. Mendez ran out of clean underwear.
It all started when the Mendez family moved into a house that had been
empty for a year. Mom put her first wash in the dryer, and when she came
back to check, the clothes were warm, but still wet. An hour later, they
remained as hot and damp as a Florida summer. Two hours later, the same.
What was going on with this mysterious load of laundry? When Dad
went to investigate, he discovered that a bird’s nest was plugging the dryer
vent where hot air came out of the side of the house. He asked Tony to
clean out the straw and feathers. Tony climbed a ladder to reach the vent.
As he peered in, he saw three tiny baby birds. They had no feathers, but
they were all cozy in their nest.
That’s when Mom decided there would be no more laundry until the
birds left their home. So the family went without a wealth of clean clothes
for a while. They had to do a little searching to find a T-shirt or a not-too-
stinky pair of socks, but they survived. And so did the birds.

—Kim

“Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender

mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering” (Colossians 3:12).
 July 6

He who kneels the most, stands the best.

—Dwight L. Moody

I
’m beginning to doubt that James Bond is for real.
Here’s the thing that tipped me off: The movie spy never prays. If a
villain dangled you over a pool of hungry sharks, wouldn’t you pray—
maybe even out loud?
I’m just pointing out that there is a suspicious lack of religion in Mr.
Bond’s life. If a normal person escaped death at the hands of Dr. Evil for
the fourteenth time, he would begin to think that God has a plan for his
life. He would probably give up spying and enter the ministry—maybe
write a book and speak at weekend retreats.
His story would hold the attention of the men and boys. James Bond
plays to our fantasies—fast cars, blowing things up, and, of course,
attractive girls to assist us. Throw in an all-you-can-eat buffet, and it
would be perfect.
But there is another part of the fantasy that is irresistible—it’s the idea
that James is cool enough to handle any situation by himself.
We try not to think of the gap between his heroic abilities (Mr. Bond
can disarm a nuclear weapon while holding his breath underwater) and our
own lack of ability (“Hmm, how am I supposed to open this email
attachment?”). Sometimes we just pretend we can handle the situation.
And at other times—when our weakness is inescapable—we pray.
I teach youth in church, and teens will pray about everything. Last week
someone’s hair was recommended as a subject for intercessory prayer. Of
course, there are prayers about math tests, the weather, and sick
grandparents.
Every day we decide what aspects of our life we will handle by
ourselves and which will become a matter of prayer. Some of us believe
that the sooner we bring a problem to God, the better. And for the rest of
you who think you can manage your life without divine help, all I can say
is, “Are you for real?”

—Kim

“Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and
requests” (Ephesians 6:18, NIV).
 July 7

Fear is a reaction. Courage is a decision.

—Winston Churchill

A
ll the men in the twin-engine Wellington bomber were putting on
their parachutes. An attacking Messerschmitt Bf 110 had blown off
part of the plane’s nose and, worse yet, had ruptured a fuel line near the
starboard engine, creating a frightful jet of fire. The aircraft had a fabric
skin and could go up in flames any minute. They tried a fire extinguisher,
but they couldn’t reach far enough out on the wing. They even tried
throwing coffee at the fire.
As they flew along the Dutch coast in the dark, the pilot spoke. “I think
we’d prefer a night in the dinghy in the North Sea to ending up in a
German prison camp.” So he turned toward England.
That’s when the copilot, James Allen Ward, got an idea. Tying a rope
around his waist, he climbed out a hatch and made his way down the side
of the fuselage by kicking holes in the fabric of the old plane. In the same
way, he punched through the fabric of the wing to make handholds.
Gripping the plane with one hand while the prop wash threatened to flip
him off the wing, James tried to swat out the fire with a cockpit cover.
James made it back inside the bomber safely, and they all survived an
emergency landing back on English soil. James was awarded the highest
military honor for valor—the Victoria Cross.
The Prime Minister of Britain, Winston Churchill, wanted to meet this
hero and invited him to his home. The shy New Zealander was struck
dumb with awe by the experience and was unable to answer the Prime
Minister’s questions.
Churchill regarded the hapless hero with some compassion. “You must
feel very humble and awkward in my presence,” he said.
“Yes, sir,” managed Ward.
“Then you can imagine how humble and awkward I feel in yours,” said
Churchill.

—Kim

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be

afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you
go” (Joshua 1:9).
 July 8

There are two things a person should never be

angry at, what they can help, and what they cannot.
—Plato

T
he Taco Bell in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, is open until one o’clock in
the morning, but that wasn’t late enough for Derrick. He arrived at
the store at one thirty with a deep desire for Mexican food. He pulled into
the drive-through and waited for a cheery, “How can I help you?”
When no one offered to serve him, he applied pressure to the horn.
Derrick continued honking for two solid minutes until an employee who
was closing up the store came to see what was the matter. He asked, “How
can I help you?” but without a lot of cheer. He informed Derrick the store
was closed.
I don’t know why the thought of missing out on a cheesy snack hit
Derrick so hard, but he was outraged. He slammed his foot on the gas. The
car squealed out of the drive-thru and shot across the parking lot, gaining
speed. Unfortunately for Derrick, he had not lined up with the exit. His
black sedan hit the curb and went airborne, flying over a row of parked
cars and crashing into one of those little buildings that hold an ATM.
The Taco Bell employees came running and pulled an unconscious
Derrick out of his smashed car. According to The Berkshire Eagle
newspaper, Derrick told police he didn’t remember hitting the building.
But he probably remembers spending the rest of the night at the police
station.
Things would have gone better for Derrick, and his new car, if he had
been patient with the Taco Bell employees instead of getting angry. When
his temper flared up, he was the only guy who got burned.

—Kim

“Cease from anger, and forsake wrath;

Do not fret—it only causes harm.
For evildoers shall be cut off;
But those who wait on the LORD,
They shall inherit the earth” (Psalm 37:8, 9).
 July 9

The average dog is a nicer person than the average person.

—Andy Rooney

W
hen I was a kid, we had a little Chihuahua named Ponchita. My
sister and I would dress her up in baby clothes, lay her on her back
in our old baby stroller, and push her around the neighborhood. People
would peer in at our “baby” and laugh. She would just stay there with a
sweet look of tolerance on her face. She never complained about anything
we did, so we usually included her in our playtime.
After Ponchita died, we wanted another dog with that gentle disposition,
so we ordered a Chihuahua from the same breeder. But this one, which we
named Tootsie (short for “Tootsie Roll”), wasn’t at all like Ponchita. Even
though she supposedly came from the same bloodline, she growled and bit
us when we got near her.
Every time we pulled our fingers away and examined the teeth marks
and blood, we missed Ponchita. She had had all the qualities of a good dog
—and a good friend.
Recently I read a list called “Things We Can Learn From a Dog.” Here
are a few lessons:

1. When loved ones come home, always run to greet them.

2. Eat with gusto and enthusiasm.
3. Be loyal.
4. Avoid biting when a simple growl will do.
5. Play every day.
 6. If what you want lies buried, dig until you find it.
7. Jump for joy when you’re happy.
8. When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by, and nuzzle
him or her gently.
9. Delight in the simple joy of a long walk.
10. Drink lots of water.
11. No matter how often you’re scolded, don’t buy into the guilt thing
and pout. Run back and make friends.

Maybe today we should drop on the floor and learn some lessons from
our pets.

—Lori

“God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the animals
that were with him in the ark” (Genesis 8:1)
 July 10

A little bit of fragrance always clings

to the hand that gives you roses.
—Chinese proverb

P
eople can smell bad. Just take a sniff of your big brother’s socks. For
much of history people have tried to cover their stink with perfumes.
The women Moses saw around the Egyptian palace would put gobs of
perfumed wax on their heads. It would melt during the day, releasing a
scent that covered up the smell of an unwashed Egyptian.
The Romans went to the public baths as often as possible—men at one
time of day and women at another. But when the Middle Ages came
around, folks felt shy about going to the public baths and just stayed home
in a cloud of stench. The solution, once again, was to cover up the smell
with perfume.
The kings of Europe had people on staff to create perfumes that would
delight the senses. Of course, not everyone could afford these mixtures. It
is said that the tradition of brides carrying a bouquet of flowers on their
wedding day was a cheap way to cover their body odor.
Mostly people just got used to how their friends smelled and didn’t
much notice it until they were around people with a different scent.
Missionaries would usually get a snootful of new smells. Back in 1910, a
missionary named H. C. Olmstead started work in a part of South Africa.
They didn’t have a tent or a large building, so the people of the village
crowded into one of their huts. Mr. Olmstead reported that the “natives in
these parts grease their bodies with rancid butter in order to make their
skin supple and shiny and to keep out the cold. When they became warm
from being packed so closely in the hut, the stench was almost
unbearable.” The air was so stale that a candle wouldn’t stay lit, but Mr.
Olmstead kept preaching about Jesus.
In the book of Ephesians, Paul says that Jesus’ sacrifice was a sweet-
smelling aroma. That sounds like a perfume that we need in our lives,
doesn’t it?

—Kim

“Walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an
offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma” (Ephesians
5:2).
 July 11

Any relic of the dead is precious, if they were valued living.

—Emily Bronte

D
o you have a signed baseball or football from a great player? It’s
kind of exciting to own something from a famous person, isn’t it?
After the Civil War, people wanted souvenir hairs from the tail or mane
of the warhorse of General Robert E. Lee. According to the general, his
horse, Traveller, began to look like a “plucked chicken.”
One day General Lee arrived on the scene just as a woman in a
hoopskirt was about to pluck a hair off of Traveller. Holding his hat before
him, the general bowed graciously. “Madam,” he said, “will you please
take one of mine instead?”
In the Middle Ages, Christians treasured items from Bible characters.
An abbey in Germany claims to have Jesus’ sandals. Another has a nail
from the cross. And so many places have a piece of the cross that the
reformer John Calvin joked that they had enough wood to build a ship. I
guess that was his way of saying that most of these relics were not real.
I once visited a church that had the shackles that held Peter in prison.
I’m not sure how they can be confident that these are the actual shackles
after two thousand years when I can’t even remember which glass on the
kitchen counter I drank out of twenty minutes ago.
In Moscow, a million people came to see the rib of Saint Nicholas.
That’s right, someone snatched a bone from the original Santa Claus.
One reason these relics were valuable is that people hoped that the
holiness of the saints would somehow be passed through the objects to
themselves and that God would hear their prayers. But we know that we
can connect with God directly. He loves us and is already eager to listen to
our prayers. We don’t have to be like the people who snatched hairs from
Traveller’s tail. Why pluck the horse when we have a relationship with the
rider?

—Kim

“Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain
mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).
 July 12

Hope lies in dreams, in imagination, and in the courage

of those who dare to make dreams into reality.
—Jonas Salk

W
hen you were young, you were given medicine to prevent a
disease called polio. The doctor or nurse may have given it as a
shot in your leg, and I’m sorry about that. But I’m glad that’s your only
experience with polio.
If you go back to an earlier time, polio was the scariest disease in
America. In 1952, more than fifty thousand children got the poliovirus,
which weakened and paralyzed their muscles. Often it attacked the leg
muscles, but sometimes it would paralyze muscles they needed to breathe.
Every year thousands of children died, and tens of thousands were left
crippled for life.
People were desperate to find a cure. Among them was a scientist
named Jonas Salk. As a high school student Jonas was a perfectionist who
read everything he could lay his hands on. He did well and started college
at age fifteen.
When he went on to medical school, he got the idea that he wanted to
help all humans instead of just individual patients. That led him to research
viruses. He learned that he could “kill” viruses so that they would not
infect a person but would still make that person immune to that virus in the
future.
After Jonas finished his training, he was asked to help with the polio
plague. He quickly agreed. He began experimenting with giving monkeys
a “killed” polio virus.
Jonas worked sixteen hours a day all week long for years testing his
ideas. When the tests were done and it was announced publicly that a safe
polio vaccine was ready, church bells rang across the country, factories
observed moments of silence, churches held prayer meetings, and parents
and teachers wept for joy.
Jonas believed he could prevent polio, and he worked hard to make his
dream come true. Thanks to him, polio is mostly gone. Of course, the
world still has problems. Which one would you like to solve?

—Kim

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking,

correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may
be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16, 17, NIV).
 July 13

The only thing necessary for the triumph of

evil is for good men to do nothing.
—Edmund Burke

I
n the summer of 1942, the Nazis directed that all the Jews in France be
rounded up. The Jews were told that they were being sent to labor on
farms, but they were really headed to the horrific death camps.
The French police took on this assignment from the Germans as just
another part of their job. In fact, no one complained too much as thousands
of their neighbors were arrested—except in the village of Le Chambon-
sur-Lignon in the mountains of Southern France.
The villagers were Protestants who had endured hundreds of years of
persecution at the hands of the Catholic Church. Led by one of their
pastors, André Trocmé, they rebelled against this cruel treatment of
another religious minority. Church members hid Jewish families in their
homes.
When Nazis came looking for Jews, the villagers sent their Jewish
houseguests into the forest to look for mushrooms. “As soon as the
soldiers left, we would go into the forest and sing a song,” remembers one
of the villagers. “When they heard that song, the Jews knew it was safe to
come home.”
“The majority of the Jewish refugees were children,” according to
facinghistory.org. “The villagers provided them with food, shelter, and
fake identity papers.”
Defying the Nazis put everyone in danger. Pastor Trocmé and his
assistant were thrown in prison for a month. The pastor’s cousin, who ran
an orphanage to hide Jewish children, was arrested and killed in an
extermination camp.
Why were they willing to take these risks when many others did
nothing? Maybe a clue can be found in the way Pastor Trocmé ended
every one of his sermons. He always reminded the people of Jesus’ words
and said: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all
your mind, and with all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.
Go practice it.”

—Kim

“ ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your
soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor
as yourself’ ” (Luke 10:27).
 July 14

Let them eat cake.

—Queen Maria Theresa

T
oday is Bastille Day, a national holiday in France. You might ask
your parents to release you from doing chores today in honor of any
French blood that may be flowing in your veins. Let me know if that
works out for you.
Bastille Day commemorates the French Revolution, when the people of
France forced a head-spinning change in the government. Up until that
time, the king, his nobles, and the Catholic Church ran everything. They
also owned everything, including the land. People who farmed the land
were so under the control of the owners that they were little better than
slaves.
The church had turned into a big money machine. Everyone was forced
to pay a 10 percent tax to the church, whether they wanted to or not. The
sons of noblemen would pay bribes to get church jobs so that they could
live in luxury. Often they knew about as much about the Bible as your cat.
While most people were grindingly poor, the king and his nobles lived
in outrageous extravagance. Noblewomen spent twenty thousand dollars
on a dress and refused to wear the same dress twice. Noblemen competed
to see who could have the most servants waiting on them at the dinner
table. While they dined on exotic foods like chocolate that had to be
shipped halfway around the world at great expense, ordinary people
endured famines that left their tummies grumbling.
When the French queen heard that people were suffering from a
shortage of bread, she replied, “Then let them eat cake.” Her quote became
an example of how the royalty was heartless and out of touch.
Beginning in Paris, the French people rebelled against the king. They
took over the government. They also rejected the church, seizing all the
property that had made it wealthy. Tens of thousands of men and women,
including the queen, were sent to the guillotine.
It makes me wonder how French history would have been different if
church leaders had been more about following Jesus than following the
money. With the right spirit of sharing, maybe everyone could have eaten
cake.

—Kim

“Whoever oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but
whoever is kind to the needy honors God” (Proverbs 14:31, NIV).
 July 15

Change your thoughts and you change your world.

—Norman Vincent Peale

W
hat are you scared of? Here’s how one junior-age girl answered
that question: “I’m scared of roaches, moths, bees, wasps, sharks,
very high cliffs, going to prison, Komodo dragons, pythons, ladies with
beards or mustaches, alligators, crocodiles, oceans, boats, being on a boat
on the ocean, the boat sinking, and then drowning.”
Other juniors said they were afraid of the dark, roller coasters, and
needles (not the sewing kind, the kind that nurses stick in your backside).
One boy said he was afraid of the bats in his church. (Yikes!)
Do you share any of those fears? Oh, wait; I’m sorry. It didn’t make
your day any better to hear about all these unpleasant things. Instead of
making you think about things that make you cringe, I should be talking
about things that make you feel good. Think about running through the
sprinkler on a summer day. Fireflies. Places with free Wi-Fi. Homemade
ice cream. Baby bunnies. Singing around a campfire. Making your mother
laugh.
Just hearing about these things makes you feel good, right? Interesting
how the things you think about change the way you feel. Whenever I think
about bad situations or bad people, I feel bad.
Maybe that is why Paul told the Philippians, “Whatever things are true,
whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are
pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if
there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on
these things.”
If you focus on the good and beautiful things around you, you’ll feel
stronger, happier, and kinder. If you think too much about Komodo
dragons, I don’t know what will happen!

—Kim

“Whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things
are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever
things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything
praiseworthy—meditate on these things” (Philippians 4:8).
 July 16

Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty.

—Anne Herbert

I
t is probably the most famous talk show episode of all time, and it
started with a trick. Oprah Winfrey invited eleven members of her
studio audience to the front and introduced them as teachers who really
needed transportation. As a new Pontiac rolled onto the stage in front of
the teachers, Oprah announced that all eleven of them would get a free car.
The teachers, as well as the whole audience, went wild.
Then Oprah announced, “I got a little twist . . . I have one car left.”
Fashion models began walking through the audience carrying platters
loaded with white boxes wrapped in red ribbon. One contained a set of
keys for a lucky winner. “Do not open it. Do not shake it,” Oprah
commanded the crowd. Finally, with the suspense built to a fevered pitch,
everyone opened their box. They all had keys.
Total hysterics! Audience members were shouting, crying, and jumping
up and down. Some looked so stunned that Oprah was afraid they didn’t
understand what had happened. “You get a car,” she said as she pointed at
audience members. “You get a car. Everybody gets a car!” Her voice could
barely be heard above the constant screaming.
Molly Vielweber still has her Pontiac G6. “It’s been a great car,” Molly
told Autoblog, her voice still carrying a note of excitement a decade later.
“Probably the only brand-new car I’ve had in my life.” For Molly and her
family, Oprah’s kindness toward people who needed a car still rolls on.
Oprah had a knack for surprising acts of generosity. She gave away
scholarships and notebook computers. On one occasion she flew her whole
studio audience to Australia for a week’s vacation. Other television shows
began to pick up the theme. They provided home improvements or new
cars for families in need. Apparently, acts of kindness make good TV.
Even if you can’t give away a car, maybe you can find a way today that
you can practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty.

—Kim

“You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on

every occasion” (2 Corinthians 9:11, NIV).
 July 17

Trying to be happy by accumulating possessions is like trying

to satisfy hunger by taping sandwiches all over your body.
—George Carlin

T
hey say money can’t buy happiness. I say, “Prove it.” Give me a
credit card without a limit and let me see if it makes me happy. If it
doesn’t, I’ll give the credit card back.
What would you buy if you had unlimited funds? Would you buy cool
clothes or maybe the biggest, fastest Alienware computer?
Or why not just buy a new car? Or maybe two new cars. Or three. The
sultan of the oil-rich nation of Brunei has had as many as five thousand
cars. No one is quite sure of the total number, but they do know it includes
a gold-plated Rolls-Royce worth fourteen million dollars. Did the sultan’s
452 different Ferraris make him happy? I don’t know, but he has gotten rid
of most of them.
Imelda Marcos, wife of a former dictator of the Philippines, liked to buy
shoes. She was famous for having three thousand pairs of exotic shoes in a
country where many people were too poor to have any shoes at all. Maybe
buying the first thousand shoes was fun, but I wonder whether she started
to get bored while picking out the second thousand. And I bet buying the
last thousand just seemed like work.
Solomon was another ruler who experimented with whether or not
money could buy happiness. “I built myself houses, and planted myself
vineyards,” he wrote in the book of Ecclesiastes. “Whatever my eyes
desired I did not keep from them” (chapter 2, verses 4 and 10).
 Unlike the sultan of Brunei and Imelda Marcos, he tells us the outcome
of the experiment. “Then I looked on all the works that my hands had
done,” he says. “And on the labor in which I had toiled; and indeed all was
vanity and grasping for the wind” (verse 11).
If you’re trying to get happy by getting stuff, Solomon tells you not to
bother. I’m not saying that’s what you’re doing. But if the shoe fits . . .

—Kim

“All is vanity and grasping for the wind” (Ecclesiastes 1:14).

 July 18

Charles Darwin viewed the fossil record more as an

embarrassment than as an aid to his theory.
—Stephen Jay Gould

H
ave I told you about the time I climbed inside a rhinoceros?
I guess that last sentence sounds a little crazy—like I’ve been
drinking moldy apple juice from the back of the refrigerator.
But it happened. A friend and I were working on a video about fossils.
The project took us to a beautiful lake west of Walla Walla, Washington.
We started climbing a cliff above the lake, working our way up to a hole in
the rock. Once we got there, I slithered into the hole and found myself
inside a rhinoceros.
This was a small rhino that had suffered through the worst day possible.
It appears that he drowned, and while he was floating in shallow water,
lava from a nearby volcano flowed over and around him. As the hot lava
cooled around his body, it made a little rhino-shaped cave. After I crawled
inside, I could reach my hands into the shapes of each of his legs.
When two couples exploring the area first discovered the cave, they
found part of the rhino’s jaw still in place and fragments of other bones.
All were reminders of the poor creature’s unfortunate day. It makes me
wonder whether that same day also went badly for lots of other animals
and people. I’m thinking of the day when the first drops of rain began
falling in the time of Noah.
Almost all the fossils we find today were formed by torrents of water
and mud. Would it be crazy to say that the shapes of animals that we find
in fossils are evidence of a flood?
Not as crazy as the idea of climbing inside a rhino.

—Kim

“All the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of
heaven were opened. And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty
nights” (Genesis 7:11, 12).
 July 19

Fear knocked at the door. Faith

answered, and nobody was there.
—Unknown

F
amily vacations are an opportunity to make happy memories
together. We hope that our kids will grow up to say, “Mom,
remember that time we watched the sun set over the Grand Canyon and
held hands singing “Kumbaya”? Thanks for making that possible.”
Hah! Who are we kidding? It’s more likely that they’ll say, “Grand
Canyon? Was that the place where the batteries on my Nintendo Switch
went dead and we were so bored we actually talked about the different
colors of dirt?”
I have memories of our family going camping. We did tent camping,
which put us in touch with nature. That is usually a good thing, unless
you’re trying to sleep and a lump of nature is poking up through the floor
of the tent and into your lower back.
You can also feel a little too close to nature if you’re in a place with
bears.
I remember going camping at Yellowstone National Park, where their
motto is “Don’t come crying to us. We told you not to feed the bears.” I
was a boy at the time and was comforted by having parents on both sides
of me in the small tent. But the experience was different for my
grandmother, who had joined us on this trip.
She experienced some tension between the call of nature during the
night and the fear of whatever nature was waiting in the dark between the
tent and the bathroom. Eventually the struggle would be resolved with her
pushing out of the tent flap, swinging her flashlight like an airport beacon,
and loudly humming “Nearer, My God, to Thee.” At the final judgment,
we will have to answer for not escorting Grandma to the facilities. It’s just
that we felt that we had more to live for.
God actually gave the Jews an annual celebration that is a lot like
camping. In the fall they had the Feast of Tabernacles. During the feast,
they camped in huts and remembered how God provided for all their
needs.
It’s when you trust God to provide for your needs that you can really
take a vacation from worries and stress. Just don’t camp too close to the
bears.

—Kim

“You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All who are native Israelites
shall dwell in booths, that your generations may know that I made the
children of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of
Egypt: I am the LORD your God” (Leviticus 23:42, 43).
 July 20

There is a difference between listening

and waiting for your turn to speak.
—Simon Sinek

H
ave you ever been lending an ear to a friend—nodding your head
with interest and maintaining eye contact—and realized that you
were, in fact, not listening? It’s as if your brain took a twenty-second
vacation to Florida and made it back just in time to hear the other person
say “. . . so don’t eat any of those until they trace the killer bacteria.”
This happens to me quite often. Maybe it’s part of getting older, like
arthritis and an affection for Cracker Barrel restaurants. Or maybe it’s
because there’s a lot of talking in the world, and it’s hard to take it all in.
We all get overwhelmed with words. You know those safety
instructions they give you on airplanes? If you can pay attention all the
way through that speech, your Ritalin dosage is too high. I still don’t know
which end of the metal buckle should be firmly grasped.
Sermons also test your ability to pay attention. I take great pleasure in
reminding my friend Larry about the time I saw him doze off during a
sermon about the evils of sloth.
If I may say so, the whole problem with preaching is that it’s so one-
sided. It doesn’t give us a chance to chime in. If there’s going to be
talking, we like to take turns.
Kid 1: “I’ve got a new skateboard.”
Kid 2: “Yeah, well, I’ve got this freckle that looks like Texas.”
Kid 1: “Oh, really? Last summer, I went swimming.”
 Kid 2: “That reminds me—I can play ‘Cherokee Nation’ on the piano!”
Apparently, even if you take turns in a conversation, it doesn’t mean
anyone is listening. And listening is a good thing. We expect God to listen
to our prayers all the time.
But we will have a richer relationship with Him if we add Bible study to
our prayer life. In that way we’re also listening to what He has to say. I
mean, nobody likes a one-sided conversation.

—Kim

“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God”
(Romans 10:17).
 July 21

That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.
—Neil Armstrong

P
oor Neil. He was in front of a record-breaking television audience,
and he had to think of something to say.
On this day in 1969, Astronaut Neil Armstrong was about to become the
first human to set foot on the moon. A low-resolution, black-and-white
camera sent video back to five hundred million people who were glued to
their television sets. One out of every seven people on the planet was
watching to see history being made.
What would he say? Before the Apollo 11 space mission, friends and
strangers had made suggestions. Some had quotes from Shakespeare or
Bible texts. He had thought about it and had some ideas.
But Neil wasn’t worrying about it too much. “I thought the chances of a
successful touchdown on the moon surface were about even money—fifty-
fifty,” he said in a later interview. “Most people don’t realize how difficult
the mission was. So it didn’t seem to me there was much point in thinking
of something to say if we’d have to abort landing.”
But now the landing was successful, and he was suiting up for the very
first walk on the moon. He would have to say something. He moved stiffly
down the ladder of the lunar landing module. Then he set his left boot
down on the dusty surface of the moon.
“That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind,” he said.
It was the perfect thing to say. By using the word mankind, he had
included all of humanity in his amazing accomplishment.
 Do you ever worry about praying in front of a group or giving your
testimony at school? It can make some people all sweaty and nervous. But
Jesus says not to worry when you find yourself in a critical situation. “Do
not worry about how or what you should answer, or what you should say,”
He states. “For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you
ought to say.”
Your words may not become as famous as Neil Armstrong’s quote. But
if the Holy Spirit is working on your script, you’ll do all right.

—Kim

“Now when they bring you to the synagogues and magistrates and
authorities, do not worry about how or what you should answer, or what
you should say. For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what
you ought to say” (Luke 12:11, 12).
 July 22

Some people create their own

storms but get mad when it rains.
—Unknown

M
auricio Fierro was just an average guy trying to make a living. But
when he went to work that night in São Paulo, Brazil, everything
went terribly wrong. First, he stopped at a pharmacy. He left the car
running to help him make a quick getaway, then ran inside to rob the
place. That was his job—stealing from people.
The robbery went pretty well, but when he came back outside, his car
was gone. Closed-circuit TV cameras showed that the moment he went
inside, other thieves jumped in his car and sped away.
While Mauricio looked around wondering what to do next, another man
ran by and grabbed the bag of cash that he had taken from the pharmacy.
That made Mauricio mad. He simply wouldn’t stand for this sort of
treatment. So he went down to the police station to report the crime.
Unfortunately, when he arrived at the station, he bumped into the
pharmacy owner whom he had just held up.
Police arrested him on the spot. Thankfully, the police let a television
news crew interview Mauricio so we know that he moaned about the
“insecurity” of the city and that he had not been able to enjoy his car,
which had cost him “a lot of blood, sweat, and tears” to attain.
However, when a reporter asked whether he had bought the car,
Mauricio revealed he had in fact stolen it the day before.
According to the New York Daily News, Mauricio said, “These days
violence is so great that one comes and robs another who is even more
poor than him. We can’t even live a dishonest life anymore.”
Maybe you should try an honest life, Mauricio. Try doing good things
for people, and there’s a good chance that good things will happen to you.

—Kim

“Behold, the wicked brings forth iniquity. . . .

He made a pit and dug it out,
And has fallen into the ditch which he made.
His trouble shall return upon his own head” (Psalm 7:14–16).
 July 23

Veni, vidi, vici!

—Julius Caesar

I
f you don’t like school, let me tell you, it could be worse. If you lived in
an earlier time, your teachers would have made you learn Latin. We
might learn Spanish or French today—which is fine because you might
actually meet someone who speaks those languages. There’s no chance
you would meet anyone who speaks Latin because people stopped
conversing in that language many hundreds of years ago.
Those who suffered though Latin class would have learned the meaning
of today’s quote. The Roman general Julius Caesar spoke it when he was
at the top of his game. In fact, you could say he was on top of the world.
He had invaded Britain and conquered the area of what is now France. He
defeated Pharaoh in Egypt and then headed east to deal with trouble in
Turkey.
The trouble came from Pharnaces II of Pontus, a descendant of the King
Darius whom we read about in the Bible. Even though Pharnaces had
chariots with three-foot-long knives on their wheels, Caesar won the battle
in five short days. He sent back a message to Rome that said “Veni, vidi,
vici,” which meant, “I came, I saw, I conquered.” It was Caesar’s way of
expressing how quickly and easily he won the victory and, incidentally,
how awesome he was. Unfortunately, he didn’t stay on top of the world for
long. He was assassinated three years later.
During the Middle Ages, King John III Sobieski of Poland used a
similar phrase. He came to rescue the defenders of the Austrian city of
Vienna, who were being starved in a siege. In a single day King John
triumphed over the much larger Turkish army. Apparently he had to learn
Latin in school because he said “Venimus, vidimus, Deus vicit” (“We
came, we saw, God conquered”).
Caesar and King John show us two different ways of looking at life.
Will you take all credit for your successes like Caesar? Or will you see
your achievements as blessings from God?
By the way, one of those blessings is that you don’t have to learn Latin.

—Kim

“Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of
the LORD our God” (Psalm 20:7, NIV).
 July 24

I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.

—Lou Gehrig

L
ou Gehrig lived in a time when baseball players were superstars. And
he was one of the biggest. He was a powerful slugger who once hit
four home runs in a single game, a record that has been matched but never
broken. He played 2,160 consecutive games, a feat that earned him the
nickname the Iron Horse. He helped the New York Yankees win the
World Series six times.
But in the 1938 season, he began to slow down. Instead of hitting home
runs, he hit singles. Even when he got the bat to perfectly connect with a
pitch, the ball would hardly get out of the infield.
Doctors said he had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the illness that we
now know as Lou Gehrig’s disease. It was painless, noncontagious, and
horrible—the motor functions of the central nervous system are destroyed,
but the mind remains fully aware to the end.
On July 4, 1939, Yankee Stadium was crowded with fans for a special
Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day. After being handed many gifts and
trophies, he made the most famous speech in the history of baseball.
“Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad
break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the
earth.” He called out the names of men and women he was grateful to have
in his life. At the end, the 61,808 fans stood and applauded for two
minutes.
Lou showed an attitude of gratitude. People liked that about him. In fact,
it’s a scientific fact that people who express thankfulness have more
friends. They also have better mental health, feel better about themselves,
and even sleep more soundly.
Take a moment right now to name one thing for which you are thankful.
Doesn’t expressing gratitude make you feel better? The more time you
give to reflecting on the blessings in your life, the closer you will come to
feeling like “the luckiest person on the face of the earth.”

—Kim

“Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Colossians 3:17).
 July 25

Selfishness is not living your life as you wish.

It is asking others to live their lives as you wish.
—Oscar Wilde

R
ecently I watched The Princess Bride. The opening scenes show
Buttercup, a beautiful princess, mercilessly ordering around a
handsome farmhand. She demands that he do one task after another.
“Farm boy, polish my horse’s saddle. I want to see my face shining in it
by morning.”
“Farm boy, fetch me that pitcher.”
His respectful response is always the same: “As you wish.”
Then the narrator explains that one day Buttercup is amazed to discover
that “when he was saying ‘As you wish,’ what he meant was ‘I love
you.’ ”
She realizes that she loves him too, and they kiss against the sunset.
Then the farmhand, named Westley, leaves to seek his fortune so that he
can be worthy of marrying Buttercup. All kinds of adventures follow.
This movie was released in 1987, so the Blu-ray version I watched
included some special features about how this film has become a cult
classic. One retrospective told how fans have embraced the phrase “As you
wish.” Some couples have had those words engraved on their wedding
bands, one woman had them tattooed on the back of her neck, and another
family had them stenciled on a wall in their house. “As you wish” has
become a symbol of true love.
Think about what would happen if we used those words generously in
our day-to-day interactions. When your parents ask you to clean your room
or do your homework, what if, instead of arguing, you simply said “As you
wish”? When your teacher tells you to spit out your gum or put away your
cell phone, what if you respectfully said “As you wish” and did it?
That’s the attitude we see in Jesus. When in the Garden of Gethsemane
He told His heavenly Father “Not My will, but Yours, be done” (Luke
22:42), He was essentially saying, “As You wish.”
While the phrase “As you wish” can help us in all of our relationships,
the best way to use it is how Jesus did—with a capital Y. “God, as You
wish . . . May everything I do be as You wish.”

—Lori

“Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10).

 July 26

It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of

yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow.
—Robert Goddard

I
n the summer of 1945 the blinding power of nuclear energy was
demonstrated in the first test of an atom bomb. This must have been a
little embarrassing for Albert Einstein, who had said several years earlier,
“There is not the slightest indication that [nuclear energy] will ever be
obtainable. It would mean that the atom would have to be shattered at
will.”
It was even more embarrassing for Admiral William Leahy, who told
President Harry Truman that the atomic bomb project “is the biggest fool
thing we have ever done. The bomb will never go off, and I speak as an
expert in explosives.”
There is a long history of people making the mistake of saying
something can’t happen just before it comes to pass. It even happened to
Wilbur Wright. “I confess that in 1901 I said to my brother Orville that
man would not fly for fifty years,” Wilbur admitted in a speech to the Aero
Club of France. “Two years later we ourselves made flights. This
demonstration of my impotence as a prophet gave me such a shock that
ever since I have distrusted myself and avoided all predictions.”
The inventor Lee de Forest thought the idea of going to the moon was
two heaping tablespoons full of crazy. “To place a man in a multi-stage
rocket and project him into the controlling gravitational field of the moon
where the passengers can make scientific observations, perhaps land alive,
and then return to earth—all that constitutes a wild dream,” he said. Then
he made a strong statement: “I am bold enough to say that such a man-
made voyage will never occur regardless of all future advances.” Twelve
years later, astronauts walked on the moon.
So be careful about telling people that their plans won’t fly. It could be
embarrassing. You should also be careful about declaring what you can’t
do yourself. God may plan to accomplish things through you that are
greater than you expect—maybe even something that is “impossible.”

—Kim

“Jesus replied, ‘What is impossible with man is possible with God’ ”

(Luke 18:27, NIV).
 July 27

I have this image that when we go to heaven we’ll be greeted

with a roar of applause like Cal Ripken Jr. was, and we’ll
do a lap around the bases, and He’ll know my name.
—Francis Pugh

I was fifteen years old when I went to watch the Atlanta Braves baseball
team play the Los Angeles Dodgers. The stadium was packed with
53,000 people who were wondering whether history would be made that
night. In a previous game, outfielder Hank Aaron had tied the 714 career
home runs of Babe Ruth.
Babe Ruth, of course, was a legend. In a single season he hit an
astounding 60 home runs. As he trotted around the bases after setting that
record, crazed fans cheered and tore up paper to make their own confetti.
(Here’s a fun fact about Babe Ruth: To beat the summer heat while
playing games, he would put a wet cabbage leaf under his ball cap.)
In the Atlanta stadium, we waited eagerly for “Hammerin’ Hank” to
come to bat. If he got a good pitch, he could break that record right in front
of our eyes. When he first came to the plate, a series of bad pitches walked
him to first base. What a letdown! The next time he stepped into the
batter’s box, the crowd stood to their feet. The pitcher sent in a low ball,
and Hank let it pass. On the next pitch he swung hard. The ball soared over
the left field fence, and the crowd erupted in cheers. Fireworks went off
over the ball diamond.
In the same way we celebrated over this great ball player’s success,
heaven will rejoice over your salvation. Ellen White says, “There is joy in
heaven in the presence of God and the holy angels over one soul
redeemed, a joy that is expressed in songs of holy triumph.”
It will be like you hit a home run, only you’ll meet the eyes of Jesus and
remember that He hit it for you.

—Kim

“They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their
testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. Therefore rejoice,
O heavens, and you who dwell in them!” (Revelation 12:11, 12).
 July 28

If you see someone without a smile, give them yours.

—Dolly Parton

C
oolest. Holiday. Ever. If you were in Armenia today, you could
celebrate Vardavar Day. On that day—and on that day only—you
have permission to douse anybody with water. Even strangers.
Armenia, tucked between Turkey and Iran, is hot this time of year and
also dry. So people are happy to get wet. Well, what if some of them
aren’t? Too bad—it’s Vardavar! You can throw a bucket of water at
anyone you want. Or run after them with squirt bottles or water guns.
Fire trucks get in on the action and shoot streams of water at the crowds.
You could be ambushed at any time by a kid with a pail of water. And
whatever you do, don’t walk under any balconies because there will
certainly be a mischief-maker up there waiting with a water bomb.
Vardavar Day is full of laughing, shouts of surprise, and big smiles.
Meanwhile, over in Spain, they are getting ready for another fun day
called La Tomatina. On the last Wednesday in August, the town of Buñol
starts the world’s largest food fight. Tractors dump ripe, squishy tomatoes
throughout the streets as ammunition for a free-for-all tomato-throwing
frenzy. Nobody knows how this tradition started, but it kind of sounds like
fun, doesn’t it?
I guess you can’t throw water balloons or tomatoes at anyone today.
Sigh. So what can you do? Maybe you can throw them a smile. Unlike a
tomato, a smile doesn’t leave a stain. And sometimes, you’ll even get a
smile back.
 —Kim

“Why are you down in the dumps, dear soul?

Why are you crying the blues?
Fix my eyes on God—
soon I’ll be praising again.
He puts a smile on my face.
He’s my God” (Psalm 43:5, The Message).
 July 29

We often miss hearing God’s voice

simply because we aren’t paying attention.
—Rick Warren

V
ic Scalzo’s morning wasn’t off to a great start. He was going to sell
The Bible Story books with a partner, but the other man had the
sniffles and had gone home. So Vic was driving around Hamlet, Ohio,
wondering where to start working. “Which direction should I go, Lord,?”
he prayed.
Then he heard a voice. “Go to the gas station and use your credit card.”
He suspected where the voice was coming from, but that didn’t stop him
from arguing with it. I’ve got cash right in my pocket, he asserted silently.
I don’t need to use a credit card.
Vic drove up to the gas pumps at the station, and the owner’s wife came
out to pump the gas. “Fill it up on the credit card,” he said. “Here’s
something you might be interested in,” he added as he handed her a
brochure featuring his Bible books.
It took a while in those days to process a credit card, so Vic walked into
the station and began telling the woman about the books. She was
fascinated. But she kept being called away to serve cars as they pulled into
the station. “I’ve never seen it so busy,” she remarked.
Vic needed more time to tell her about the books, so he prayed, “Lord,
give me five minutes.” The cars stopped coming, and Vic told the woman
and her husband his story. “God told me to come here. You had seen these
books before and you wanted them, didn’t you?” he said. She nodded.
“Then God sent all these customers so that you could afford the books.”
The owner and his wife were in tears at the thought that God had sent
someone to meet their needs.
God rarely turns up the volume loud enough that you can hear His voice
like Vic did. But you can still hear Him as you read the Bible and pray. If
you hear even a whisper of what He wants, you will want to follow,
because that means He has a great adventure just waiting for you.

—Kim

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me” (John
10:27).
 July 30

Worry is a misuse of the imagination.

—Dan Zadra

I remember when there were many places to go on a family vacation—the

lake, amusement parks, and Grandmother’s house. Since then, all these
destinations, including Grandmother’s house, have been moved to
Orlando, Florida, and are owned by the Walt Disney Company. In fact,
you cannot even use the phrase “family vacation spot” without paying
Disney.
If you decide to visit Disney World, remember that the entrance fee for
a family of four requires that you give Mickey Mouse all the large bills in
your wallet and the keys to your car. In the future, Disney plans to simplify
this by requiring all families with small children to pay them a second
tithe. In return for 10 percent of their income, each family will receive
park passes, an animated video based on pagan mythology, and a stuffed
Winnie the Pooh.
The rides at the Disney parks are amazing. There is the “Soarin’ ” ride,
which makes you feel like you’re hang gliding over California;
“Expedition Everest,” a roller coaster that makes you feel like you’re
escaping from a dangerous snow monster; and “Pirates of the Caribbean,”
which makes you feel like you’re waiting in line for hours and hours. I
once met a kid who lived long enough to get through the line for the pirate
ride, and he claimed it was pretty good.
All the rides at the Disney parks are created by “imagineers,” a job title
that combines imagination and engineering. They use their imagination to
dream up fun rides and then build them.
Sometimes, instead of imagining fun things, we imagine bad things. We
imagine that we’ll goof up if we do special music in church or that the
other kids in school will look sideways at our clothes. Another name for
this is worrying.
Jesus says there’s no point to worrying. “Who of you by worrying can
add a single hour to your life?” He asked. “Since you cannot do this very
little thing, why do you worry about the rest?” It’s good advice, because
one of the best vacations you can take is a vacation from worry.

—Kim

“Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? Since you
cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?” (Luke
12:25, 26, NIV).
 July 31

Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.

—Confucius

B
elieve it or not, there was a time when you could buy countries. I’m
not talking about buying a tiny island in the Bahamas like David
Copperfield, but huge great swaths of land as big as your handprint on a
globe.
In 1867 the United States secretary of state, William Seward, started
negotiations to buy a large region in the Northwest that was known as
Russian America. The area had more moose than people, and it was
fiercely cold much of the year. The Russians were happy to let it go if the
price was right. After the US bumped up their offer, Russia agreed to sell
for $7.2 million dollars, or about 2.5 cents an acre.
That may sound like a good deal now, but some people weren’t sure.
They called the place “Seward’s Icebox.” Another critic referred to it as a
“polar bear garden.” The New York World newspaper said that the land
was a “sucked orange.” It contained nothing of value but fur-bearing
animals, and these had been hunted until they were nearly extinct. The
country would not be worth taking as a gift.
The New York World turned out to be a poor judge of value. The land,
which was renamed “Alaska,” happened to be full of natural resources.
Just three years later, gold mining started near the town of Juneau. All of
the gold mined in Alaska since then would be worth fifty billion dollars in
today’s money. And then there’s “black gold.” Oil companies in Alaska
pump out so many barrels of valuable crude that they could pay the
original purchase price of the state every five hours.
The story of Alaska is good to remember when you’re tempted to judge
the value of a new kid at school or a homeless person you see at the park.
If you show a little loving curiosity, you can look deeply into the lives of
others and see the treasures hidden there.

—Kim

“People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the
heart” (1 Samuel 16:7, NIV).
 August 1

You’re gonna need a bigger boat.

—Martin Brody in Jaws

I
t’s a movie that scared the world out of the water. Jaws tells the story of
a beach town terrorized by a great white shark. The town’s chief of
police hires a shark hunter to solve the problem. Halfway through the
movie, Chief Brody is ladling fish chum off the stern of the shark hunter’s
boat when he sees the shark’s massive jaws come out of the water.
Staggering back across the deck, he says one of the most famous lines in
movie history: “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.”
Now the expression comes up when people realize that they need more
resources than they have on hand. Like that time they sent you out to mow
Grandma’s huge lawn with a push mower.
When the army of Israel was menaced by Goliath, they may have
wanted a “bigger boat.”
“If only we had a giant of our own,” they may have wished. But God
didn’t send them a warrior as tall as a basketball hoop. He sent a shepherd
boy. Goliath wore 125 pounds of bronze armor. King Saul suited David up
in the royal armor—to make the contest a little more even. But David took
off the bronze helmet. He took off the coat of mail and laid down the
sword. Then he walked out to meet the towering Philistine.
He said to Goliath: “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and
with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts”
(1 Samuel 17:45). It wasn’t the equipment that won the battle for David. It
was his God.
 I guess you don’t always need a bigger boat. You need a bigger faith.

—Kim

“Then all this assembly shall know that the LORD does not save with
sword and spear; for the battle is the LORD’s, and He will give you into our
hands” (1 Samuel 17:47).
 August 2

Love people, not things; use things, not people.

—Spencer W. Kimball

H
olding a cell phone doesn’t seem like a hard thing to do. We have
hands. We grip the phone in our hand. We remember not to let go.
Simple, huh?
Yet we still drop our phones. It happens all the time. If you could tune
your ears to hear only the sound of smartphones dropping across the
country, it would probably sound like the pitter-patter of rain. After each
pit or pat, you would also hear a groan as the owner of the phone picked it
up to discover a dent, or a scratch, or a shattered screen.
So sad. None of us wants to see one of our favorite things get ruined.
Unless it saves our life.
Soldier Joel Stubleski was returning from a mission in Eastern
Afghanistan when his unit came under fire. He felt pressure in his leg and
saw blood coming from his thigh. He was airlifted by helicopters out of the
area, and as the medics cut off his pants they discovered that his iPhone
was still in his pocket—with a bullet hole through it. “The medics came up
to me and they were like, ‘this is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen,’ ” he told
KTVA, a television station in his home state of Alaska.
Doctors later told Joel that the iPhone likely changed the trajectory of
the bullet, preventing it from going deeper into his leg and hitting a main
artery, which could have killed him.
Joel doesn’t feel so bad about his busted phone. He’d rather be alive
than have a perfect iPhone. If there’s any object in your life that’s
becoming more important in your eyes than the people around you, maybe
it’s time to—well, you know—drop it.

—Kim

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust
destroy and where thieves break in and steal” (Matthew 6:19).
 August 3

Cleanliness is indeed next to godliness.

—John Wesley

Y
ou know it’s time for housecleaning when you walk across the
kitchen and your feet stick to the floor. Things have gone too far
when neighbors write “Wash Me” on your windows.
At times like these, we have one surefire way to deal with a dirty house
—invite someone over for Sabbath lunch. Nothing motivates me to clean
house like the fear of people finding out how we really live.
My wife and I would prefer a tidy house. But after a day at work, we
barely have the energy to pronounce simple words, much less push around
a mop and sponge. Our approach to housecleaning is, “If I can endure the
mess another day, maybe the other person will take care of it.”
Lori can always outwait me when it comes to the kitchen garbage. She
will balance empty bottles, cans, and cereal boxes on an already full
container, until the garbage towers above us like Everest. She would let the
kitchen and half the living room fill up with trash waiting for me to crack
and take it out—which I eventually do.
I, on the other hand, will let the bathroom deteriorate to the point where
even a returned missionary would fear to step in the door. When Lori can’t
stand it any longer, I see her heading into the master bath wearing rubber
gloves and carrying a long-handled brush like she’s about to do battle with
the Ebola virus.
The wait-and-see method of housecleaning has not worked well as far as
the refrigerator is concerned. Neighborhood kids in search of a last-minute
science project stop by and ask what we have growing in the fridge.
How seriously should we take our daily battle against dirt and grime?
The devil might make us feel guilty about the dust bunnies under our bed,
but I’m not sure God would. Judging by what Jesus said, it’s more
important to be clean on the inside.
Maybe you’ve prayed David’s prayer: “Create in me a clean heart, O
God.” Once again, the secret to getting things cleaned up is inviting
Someone over.

—Kim

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within

me” (Psalm 51:10).
 August 4

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to

make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson

W
hen the panicked call came that an ape had escaped from its pen at
the zoo, the veterinarian grabbed his dart gun and started running.
An ape is a powerful beast, and the vet could only imagine how many
people would be torn limb from limb if he didn’t get to the scene on time.
Racing around a corner, the vet spotted the large, hairy creature.
Instinctively he aimed and fired. He saw the tranquilizer dart hit the
creature in the leg. At last, the situation was under control. And then the
ape spoke!
It wasn’t a real ape but an employee of the zoo, staging a mock escape
for the purpose of helping the staff practice emergency routines. Now the
panic started all over again as they rushed the employee to the hospital. He
had been dosed with enough tranquilizer to drop a 450-pound animal.
Fortunately, he recovered and returned to a normal life as a human.
Things do not go well when you pretend to be someone you’re not.
Jacob and his mother schemed to get what they wanted by disguising him
as his very hairy brother. “Rebekah took the best clothes of Esau her older
son, which she had in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob.
She also covered his hands and the smooth part of his neck with the
goatskins” (Genesis 27:15, 16, NIV). Pretending to be his brother, Jacob
tricked his blind father into giving him the inheritance and blessings of the
firstborn.
 It seemed like a good idea at the time, and Jacob did get want he
wanted. But then Esau found out, and things got awkward. With the death
threats and everything, Jacob thought it best to flee his home, and he never
saw his parents again.
The time may come when it seems like you’ll get what you want if you
pretend to be something you’re not. In that situation, I hope you’ll trust
God to help you succeed just the way He made you. Things can go badly if
you try aping someone else.

—Kim

“I do not sit with the deceitful, nor do I associate with hypocrites”

(Psalm 26:4, NIV).
 August 5

The greatest healing therapy is friendship and love.

—Hubert H. Humphrey

W
e would never have heard the story of the Boo Boo Zoo if not for
an unexpected discovery while walking by the ocean. What we
discovered was a bird trying to swim. You might expect to see a seagull in
the ocean, but this was not that kind of bird. It was a young dove. It tried to
paddle with its wings but was getting nowhere. I scooped it up and it sat in
my hand, too exhausted to escape. One of its legs was broken, and that
convinced us to find an animal shelter.
We had to drive off the main road into thick woods. At one point we had
to stop the car while a troop of ducks waddled across the road. Then we
saw it: a strange house built partly on stilts. To one side, a corral was
carved out of the forest. In the middle of the corral, a massive pig lay on its
side in the drizzling rain. There were goats and chickens and who knows
what else.
Sylvan, the proprietor, came out to meet us and took our waterlogged
dove to an aviary with other birds. He thought it had a good chance of
recovery. Then he showed us around. We met Bucky the fawn, paralyzed
after an encounter with a hunter. Sylvan had built a wheeled carriage that
held up the deer’s hind legs so it could get around. We also met Bucky’s
constant companion, Bo—a small fluffy dog that had lost his sight.
We learned that the Boo Boo Zoo had started when Sylvan had brought
home an injured bird. His wife, Suzie, had been diagnosed with terminal
cancer. But caring for the bird seemed to revive her. Sylvan brought home
more animals. Suzie cared for them all. At night, dogs, cats, sheep, rabbits,
and usually a fawn would pile into bed with Sylvan and Suzie for family
sleep.
It is interesting to note that Suzie has lived forty years beyond her
cancer diagnosis. Somehow, while caring for animals, she found healing
for herself.

—Kim

“Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy” (Matthew 5:7,
NIV).
 August 6

Too many of us are not living our dreams

because we are living our fears.
—Les Brown

I
t was a great day at the beach for Roland. The sun was shining. The
water was warm. He rode his boogie board on the waves, being careful
not to run into people in the shallows.
Then he got an idea, which I’m not sure was a good idea. I’m not
recommending it; I’m just reporting what happened. Wearing his goggles,
he went out to where the water was waist-deep. Then he dived down to the
bottom and swam toward a group of people. He took pride in how far he
could swim underwater.
Through the murky water, he saw a leg. He brushed his arm against it
and swam off.
“There’s something down there!” said a teenage boy.
“Was it a shell?” asked a girl.
“No!” he replied.
“Was it seaweed?” she suggested.
“No! I hope it was someone’s leg,” he said. What he probably thought,
but didn’t say out loud, was I hope it wasn’t a shark.
Roland swam off to a group of people playing ball. Underwater he
brushed against a woman’s leg. She screamed and cried, “I’m leaving!
There’s something in the water!”
“Come back,” her friends pleaded.
“No way,” she said as she ran through the shallows and onto the sand.
 Roland was maneuvering along the bottom and closing in on a different
group of swimmers when someone stepped on him. Another scream.
“I just stepped on a body!” yelled a girl. I don’t know why she
immediately imagined a dead body, but that’s what she did. I guess it’s the
same as imagining a shark below the cloudy water, when all that is down
there is a pranking teen.
When God brought the Israelites to the borders of the Promised Land,
they saw walled cities and giants, and they imagined the worst. “Why did
we come to this land to die by the sword?” they whined.
Because their fears ran away with them, they missed out on the land of
milk and honey. Don’t let imaginary fears chase you away from where
God wants you to go.

—Kim

“If the LORD delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give
it to us, ‘a land which flows with milk and honey.’ Only do not rebel
against the LORD, nor fear the people of the land” (Numbers 14:8, 9).
 August 7

Whether you think you can or whether

you think you can’t, you’re right!
—Henry Ford

F
rederic Tudor thought he had a great idea for a business. In 1800,
there was only one way to get ice: you cut it out of a frozen pond. If
you put it in a barn with lots of insulating hay, you might still have enough
left on the fourth of July to make ice cream.
Fred’s idea was to take those slabs of ice and ship them to places that
had never seen ice. When he was twenty-three years old, he cut ice from a
pond at his father’s farm in Massachusetts and put it on a ship to the
Caribbean. When the Boston Gazette newspaper heard about the plan, they
could hardly contain their laughter. “No joke,” they wrote. “A vessel has
cleared at the Custom House for Martinique with a cargo of ice. We hope
this will not prove a slippery speculation.”
It took a month to get to the island, and most of the ice melted—which
is what everyone thought would happen. Still, there was some ice left in
the ship’s hold, and people were excited about using it to cool down their
lemonade. Fred lost money on that first shipment. His next shipments to
Cuba also lost money. The poor guy even spent some time in debtors’
prison. But he kept working on his idea, learning that he could make the
ice last longer if he covered it with sawdust. Finally he began to make
money on shipments to Cuba.
Then Fred took it to the next level. What about shipping ice to India?
Surely people would want some relief from the sweltering heat in that
country. So he sent a ship with 180 tons of ice on a four-month journey to
the other side of the world. When it approached the Ganges, many
believed that it was a joke, but the ship still held one hundred tons of
unmelted ice.
India loved the supply of ice, and Fred became a millionaire. He was
glad he hadn’t let ridicule discourage him. He always believed he had a
cool idea, and he was right!

—Kim

“The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls.

When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he
had and bought it” (Matthew 13:45, 46, NIV).
 August 8

God is preparing His heroes. And when the opportunity

comes, He can fit them into their places in a moment.
And the world will wonder where they came from.
—A. B. Simpson

I tried to make breakfast cereal the other day. I had a granola recipe from
my mom, who made it when I was a kid. I remember it tasted a little like
driveway gravel, but it made us feel healthy and economical.
Sadly, my attempt to make granola went off the rails when I sort of
forgot that I had put it in the oven. So when it came out, it looked and
tasted like yesterday’s campfire.
My wife is not encouraging me to make granola again. She wants
granola made by professionals. It’s always perfectly baked, and it comes in
a pretty package.
It makes me think of how many different people it takes to bring us our
breakfast cereal. There are the farmers who grow the grain. There are
inventors and scientists and cooks who make the recipes. There are
engineers who design the machines that then process the cereal in big
factories. And there are workers in those factories.
Artists and designers create the cereal boxes. Accountants make sure the
company doesn’t go broke. Truck drivers roll through all kinds of weather
to bring the cereal to stores. Advertising professionals come up with ads to
interrupt our favorite television shows.
It takes a thousand people, doing every kind of job you can imagine, to
deliver one good box of cereal to your breakfast table.
 In the same way, God has thousands of different jobs to deliver the
gospel to the world. He has given you specific gifts that He plans to use in
a special way. You may not be a preacher, but you may be the person who
runs the sound system so that everyone can hear the preacher.
Keep watching for places where you can pitch in at church. Remember,
if the Kellogg Company can make something delicious out of nuts and
flakes, God can certainly do something great with you.

—Kim

“Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the
pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the
body of Christ may be built up” (Ephesians 4:11, 12, NIV).
 August 9

The things you take for granted,

someone else is praying for.
—Marlan Rico Lee

M
y son complained the other day that his socks were too rough.
Honest. That’s what he said.
I felt like standing up and delivering a full-throated dad lecture:
“Listen, son. I better not hear any whining, because you live like a king!
Let’s talk about indoor plumbing. The kings of old would have dropped to
their knees in awe at the sight of a flush toilet. They had nothing better
than a serf with a shovel. No running water at all. And no liquid soap that
smells like woodland fairies, either.
“Kings could not even imagine having a hot bath every day. The best
they could hope for was that today’s odor-causing bacteria might possibly
feed on yesterday’s odor-causing bacteria.
“And I don’t want to hear you ever, ever complain about your food. In
medieval times people were glad to have a bowl of gruel. . . . No, I’m not
sure what gruel is.
“In those days, kids didn’t beg to go to Toys “R” Us to get the latest
Lego set. They found a pile of rocks and made do.
“And another thing, don’t whine when we tell you to brush your teeth.
You should be grateful Dad has a dental plan. You should be grateful for
an electric toothbrush. You have flavored dental floss, for crying out loud!
In the old days you had to pull out a tooth every time you got a cavity.
People with one tooth left were the lucky ones. The rest of them had to
gum down their gruel. No, I still don’t know what it is, but I’m pretty sure
you can eat it without teeth.
“Do you think these hardworking peasants complained about their itchy
socks? Of course not. They had woolen underwear—none of which was
printed with Disney characters. And they were grateful! You should be
grateful too.”
I didn’t actually say that, but I wanted to.

—Kim

“Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become
blameless and harmless, children of God” (Philippians 2:14, 15).
 August 10

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.

—Plato

J
im Ford is the grim reaper of cars. If people ever stop repaying the
money they borrowed to buy a car, Jim’s job is to snatch away the car
and return it to the loan company. It is a dark and sometimes dangerous
work. Sometimes the work is just sad.
One day, Jim was repossessing a car in southern Illinois. He saw that the
payments were small and there wasn’t much money owed on the old
Buick. He talked to a local police officer and discovered that the car
belonged to an elderly couple. “I was like, aw man,” Jim told the
Washington Post. He really didn’t want to take their car.
So he called up the owners, Pat and Stanford Kipping, and told them to
contact their bank and try to work something out. Pat called back later and
said they just didn’t have the money. The cost of medicines had emptied
their pockets. Jim needed to come and get the car.
Jim came to their house, played with their fluffy Pomeranian dog, then
took their keys. He had driven about a block when he called a bank
official. “Hey, how about if I just pay this thing current right now?” Jim
said.
The banker complained about the paperwork and put off any possible
solution. After that dead end, Jim talked to his business partner. “Why not
try a fundraising effort?” said the partner.
“I was like, all right, I’ll try it. So we did that,” Jim said. “And by the
time I woke up, the car was paid off.” In fact, they raised enough money to
pay off the loan on the car and also give the car an oil change.
When Jim brought back the car, Pat and Stanford’s family had gathered
to welcome him and say thank you. “It was a miracle come true; we didn’t
know what we were going to do,” Pat told their local paper, the Belleville
News-Democrat.
“They were just really nice people, and they needed a break,” Jim said.
Who would have thought they would be shown kindness by the grim
reaper?

—Kim

“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36, NIV).

 August 11

Give all the power to the many, they will oppress the few.
Give all the power to the few, they will oppress the many.
—Alexander Hamilton

A
s seventeen-year-old Alexander Hamilton watched, he realized this
was no ordinary storm that had come to his island of Saint Croix.
Later, the poor orphan described in a letter how the hurricane began at
dusk and raged violently until an interval of quiet that lasted about an hour.
Then Alexander told how “it returned with redoubled fury and
continued so till near three o’clock in the morning. . . . what horror and
destruction. It’s impossible for me to describe or you to form any idea of
it. . . . The roaring of the sea and wind, fiery meteors flying about in the
air, the prodigious glare of almost perpetual lightning, the crash of the
falling houses, and the ear-piercing shrieks of the distressed, were
sufficient to strike astonishment into Angels.”
Alexander wrote in the same letter about his thoughts as the storm
passed. “But see, the Lord relents. He hears our prayer. . . .The darkness is
dispell’d and drooping nature revives at the approaching dawn.”
Alexander showed his letter to a pastor friend, who, in turn, asked if he
could share the letter in the newspaper. The letter caused several men in
the community to recognize Alexander’s talent for writing, and they raised
the money to send the boy to college in America.
Alexander grew up to be a soldier in the American Revolution and
became the new country’s first Secretary of the Treasury under President
George Washington.
 As a boy who feared each crack of thunder in a hellish storm, he may
not have recognized that the hurricane was going to bring him an
opportunity to be a founding father of the United States. But it did. And if
you want to know what he looked like as a man, you might be able to find
his portrait in your wallet. His face is on the ten-dollar bill.

—Kim

“The LORD is slow to anger and great in power,

And will not at all acquit the wicked.
The LORD has His way in the whirlwind and in the storm,
And the clouds are the dust of His feet” (Nahum 1:3).
 August 12

Not a sigh is breathed, not a pain felt, not a grief pierces

the soul, but the throb vibrates to the Father’s heart.
—Ellen G. White

L
ife isn’t fair. That’s just the way it is. It’s nothing to cry about. In
fact, crying is one of the ways life is unfair. If you’re a girl, you have
a license to cry at any age. And you can blubber over anything: sad
movies, happy movies, a bad haircut, a pickle jar that just won’t open.
Women treat sobbing the same way that men treat a belch—it’s something
you apologize for but not something you avoid.
But it’s harder for boys. As we get older, we don’t want anyone to see
us whimper. Men worry that crying will make them look weak and
unstable. And it’s true. You don’t want to see the president of the country
come on TV and start sobbing and say how hard he has tried to be nice and
get along with Congress, but they just keep saying the most hurtful things
behind his back, and (sniff) he’s about to pull his hair out.
So that’s a little unfair—that girls aren’t usually afraid to bawl, but boys
are. There is one exception. Jesus wasn’t afraid of anything—even crying.
The Bible says that “Jesus wept” as He stood before the tomb of His friend
Lazarus. It’s not immediately apparent why He wept because He knew that
He was about to raise His friend from the dead.
One explanation is that He felt the sadness of the sisters of Lazarus,
Mary and Martha, and the other mourners around Him. Each tear was
evidence of His love for people and His sympathy with their feelings.
That’s something to remember the next time you feel down. Jesus cares,
and He sympathizes with you. Whether you can cry or not, Jesus feels
your pain.

—Kim

“Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows” (Isaiah
53:4).
 August 13

Build your own dreams, or someone

else will hire you to build theirs.
—Farrah Gray

W
hen Lilian Bland saw the postcard from her Uncle Robert, she was
amazed. It was a picture of Louis Bleriot’s airplane—the first to
go across the English Channel. It looked so exciting. She wrote to Mr.
Bleriot and asked if she could please be a passenger on his next flight. He
turned her down flat.
So she decided to build her own airplane. How hard could it be? She
studied the Wright brothers’ aircraft and followed it as a pattern in making
a glider out of spruce wood and cloth. She took her glider to a hill near her
home in Northern Ireland and begged some local police officers, along
with her father’s garden boy, to help her as she tested the lifting power of
the design. While they held on to the wings, a gust of wind yanked all of
them off the ground. Lilian figured she had a winner.
Next she added an engine. The little two-cylinder gas engine almost
shook the aircraft to pieces, so Lilian went to work making her biplane
more sturdy. She named it Mayfly.
After waiting five weeks for good weather, Lilian took off in the Mayfly,
rising thirty feet into the air. She did this without taking a single flying
lesson. She had never even driven a car. Lilian became the first woman to
fly an aircraft in Ireland and the first woman in the world to build and fly
her own airplane.
Many people in her town considered it unladylike to take an interest in
airplanes, but that didn’t keep her from a life of adventure. She also
surprised people when she became a sports writer and a news
photographer. No doubt she shocked a few more people when she started
driving a car and then opened a Ford dealership in Belfast.
Lilian didn’t let the low expectations of people around her keep her tied
to the ground. They may have been shaking their heads at the idea of her
building an airplane, but they had to lift their heads in amazement to see
her fly by.

—Kim

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians

4:13).
 August 14

If you would not be forgotten as soon as

you are dead and rotten, either write something
worth reading or do things worth the writing.
—Benjamin Franklin

D
o you want to be famous? Maybe it’s nothing you care about. But if
you do, you should listen to old Ben Franklin. You can be famous
by writing things worth reading. That’s what William Shakespeare did. Or
you can do things that get the attention of writers. If you become president,
you can be sure that lots of people will be writing about everything you do.
Much of what they write won’t be flattering, but it will make you famous.
Of course, it won’t make you famous forever. Benjamin Harrison was a
president of the United States, but when was the last time you gave him a
thought?
It’s hard to be famous for a long time. Even Justin Bieber will fade from
memory in one hundred years. Maybe sooner. And think about how many
people we remember after one thousand years. Not many.
But here’s one person we remember after almost three thousand years.
The Bible calls her the Shunammite woman. She is involved in two of the
prophet Elisha’s miracles, including the resurrection of her son. No one is
going to forget the family who had a son who popped up from being flat-
on-his-back dead.
But the Shunammite entered fame by doing something nice. She invited
Elisha to stop for a meal when he was traveling through her town. She
later kicked up her hospitality game by building a small room where the
prophet could rest on his journeys. It was greatly appreciated because there
were no Super 8 motels back in those days.
In all the centuries since then, people have not stopped writing and
speaking about this woman. And it all began when she was kind to one of
God’s people. Of all the ways to become famous, that’s got to be one of
the best.

—Kim

“One day Elisha went to Shunem. And a well-to-do woman was there,
who urged him to stay for a meal. So whenever he came by, he stopped
there to eat” (2 Kings 4:8, NIV).
 August 15

Grace means God moving heaven and earth to save

sinners who could not lift a finger to save themselves.
—J. I. Packer

A
s I watched, the girl on television promised a free iPhone. Amazing!
Oh, wait, at the very end of the ad it said the second iPhone was free
when you bought one at regular price. I was disappointed. Later I saw an
ad for a free flash drive. Wow! I thought. How can they do that? I kept
reading and discovered the secret to their generosity. They would give you
the drive after you bought $200 worth of toner. Sorry, but I don’t want it
that much.
I guess it’s silly to expect to get something for nothing. Maybe that’s
why it’s hard for us to believe that we are saved. God isn’t just going to
give us salvation for nothing, is He? He must want us to pay in some way.
Maybe He wants us to pay by doing some miserable volunteer work in the
church basement or by giving up fun for the rest of our lives.
But no. With God, you really do get salvation for free. (And seriously,
how could you ever pay for an eternity in a heavenly mansion? You don’t
have enough money for a weekend at the Hilton.)
This idea of getting something you don’t deserve and can never repay is
called “grace.” God’s grace also gives you something else: it can fill your
heart with love for others. Grace is the reason that people are happy to sort
Dorcas donations in the church basement. It is also the reason that
Christians may give up their fun plans for the evening to help a neighbor in
trouble.
 Grace. It sure is amazing, isn’t it?

—Kim

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of
yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast”
(Ephesians 2:8, 9).
 August 16

It’s only embarrassing if you’re embarrassed.

—Paul Bailey

M
y first piano recital loomed before me. I set to work learning my
piece: a Beethoven sonata.
The evening of the recital my teacher, Mr. DeLeon, directed me to the
front row. We were to sit in the order in which we would play. Even
though I was fourteen, I was new and had to sit with the little kids and play
near the beginning.
When my turn came, I noticed that my hands felt cold and sweaty, but I
played the sonata—perfectly. Whew! To scattered applause I walked back
to take my place with the other students. It was over, and I hadn’t made
one mistake!
And then came the bombshell. Rick, a classmate of mine, but a much
more accomplished pianist, leaned forward from his seat directly behind
me. He snickered as he announced, “Your zipper’s down!” Then he and
the students beside him cackled.
“Very funny,” I snapped.
But then Julie confirmed, “It is.”
Slowly, tremulously, I reached down behind me in the auditorium chair.
I gasped as I felt a large gaping hole in my skirt. As the next student
played on, I pieced together what had happened. I’d been so focused on
my piano piece that I’d just thrown on my skirt, clasping the button at the
top but not zipping it up. No one had noticed because the skirt stayed
together—until I sat on the piano bench. Then it had gaped open, giving
my fellow piano students a great view of my underwear.
I couldn’t fathom facing these students the next day at school, but my
parents made me go. They assured me that it would blow over and be
forgotten.
They were right—except I still reach down to make sure my zipper is
closed when I go up front to read Scripture or pray. But I also know from
experience that you can get over embarrassing moments. So don’t let fear
stop you from sharing your talents and serving God. Check your fly—and
then get up there!

—Lori

“There is no more remembrance of the wise than of the fool forever,

since all that now is will be forgotten in the days to come” (Ecclesiastes
2:16).
 August 17

Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell.

—William Shakespeare

M
rs. Francis and her two daughters lived a simple life in the South
American country of Guyana. They were a poor family. But Mrs.
Francis kept some chickens and cultivated a small garden. By selling the
eggs and a few vegetables, the family managed to survive.
At night they would have worship and thank God for their blessings,
and they would ask for His protection.
Mr. Greaves, their neighbor down the road, did not thank God for
blessings. He mostly spent time wishing he had more money. During one
of these wishing sessions, he had an idea. He would go over to Mrs.
Francis’s house while she was sleeping and take a chicken or two. He
could sell them and solve his troubles. All he had to do was stay up late.
After midnight, when all was quiet, he walked down the road to where
Mrs. Francis lived. As he came closer, he saw someone in the moonlight.
Standing at the gate in front of the house was a man. Then he saw another
man sitting on the front step. Furthermore, a third man was roaming
around the garden. Mr. Greaves slipped back to his house.
In the dark of another night, he headed out to steal Mrs. Francis’s
chickens. Quickly he turned back. The three men were still there. One at
the gate. One at the step. One roaming around.
When he returned on a third night and saw the same men, he gave up in
frustration. The next time he saw Mrs. Francis walking home from work,
he called out to her. “I didn’t know you had company,” he said.
 “What company?” replied Mrs. Francis.
“The men who were outside your house last night,” he said.
“I don’t know about any men,” she said, “but I do know that we pray for
protection.”
Mr. Greaves confessed what he had tried to do, and then they both knew
that he had seen angels.
Like Mrs. Francis, you may never see the angels that are around you,
but you can know that a loving God has assigned them to care for you.

—Kim

“The angel of the LORD encamps all around those who fear Him, and
delivers them” (Psalm 34:7).
 August 18

Most of the successful people I know are the

ones who do more listening than talking.
—Bernard Baruch

S
tephen DiMare was barely out of school when he was on his way to
becoming a millionaire. And he did it by making ice pops, just like
you do in your mom’s freezer.
He had been excited about starting his own business for a while. He
talked to friends about his dream of starting a coffee shop. He even talked
to strangers about his idea, including a woman sitting next to him on a
flight to Florida. She had a suggestion. She told him that what he needed in
his shop were gourmet ice pops in the Mexican style. Stephen listened as
she explained that paletas (Spanish for ice pops) could contain anything
from cucumbers to fresh pineapple to jalapeños.
Stephen bought a set of cheap plastic ice-pop molds and spent his
evenings trying weird combinations of flavors. Soon he was ready to open
his “Popsicle” shop in the touristy section of his Florida city. He called the
shop “The Hyppo.” The first customers were surprised by the flavors.
Looking down in the freezer they could chose strawberry-basil, pineapple-
ginger, hibiscus-guava, plum-mint, or pistachio-rosewater. Some pops
tasted like perfume. Some like a salad.
Tourists loved the exotic flavors (or many of them, anyway). Stephen
worked around the clock trying to keep up with production, sometimes
falling asleep on the shop floor.
A few short years after his start, he was making four thousand pops a
day and selling them at five different stores. Part of his success came from
listening to the advice of a stranger on an airplane.
Listening to others might also be a part of your future success. The
Bible says to “incline your ear to wisdom” (Proverbs 2:2). Wisdom can
come from a teacher, a friend, a parent, or even a stranger. So keep
listening. You may hear something that will cause an idea to pop up in
your life.

—Kim

“My son, pay attention to my wisdom; lend your ear to my

understanding” (Proverbs 5:1).
 August 19

When you live a life with no boundaries, there’s less joy.

—Tom Hanks

W
hat if you could buy anything you wanted? It’s a common fantasy,
almost as common as the fantasy that your parents will buy you
candy in the grocery store checkout.
So, if you had infinite purchasing power, would you be happy? You
probably already know the answer. You’ve heard people say, “Money
can’t buy happiness.” One jokester added, “But it can buy ice cream, and
that’s pretty much the same thing.”
But is it really? Would unlimited ice cream put a smile on your face that
would never go away? Tom Hanks stars in the blockbuster movie Cast
Away as a man who is stranded on a deserted island. To play his well-fed
character when he arrived on the island, he gained forty pounds. “I just
stopped working out and ate anything whenever I felt like it,” he told the
National Enquirer. But he didn’t enjoy it that much. “It affects your sleep,
it affects your legs, never mind your cholesterol.”
He concluded, “Eating everything you want is not that much fun. When
you live a life with no boundaries, there’s less joy.”
Following his time of overeating, the actor kept to a strict diet for a year
to play the skinny survivor who is rescued at the end of the movie. He says
he enjoyed his food more when he was severely limited in what he could
eat.
Another movie star, Jim Carrey, once said, “I think everybody should
get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can
see that it’s not the answer.”
The Bible says “Command those who are rich in this present age not to
be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives
us richly all things to enjoy” (1 Timothy 6:17).
It is better to trust God for your happiness than trust in wealth. As good
as unlimited ice cream may sound, God is better.

—Kim

“Have you found honey? Eat only as much as you need, lest you be
filled with it and vomit” (Proverbs 25:16).
 August 20

There is nothing like a dream to create the future.

—Victor Hugo

I
t may be hard to believe, but there was once a time when California was
a mission field. At the beginning of the 1848 gold rush, there were one
hundred thousand Native Americans and only eight thousand of everybody
else.
John Loughborough and Daniel Bourdeau were the first two
missionaries sent by the Seventh-day Adventist Church to California. The
New York newspapers reported on their mission plans, and when those
papers made their way out West, the story attracted the attention of a small
group of Christians in the town of Petaluma.
One of their members went fifty miles south to the bustling city of San
Francisco. In an amazing example of God’s providence, he found the two
missionaries in a half hour. He invited the men to come to his town and set
up their evangelistic tent. John and Daniel were open to the idea and went
back to Petaluma with their new friend.
What they didn’t know was that they had to pass a test. “You will stop
at my house tonight,” said their host, “but it is arranged for you to take
dinner at Brother Wolf’s. I will go with you there and come for you after
dinner.”
The missionaries were taken to this house for a reason. Mr. Wolf had
told the members of his group about a dream in which he saw two men
start fires that brought warmth and light to their gloomy area. He
understood that the men were evangelists and that their small group must
help them.
Now Mr. Wolf wanted to see if these were the same men he had seen in
the dream. He looked out of his front door as the missionaries approached.
“Wife, there they are!” he said. “Those are the identical men I saw in the
dream.”
This was the dramatic way that God opened the way for Adventists in
California. It’s clear that He wanted more people to know the Bible truth
that we have to share. Do you value your beliefs as a Seventh-day
Adventist? They may be more important than you could ever dream.

—Kim

“Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall
dream dreams, your young men shall see visions” (Joel 2:28).
 August 21

It is beyond the realm of possibilities that

one has the ability to out give God.
—Charles Spurgeon

D
o you like things that go fast? Then you’ll love the SR-71 Blackbird,
a jet that can literally fly faster than a bullet. It cruises at three times
the speed of sound, clicking off a mile every second and a half.
You know how long those drives can seem when you’re going on a
family vacation? The Blackbird can cover in two minutes the distance your
car drives in one hour.
But to go that fast, it needs a whole lot more fuel than your car. The
Blackbird burns through 110 gallons of fuel every minute. That’s ten times
faster than gas comes out of a pump at a service station. So, are the pilots
worried about running out of fuel? Not really. On every mission, as long as
they stay on course, they will find tanker aircraft waiting to fill them up
just when they need it.
Now, it may sound like I’m changing the subject, but stay with me.
Robert Lister of Dallas, Texas, tells a story about a time early in his
marriage when they had run low on money. They had enough to either
return their tithes and offerings or pay their home mortgage—but not both.
Robert and his wife, Connie, decided to return their tithes and offerings.
They put the envelope in the offering plate that Sabbath. When they got
home, there was a letter in the mailbox from the Internal Revenue Service
explaining that a mistake had been found from four years earlier. Included
was a refund check that just happened to be enough to pay the mortgage.*
 When it comes to money, God is like those tanker aircraft that keep the
Blackbird flying. If we stay on mission and put our money where He wants
it to go, I believe He keeps us pumped up with the money we need. Do you
pay tithe and offering? If not, this might be a good time to take a “test
flight” and see what happens.

—Kim

“Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down,

shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap” (Luke
6:38, NIV).
* From the book Over and Over Again! edited by Ronald Alan Knott
 August 22

Every generation laughs at the old fashions,

but follows religiously the new.
—Henry David Thoreau

I was cool once. Stylish. Fashionable! I wish you could have seen me. The
year was 1972, and when I arrived in my seventh-grade classroom, every
eye turned my way.
It was the pants that did it. First of all they were bell-bottoms with a
generous flare. That was cool enough. But it was the design that reached
new levels of trendy boldness. The front of one leg was blue, while the
back of the same leg was white. On the other leg, the colors were reversed.
The effect of the whole outfit was taken to a higher level, literally, by a
pair of two-tone platform shoes. As I strode casually to my desk, I may
have had a moment of pity for the other students who could never look as
awesome as I did.
Now I realize I was the one who deserved pity. No one should wear
pants like that unless they are in a circus. Almost all of us who tried to be
fashionable at that time look back at what we wore with a shudder of
embarrassment. Boys and girls wore bold plaid designs made out of
polyester, which is a kind of stretchy fabric that never wrinkles but is
awful in every other way.
We all wanted long hair just like the rock stars. Only we came off
looking less like rock stars and more like a herd of shaggy yaks.
Fashion is a moving target. You’ve got to run to keep up. But if you
don’t have the energy or the money to keep up with trends, don’t feel bad.
The day is coming when we will look back at the styles of today with a
giggle and maybe a little bit of pity.

—Kim

“So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field,
how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even
Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so
clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into
the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?”
(Matthew 6:28–30).
 August 23

It is far better to be alone than to be in bad company.

—George Washington

T
he cool thing about Matt Suter is that he got to take a ride in a
tornado. In 2006 Matt, his uncle, and his grandmother were in their
mobile home watching TV. The weather forecaster seemed to be speaking
directly to them. “We have a tornado warning in Fordland, Missouri,” he
said. “If you are in a mobile home, you should seek shelter now!” But
nobody moved.
“It got louder and louder, like ten military jets coming at us,” Matt
remembers. “The front and back doors, that were both locked, came off
their hinges and blew away. I looked at my grandma in the kitchen, and the
walls were moving, the roof was moving, the floor was moving just like
Jell-O.”
The twister ripped open the mobile home and carried the nineteen-year-
old boy into the night. It flung him over a barbed wire fence and plopped
him down in soft grass in an open field. When the National Weather
Service measured the distance, they found that he had flown 1,307 feet—a
distance of about four football fields. Thankfully, none of Matt’s bones
were broken. His grandmother and uncle also survived.
Matt currently holds the record for a person carried the greatest distance
by a tornado and landing alive. The previous record was held by a nine-
year-old girl and her pony; they were blown one thousand feet before the
twister dropped them down without injury.
A passage in the Bible sounds a lot like Matt’s experience. When Job
talks about the fate of the wicked, he says, “A tempest snatches him away
in the night. The east wind carries him off, and he is gone.”
Bad people often get swept up in trouble. Keep your distance if you
don’t want to be destroyed with them. Like Matt said, “I’ve always told
my girlfriend I wanted to see a tornado. But I sure didn’t want to be in
one.”

—Kim

“Here is the fate God allots to the wicked . . . a tempest snatches him
away in the night. The east wind carries him off, and he is gone; it sweeps
him out of his place” (Job 27:13–21, NIV).
 August 24

There are more sure marks of authenticity

in the Bible than in any profane history.
—Isaac Newton

W
hat do you want to do?” Jacob asked.
“Oh, I don’t know,” his friend answered. “The sun’s too hot to
play in the street.”
Jacob brightened up. “I’ve got an idea. Let’s swim through Hezekiah’s
Tunnel. It will be cool and dark.”
“Yeah, really dark,” his friend said doubtfully.
But on this day in 1880, the two Jerusalem boys agreed to start at
opposite ends of the tunnel and meet in the middle. About 2,700 years
before, two teams of Israelite workers had cut through solid rock in
opposite directions for more than a quarter mile until they met in the
middle. How they did it, nobody knows. The Bible’s King Hezekiah
planned the tunnel to bring water inside the city walls for an expected
siege by the Assyrian army.
Jacob started swimming. At first there was some glimmer of light, but as
the tunnel curved one way and then another, he entered total darkness.
Sometimes the tunnel narrowed to the width of his body. He could feel the
marks made on the wall from the picks of the Israelites. When the angle of
the marks changed direction, he knew he had made it halfway. Where was
his friend? He didn’t know that his buddy had given up the adventure long
before.
Jacob swam farther and farther in the darkness. He began to see some
light. As he splashed out on the other end, he heard yells and screams from
the local Arabs, who thought a dragon hid in the tunnel.
Later, Jacob talked about a strange inscription that he found near the end
of the tunnel. When it was interpreted, it described when the two teams of
Israelites broke through the rock and met each other. The Bible story was
confirmed.
Jacob grew up to be a Christian teacher in Jerusalem. He was never
known to brag about his solo swim through the tunnel. But he could
always teach with confidence that the Bible was true.

—Kim

“The rest of the acts of Hezekiah—all his might, and how he made a
pool and a tunnel and brought water into the city—are they not written in
the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?” (2 Kings 20:20).
 August 25

We have a small problem.

—Eric Moody

W
hen the first engine quit, they weren’t too worried. They were in a
British Airways 747 with three more engines to push it along at
37,000 feet.
It had been a normal nighttime flight toward Australia except for the
glowing static discharge around the windscreen. The pilots called it Saint
Elmo’s fire. It was rare but not scary.
What did make their stomach go tight was the change in sound as
another engine quit. Then the last two engines stopped.
The pilots looked at each other. No one had ever heard of all four
engines failing on an airliner. It was night, and they were over the Indian
Ocean. Could they glide to an island? Yes, but that island was bordered by
two-mile-high mountains. By the time they got there, they would be too
low to pass over the peaks.
As they drifted lower and lower, the pilot made an announcement:
“Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We have a small
problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our [best] to get
them going again. I trust you are not in too much distress.”
In spite of the captain’s classic British understatement, passengers
sensed the danger. One passenger scrawled a note to his mother on the
back of his ticket.
No one had ever ditched a 747 in the ocean before. Would any
passengers survive? The airliner had lost twenty-three thousand feet when
the crew was able to restart one engine. Soon they started another. As they
navigated to an emergency landing, they discovered they couldn’t see out
of the windscreen. Using their instruments, they landed safely in
Indonesia.
What had happened? The pilots discovered that they had flown through
an ash cloud thrown up by a volcano. The ash had clogged the engines and
scratched the windows until they were as blurred as a shower door.
Like that invisible ash cloud, there are many dangers in life that we
can’t see or even imagine. That is why we pray for God’s guidance. He
alone knows the course to a happy landing.

—Kim

“In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths”
(Proverbs 3:6).
 August 26

When you come to a fork in the road, take it.

—Yogi Berra

B
aseball player Yogi Berra was giving his friend Joe Garagiola
directions to his home, which could be reached by two different
routes. “When you come to a fork in the road,” he said, “take it.”
It’s hard to say what did the most to make Yogi Berra famous. Is it
because he is remembered as the best baseball catcher in history, winning
ten World Series championships and being selected to All-Star games
eighteen times? Or is he best remembered for the statements he made that
seemed accidentally funny and true at the same time?
On one occasion he said, “You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t
know where you are going, because you might not get there.” He also said,
“I’m not going to buy my kids an encyclopedia. Let them walk to school
like I did.”
His sayings became known as Yogi-isms. Some Yogi-isms happened
when he mixed up words. Talking about another baseball player, he
observed, “He hits from both sides of the plate. He’s amphibious.”
Other Yogi-isms include:
“You can observe a lot by watching.”
“No one goes there nowadays; it’s too crowded.”
“It ain’t over till it’s over.”
“Always go to other people’s funerals; otherwise they won’t go to
yours.”
“A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore.”
 He ordered a pizza one day, and the waiter asked if he wanted it cut into
four slices or eight. “Better make it four,” Yogi said. “I don’t think I can
eat eight.”
When reporters asked him about his Yogi-isms, he would say, “I never
said most of the things I said.”
Sometimes you might say something that sounds silly or even a bit
dumb. Don’t feel bad. Just remember Yogi Berra and laugh along with
everyone else.

—Kim

“Then Moses said to the LORD, ‘O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither

before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech
and slow of tongue.’
“So the LORD said to him, ‘Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes
the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the LORD? Now
therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall
say’ ” (Exodus 4:10–12).
 August 27

How lucky am I to have something

that makes saying goodbye so hard.
—A. A. Milne

S
everal years ago I flew to California to visit my parents. The time
went quickly, and soon we were heading back to the San Francisco
Airport for my return flight to Maryland.
On the way we hit fog, which caused a traffic pileup. Nervously I
looked at my watch. “Do you think I’ll make my flight?” I asked.
“I hope so,” my dad replied, shaking his head.
About two hours later Dad drove up to the curb beside the “United
Departure Gates” sign. “I’d better drop you off,” he said. “I’ll park the
car.”
He turned to my mom. “Why don’t you go with Lori? I’ll meet you both
inside.”
“OK,” I replied, glancing at my watch. I had twenty minutes.
Dad quickly unloaded my bags, and Mom and I grabbed them and
hurried inside. When we got to the security checkpoint, I longingly
scanned the airport for Dad. “I have to go,” I told my mom sadly. She
nodded, and we hugged each other. “Tell Dad bye,” I called behind me.
When I arrived at my gate, the airline agent had already called final
boarding. I dashed in and found my seat. Within minutes the flight
attendant latched the door and announced our departure.
As I looked out the window, I felt warm tears fill my eyes. Then
suddenly the flight attendant’s voice over the intercom caught my
attention. “Passenger Peckham, passenger Lori Peckham, your father is at
the airport counter and says goodbye and that he loves you.”
Now I really started to cry! But I also smiled. My dad didn’t want me to
leave without hearing his goodbye and assurance of love.
How like our heavenly Father! He sent His Son with a message of
unbelievable love and sacrifice. And I think He wants us to hear and
cherish His message to us: “I can’t tell you this face-to-face right now, but
I love you and can’t wait until we’re together again.”

—Lori

“I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you” (John 14:18).
 August 28

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live
in a nation where they will not be judged by the color
of their skin but by the content of their character.
—Martin Luther King Jr.

W
hen the first colonists arrived on the shores of America, they saw
immediately that they were different from the natives who
populated the land. And they assumed that because they were different,
they were better. That’s where the country’s long history of racism began.
Even though the American Indians saved the colonists from starving to
death in those early years, they were still threatened and shot because of a
general idea that they were inferior “savages.”
Later, Germans arrived in the country. Benjamin Franklin, who took a
little too much pride in being an Englishman, said the immigrants “are
generally of the most ignorant stupid sort.” Then he had some rude things
to say about their skin color, which he decided was not as white and pink
as his own.
When the Irish came, the Germans and English looked down on them as
violent drunks. Every new race that came to America—Chinese, Italians,
Jews, Poles—were welcomed with insults and racial slurs.
Africans had it the worst. Even after they were released from slavery,
they were kept from voting or even drinking at the same water fountains as
other Americans.
On this day in 1963, African Americans filled Washington, DC, to
protest the way they were treated. Looking out over a sea of two hundred
thousand people, Martin Luther King Jr. made one of the most famous
speeches in history. He called everyone to struggle for equality without
becoming bitter or violent. At the end of the speech he expressed his faith
in words that have never been forgotten: “I have a dream that my four little
children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the
color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
Today, that dream is coming true as children of all colors play together.
We’re getting a little closer to heaven, a country where all races will be
welcome.

—Kim

“Then Peter opened his mouth and said: ‘In truth I perceive that God
shows no partiality. But in every nation whoever fears Him and works
righteousness is accepted by Him’ ” (Acts 10:34, 35).
 August 29

Bad company corrupts good character.

—Menander of Athens

G
ertie, Mugsie, and Alice were sisters who didn’t have a lot of
exciting things to do. They lived in India, which was a long way
from shopping malls and ice-cream stands and video arcades. So that
explains why they were playing in a sandpile one day.
They moved sand and shaped sand. That was OK, but it got better when
they discovered something buried in the sand that looked like treasure.
They found some marbles. Well, they looked like marbles, but instead of
feeling hard, they felt rubbery.
When it was time to go home, the girls divided up their new treasure.
Gertie gave Mugsie six marbles. She gave Alice six marbles and kept six
for herself. Once she got to her room, she put her marbles in her sock
drawer.
The next morning she went to her dresser to get a fresh pair of socks.
The sock drawer was rather high, and as she peered over the edge, she got
a surprise. Curled among her socks was a six-inch-long snake. She
screamed for her mother. Mom recognized that the snake was a deadly
poisonous king cobra, and panic spread throughout the house. The panic
got worse when Gertie realized that she had given her sisters a bunch of
cobra eggs.
Mom called a servant. “I’ll give you money for every snake you catch,”
she told him. Eventually, every snake was accounted for and, ah,
deactivated.
 What dangerous creatures are you bringing into the house? Sometimes
we invite over “friends” who amuse or entertain us but who tend to get us
in trouble. Try to avoid the wrong sort of companions. Nothing is more
sure to bite you in the end.

—Kim

“The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray as soon as
they are born, speaking lies. Their poison is like the poison of a serpent”
(Psalm 58:3, 4).
 August 30

I can’t believe I ate that whole thing.

—Alka-Seltzer Advertisement

A
s they went to commercial, the voice-over said, “Coming up, the
gorging continues at the Glutton Bowl, the world’s biggest eating
competition.” Just before that, Eric “Badlands” Booker had eaten thirty-
eight eggs and won $25,000. That’s right, back in 2002, Fox Television
broadcasted a strange and somewhat gross competition.
In a series of twelve-minute events, people ate a gut-busting amount of
food. Don Lerman ate seven quarter-pound sticks of butter! Takeru
“Tsunami” Kobayashi stunned everyone by eating thirty-one hot dogs—
buns and all. And I don’t know how much you like mayonnaise, but Oleg
Zhornitskiy ate four bowls (eight pounds) at one sitting.
Since then, people continue to break world records for eating. Joey
Chestnut has wolfed down seventy hot dogs (and buns) in one round.
“Tsunami” Kobayashi put away fifteen and a half pizzas in twelve
minutes. It would take a bus full of Pathfinders to eat as much pizza as this
one guy!
This reminds me of a television ad in which a sickly looking guy in
pajamas sits on the edge of his bed and moans, “I can’t believe I ate that
who-o-ole thing.”
“You ate it, Ralph,” says his wife in the background. The ad boosted
sales for Alka-Seltzer antacid and pain reliever medicine. It also became
an American catchphrase after every Thanksgiving dinner or other big
meal.
 We all know that bad things happen if we eat too much. Still, we
sometimes get a little too busy with the knife and fork. But there is hope.
Avoiding refined foods and focusing on fruits and vegetables is a great
way to avoid overeating. Just be sure not to cover those vegetables in
seven sticks of butter!

—Kim

“Everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now
they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown”
(1 Corinthians 9:25).
 August 31

In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity.

—Albert Einstein

W
illiam Perkin had a high and noble plan for his spring break
vacation. The eighteen-year-old intended to use his new
knowledge of chemistry to make a medicine out of a cheap byproduct of
the steel industry called coal tar. He hoped to make a synthetic version of
quinine—the only effective drug for treating malaria. In 1856 quinine
could be made only from the bark of trees in South America, which made
it expensive and exotic.
The world needed a cheap version of quinine, so William went to work.
After carrying out a series of chemical reactions, he looked in his flask. All
he found was a black sludge—not a bit like quinine. It was a complete and
total failure. To give you an idea of how difficult it would have been for
him to succeed, here’s the spoiler: no one was able to create artificial
quinine for almost ninety more years.
Yet as William was rinsing the black mixture out of his flask, he found
that it turned purple. That’s interesting, he thought. Instead of creating an
artificial medicine, he had created the first artificial dye for cloth.
Until his discovery, purple dyes were crazy expensive. The natural dye
called Tyrian purple could only be extracted from sea snails. It took nine
thousand snails to make a quarter teaspoon of dye. Now you know why
only kings and queens could afford purple robes.
Thanks to William, you can now afford to have purple socks and purple
underwear and purple ribbons in your hair.
 Don’t let the fear of failure keep you from trying to do something great.
You might not reach your original goal, but the effort you make may
uncover an unexpected kind of success. As William learned, plan to reach
a lofty goal—or dye trying.

—Kim

“For the righteous falls seven times and rises again, but the wicked
stumble in times of calamity” (Proverbs 24:16, ESV).
 September 1

In taking our nature, the Savior has bound Himself

to humanity by a tie that is never to be broken.
—Ellen G. White

I want to know what it is like to be a wild thing,” says Charles Foster at

the beginning of his book Being a Beast. He has studied animals since
childhood and grew up to become a veterinarian. But knowing all the facts
about an animal does not reveal to you what it’s like to be that animal.
Charles decided that there was nothing else to do but to attempt to live
as a wild beast. He asked a friend with a backhoe to dig a hole in the
Welsh countryside. Then he and his eight-year-old son moved in,
pretending to be badgers in a burrow. They slept during the day and would
go out at night, crawling over the grass like short-legged omnivores. They
sniffed at the ground and learned to smell the trails of voles and frogs and
even to navigate by the particular smell of different trees.
Badgers mostly eat worms, so Charles and his son, Tom, ate worms—
both cooked and raw. “When you put a worm into your mouth . . . it goes
for the gaps between your teeth,” wrote Charles. Tom crunched up a
grasshopper and on one occasion had a centipede bite him back—on the
tongue.
They lived like this for six weeks, developing senses that they never
would have used in civilized life. They became more like woodland
animals than perhaps anyone else in Britain, but Charles felt he was still a
long way from truly experiencing what it means to live as a badger.
Where Charles failed, there was One who did succeed in becoming a
different creature. The Son of God really did become a human. He knew
what it was to be hungry, thirsty, and tired. He probably even knew how
bad it feels to have the stomach flu.
If you ever wonder whether God really cares about us, remember that
He came down to this earth and burrowed in right beside us. He loved us
enough to be us.

—Kim

“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth”
(John 1:14).
 September 2

When I do good, I feel good. When I

do bad, I feel bad. That’s my religion.
—Abraham Lincoln

W
hen my son was three years old, he made me think. Sometimes he
made me think, How much should I tip the waiter to deal with this
mess? Or he made me think, Where does all the drool come from?
He also gave me food for thought when he began praying. One of his
first prayers was “Dear Jesus, help me to feel good. Amen.”
Now, I should point out that this was not a prayer of a heart heavy with
the burdens of the world. Did I mention that Reef was three years old? He
had no credit card debt. No girlfriend problems. He had more toy cars than
Target. Frankly, he would have never been sad at all if his mom would
have let him have more candy.
So I’m not sure why, but he said he wanted to feel good. Don’t we all?
We want to feel good about our grades, our sports skills, and our hair. A
whole industry has blossomed around our need to feel good about our
fingernails.
So why don’t we hear this kind of prayer more often? Why doesn’t the
first elder get up in church and pray, “Lord, some of us are depressed
about our age and nervous about the stock market. Some of us have back
pain, and, personally, those huevos rancheros I had this morning aren’t
sitting too well. Help us to feel good.”
But I guess that feeling good is not always evidence that everything is in
a state of goodness. I was relieved when Reef gave up the “feel good”
prayer and started making more specific petitions. One time he prayed,
“Dear Jesus, please help me not to get stains on my shirts when I eat.”
That’s right, son, I thought to myself, and while you’re asking for
miracles, why don’t you ask for an end to war and poverty?
Still, it was an improvement. It is better when our prayers are more
concerned with being good than with feeling good. If you’re being good,
feeling good seems to follow. And not the other way around.

—Kim

“As we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who

are of the household of faith” (Galatians 6:10).
 September 3

These are not the droids you are looking for.

—Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars: A New Hope

I
t is one of the most unforgettable moments in the first Star Wars film.
Imperial stormtroopers are about to nab R2-D2 and C-3PO when Obi-
Wan Kenobi reveals that his Jedi powers allow him to control minds. At
his suggestion, the troopers ignore the fugitives and go on about their
business.
What if you had that same power? Would you use it on the people
around you?
You could do a mind lock on your dad and say, “You have a strong
desire to double my allowance.” At school, you might say to the teacher,
“You do not want to punish me for putting a tack on your chair.”
If your thought control is strong enough, you might even be able to
convince the other basketball players to pass you the ball once in a while.
Here’s another idea. Would you try to get your crush to fall in love with
you? It would be like those love potions in fairy tales. But there’s
something that doesn’t feel quite right about that.
Have you noticed that God, who really does have the power to control
our minds, doesn’t use that power? He could bend our thoughts so that we
loved Him and always obeyed Him, but He doesn’t. To force someone into
loving you is not really love at all, is it?
God wants our affection to come out of a real relationship with Him and
an appreciation for all that He does in our lives. That’s what He wants.
Anything else is not the love He is looking for.
 —Kim

“Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we
should be called children of God!” (1 John 3:1)
 September 4

Prayer is the opening of the heart to God as to a friend.

—Ellen G. White

I don’t know this for sure, but it’s possible that there was no other girl in
Wisconsin as shy as Rebecca. She was so shy that she could not bear to
answer the telephone. And she never, ever raised her hand in class. If the
teacher called on her, it felt like she was standing on stage at the Super
Bowl halftime show.
Strangely enough, Rebecca was a little less shy in math class.
Sometimes she would even offer to help classmates with their
assignments. On this particular day, she squatted down next to Bret’s desk
to help him with a geometry problem. She shared a few hints and went to
stand up. At that moment, the sharp heel of her shoe caught in the hem of
her skirt. She stood up, and her skirt stayed on the floor, leaving her with
nothing but a slip to protect her modesty.
Rebecca gasped in horror. She hitched up her skirt, then dashed out the
door to find refuge in the restroom. There, she began to plan her future.
She would cry for a little while, and then she would run home and never
return to school again.
The really amazing thing about Rebecca is that in the middle of her
humiliation, she remembered to talk to God. “What can I do?” she prayed.
“How do I fix this?” And believe it or not, God answered her. She got the
impression that she should go back to math class and laugh at herself.
Really, God? she might have thought. Do you have any better ideas?
But she obeyed. She walked bravely back in the classroom and laughed.
“Can you believe that happened,” she said with a grin. And the
embarrassment ended right there. I should also mention that many years
after that event, none of Rebecca’s classmates remember that it happened.
Not even Bret. Talk about an answer to prayer!

—Kim

“Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray” (James 5:13, NIV).
 September 5

A wise man confesses his wrong; a fool defends it.

—Doug Weiss

F
ood fight!”
The words suddenly interrupted my supper in the college cafeteria.
I looked at my two roommates, who were sitting at the table with me.
Their eyes showed confusion and a hint of fear.
After all, we were freshman and didn’t know what to expect during a
food fight. We soon found out.
Guys at one table began hurling food from their plates toward another
table of guys. Those guys threw food back. All the while deep voices
chanted, “Food fight! Food fight! Food fight!”
Soon more students throughout the cafeteria had joined the chaos. I
watched as handfuls of mashed potatoes, peas, and vegetarian scallops
flew over my head.
And then it happened. A big glob of mashed potatoes landed on my
blazer. My new wool blazer.
As I began to wipe away the mess with my napkin, I heard a voice
beside me exclaim, “I am so sorry!”
There stood a guy offering me a stack of napkins. “I, uh, guess I have
bad aim.”
As I looked at his friendly grin and apologetic stance, I softened.
“That’s OK,” I mumbled.
“If you’ll give me your blazer, I’ll have it dry-cleaned,” he said.
I looked at him in shock.
 “You might not want to trust me with it.” He laughed. “But I promise to
bring it back clean.”
I was stunned, but he extended his hand sincerely. So I removed my
blazer and gave it to him. He took down my name and dorm and
disappeared.
A few days later my blazer was waiting at the dorm desk for me. It was
hanging in a dry-cleaning bag and looked as good as new—no more
mashed potatoes and gravy oozing down the front.
No, I didn’t marry that guy or even go out on a date with him. But I
would have had he asked! I was so impressed with how he took
responsibility.
Yes, we all make unintentional mistakes. And sometimes our mess lands
on an innocent person. The question is: Do we clean up after ourselves?

—Lori

“Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who
confesses and renounces them finds mercy” (Proverbs 28:13, NIV).
 September 6

We wanted to widen options for

ourselves, and later for our children.
—Ernest Green

W
hat if they closed your school for one year? Does that sound like a
lucky break? Well, it happened in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1958.
Only it wasn’t as lucky as it sounds.
This was a time when white kids and African American kids went to
different schools. It was unfair for the black children, who ended up with
fewer books and more crowded buildings. Finally, the Supreme Court
declared that separate schools were illegal.
In Little Rock, nine black teens were the first to go to the all-white
Central High School. It was scary. The first to arrive was Elizabeth
Eckford. Bravely facing hundreds of angry whites, she walked to the
entrance of the school, where she was blocked from going in. “I tried to
see a friendly face somewhere in the crowd—someone who maybe could
help,” she remembered. “I looked into the face of an old woman, and it
seemed a kind face, but when I looked at her again, she spat on me.”
After several days, the president of the United States sent in soldiers to
protect the nine students. They attended day after day, even though they
were constantly bullied.
Upset that he was being forced to integrate his schools, the governor of
the state decided to simply close down education in Little Rock. He
thought it was better for no one to go to school than for black and white
kids to go to school together.
 It wasn’t a good deal for the teachers, who still had to show up at school
every day, and it was sad for the students because they got out of classes
because of prejudice. The 1958 to 1959 school year is still called the “Lost
Year” in that city.
Ernest Green was the first of the “Little Rock Nine” to graduate from
Central High School. His bravery helped bring an end to discrimination.
Later he said, “They used to call Arkansas ‘the land of opportunity,’ and
black people said, ‘Opportunity for whom?’ Today, we can say
‘opportunity for all,’ and Arkansas can be proud of this moment.”

—Kim

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is
neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians
3:28).
 September 7

All have their worth, . . . and each contributes

to the worth of the others.
—J. R. R. Tolkien

T
he beaver had found something valuable. Only he didn’t know it
because, well, he was just a beaver. As far as our flat-tailed friend
was concerned, it must be a kind of stick. So he took it in his mouth and
swam off to add it to his latest dam.
It wasn’t much longer until Elliot and Jason came paddling up the
beaver’s creek in a canoe. As they neared the dam, they saw something
that made an icy chill sweep through their stomachs. It looked like a
human foot sticking out of the beaver dam. “I was sure we had found a
dead body that someone dumped into the creek,” Elliot told a Wisconsin
newspaper. “We thought it was real at first until we got a closer look.”
The “closer look” revealed that it was an artificial leg. The boys pulled
the leg out of the dam and brought it home. They thought to look on
Craigslist and found an ad from Mark Warner, who was looking for his
lost prosthetic limb. He had been on a summer fishing trip when his canoe
tipped over. He was able to rescue his fishing gear and his cooler, but he
couldn’t find his leg. Lucky for him, the beaver did find it and carried it
three miles away to his current construction project. Of course, he didn’t
know that he had something valuable.
You’ve got to expect that some of the kids at school will not think
you’re very special. They may not treat you very nicely or even pay any
attention to you at all. But that’s not the final word on your worth. You are
a treasure that God has placed here to bless the world. It’s true. If someone
says otherwise, they don’t have a leg to stand on.

—Kim

“We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the
power may be of God and not of us” (2 Corinthians 4:7).
 September 8

Beam me up, Scotty.

—Captain James T. Kirk

F
ifty-three years ago today, a science fiction show premiered on
television. Star Trek followed the adventures of the crew of a large
spaceship as they explored the galaxy. In almost every episode, they met
aliens who looked suspiciously like humans with lots of makeup.
It’s fun to look back at those old episodes and see the technology that
they imagined we would have in the future. Some of their ideas have
already come true. Captain James Kirk’s flip-open communicator works
like a mobile flip phone. On the starship Enterprise, the crew often talked
to the computer to get information, and the computer responded in a
woman’s voice. That sounds a lot like Siri and Alexa, doesn’t it?
The Enterprise’s officers were armed with phasers that could be set to
stun their enemies. While we don’t have any weapons exactly like that
today, we do have Tasers that the police can use to stun criminals without
permanent injury.
The medical officers on Star Trek could shoot drugs through the skin
with “hypospray.” We have that. Also, Microsoft has introduced Skype
Translator. It isn’t much different from the show’s universal translator,
which made it easy to understand what the aliens were saying under their
rubber masks.
But there is one piece of technology that seems way out of our reach. At
the end of their adventures on a planet, or when they needed to get out of a
jam, the officers would ask chief engineer Scotty to beam them up. Then
their body would be broken into tiny particles by the “transporter” and
beamed up to the ship.
I don’t know if we’ll ever see anything like a transporter until the end of
time. Then, when Jesus comes again, He will “beam us up” to be with Him
in heaven. That’s a future where we can explore strange new worlds and
meet the beings who live on them. Think of it as science fiction, but
without the fiction.

—Kim

“Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with
them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be
with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:17).
 September 9

Lofty mountains are full of springs;

great hearts are full of tears.
—Philibert Joseph Roux

R
ecently I waited at the airport for my friend Ann. She was returning
from a trip to Germany. As I watched for her, I got caught up in the
emotional greetings of other international passengers and their loved ones.
A young Indian woman jumped up from the seat beside me as her
parents came into view. Her mother wore a colorful sari and her father a
sarong. He bowed to his daughter warmly, and she hugged her parents and
gave them flowers.
A college student wearing short shorts, tights, and hiking boots tromped
through next. Her father, dressed in a business suit, threw his arms around
his free-spirited daughter. They hugged twice, and he picked up her tie-
dyed backpack as they walked away smiling.
Then a Hispanic woman with bright red hair appeared. Her daughter
bent over her feet and touched the top of her shoes two times in what
appeared to be a gesture of honor and love. Then their squeals of joy
erupted.
By the time my friend Ann came through the arrival gate, tears were
rolling down my cheeks. She wondered why I looked so sad to see her!
“Oh,” I tried to explain, “these are tears of . . . well, how can I describe
it?”
I couldn’t. But I decided, When I get to heaven I’m going to stand in a
spot where I can watch as many reunions as I can! I imagine that I’ll be
sobbing at the sight.
Yet the Bible promises that in the new earth God is going to wipe all
tears from our eyes.
One theory of why we cry here on earth is that we’re experiencing
emotional overload, and our tears are a way of releasing some of that
emotion.
So when God puts an end to crying, I’m certain it won’t be because
we’re no longer experiencing warmth and love and connection and all
those positive, powerful emotions. It will be because we finally have a
boundless capacity to contain and savor them!

—Kim

“God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more
death, nor sorrow, nor crying” (Revelation 21:4).
 September 10

Self-sacrifice is the real miracle out

of which all the reported miracles grow.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson

M
anfred Kick was cruising down a German highway when he saw
the Volkswagen Passat in front of him swerve into the guardrails,
bounce off, and swerve back again. What was going on? Manfred put the
power to his Tesla luxury car and pulled alongside the Passat.
“The driver had tipped forward and hung motionless in the belt,”
Manfred said later. “The head and hands hung limply down.”
He called the fire department from his mobile phone. Then he decided
to do something else to help prevent a deadly crash. With a deft touch of
power to his electric car, he swooped around the runaway vehicle, then
began to slow down, tapping his brakes until the VW came into contact
with his bumper. He kept pressing on the brakes until both machines came
to a complete stop.
The driver of the other car was unconscious from a stroke. It is quite
possible that Manfred saved his life.
But, oh, his poor car. His shiny Tesla and the VW together had more
than ten thousand dollars in damage.
“I had to stop his car somehow; otherwise it would have continued
forever,” said Manfred without mentioning the banged-up back of his
automobile.
His willingness to sacrifice his beautiful car made him a hero in the eyes
of many people, including the chief executive of Tesla, Elon Musk. He
tweeted: “Congrats to the Tesla owner who sacrificed damage to his own
car to bring a car with an unconscious driver safely to a stop.”
People notice self-sacrifice. In a world where we do almost everything
out of selfishness, it’s amazing to see someone give of themselves for the
sake of another person. It’s proof of real love and real loyalty. And that’s
how we know that the love of Jesus is real—because He sacrificed His life
for us.
The good news for Manfred is that he didn’t suffer too much. The Tesla
company promised to fix his car for free.

—Kim

“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his
friends” (John 15:13).
 September 11

Let’s roll.
—Todd Beamer

T
he message over the cabin speakers was chilling. “Ladies and
gentlemen, here is the captain. Please sit down, keep remaining
sitting. We have a bomb on board. So sit.”
Todd Beamer was one of the passengers who had been herded to the
back of the Boeing 757. The hijackers screamed for everyone to sit down.
But there was too much excitement and adrenaline.
Todd stood up to see the bodies of the two pilots heaped on the floor at
the front of the plane. The other passengers took out their cell phones and
called home. That’s when they learned that two aircraft had just been
flown into the World Trade Center towers. It became clear that they had
been caught up in a suicide mission.
Todd took one of the Airfones that planes were equipped with in those
days. He talked to the operator, Lisa Jefferson, while also talking with the
other passengers. They hatched a plan to take control of the airliner. One
flight attendant filled coffee pots with boiling water as weapons. They
would jump the hijackers and break into the cockpit.
But before he rose from his seat, Todd asked Lisa to say the twenty-
third psalm with him. “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the
shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me.” Lisa could hear
the other passengers reciting the words with Todd.
“If I don’t make it, please call my family and let them know how much I
love them,” said Todd. Then Lisa heard muffled voices and Beamer
clearly saying, “Are you ready? OK. Let’s roll.”
Later, as Todd’s family listened to the cockpit voice recorder, they
heard pounding and crashing sounds against the cockpit door. As the
passengers stormed the cockpit, one of the hijackers gave the order to
crash the aircraft.
Because of the action of Todd and the others, the suicide mission ended
far short of its target. Today, we all remember his words “Let’s roll” as
some of the most courageous ever spoken.

—Kim

“Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no
evil; for You are with me” (Psalm 23:4).
 September 12

Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as

when they do it from religious conviction.
—Blaise Pascal

I don’t know if the Inca language had a phrase like “You’ve got to be
kidding me,” but that’s what King Atahualpa must have been thinking.
He was in the area we call Peru, and he was listening to the pompous
words of the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro.
“We come to conquer this land,” exclaimed the conquistador, “that all
may come to a knowledge of God and of His Holy Catholic Faith, and by
reason of our good mission, God, the Creator of heaven and earth and of
all things in them, permits this, in order that you may know Him and come
out from the bestial and diabolical life that you lead.”
We’re the diabolical ones? the native king must have wondered.
Francisco had just invited him to a meeting in the city of Cajamarca and
had promised that “no harm or insult” would come to him. But after he
arrived, Spanish soldiers on horseback came out from their hiding places
to ambush his attendants and began stabbing them with swords and spears
until more than seven thousand lay slaughtered.
All this talk about God confused him. But he could tell that the
Spaniards got excited by gold and silver. So the king offered to fill a large
room with gold, and twice more with silver, in exchange for his life.
“Sure,” said Francisco.
Atahualpa’s people began delivering the gold, but the king never got his
freedom or his life. Francisco thought it would be best to be rid of the
king, so he staged a fake trial in which the Inca was sentenced to death.
Francisco said he came to South America to bring the people a
knowledge of God. At the end, do you think the Inca king could see Jesus
in the heart of his captors? Or did he see something darker hiding in the
shadows between the swords and the stolen treasure?

—Kim

“These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with
their lips, but their heart is far from Me” (Matthew 15:8).
 September 13

What is done in love is well done.

—Vincent van Gogh

H
ere’s the strange thing about my memories of being a kid: I
remember being punished, but I don’t remember being bad. I think I
was a really nice boy who was framed by my little brother. He would tell
on me for engaging him in a friendly game of chase around the house or
for gently throwing small objects in his direction that may or may not have
hit him on the head.
Then I would get in trouble. Yes, it seems unfair, but that’s the way life
is sometimes.
The punishment is easy to recall because, in those days, parents spanked
our bottoms. I have a clear memory of my dad sitting me down and giving
me a talk in my bedroom. I can’t remember the part of the talk in which he
told me what I had done wrong, but he said something that made a deeper
impression than the spanking. He said, “This hurts me more than it hurts
you.”
It sounded a little crazy because I was the one to get the stuffing
whacked out of me. But when I looked in his eyes, I could see that he was
telling the truth. He didn’t want to hurt me. He spanked me because he
believed it was the best way to make me a better person.
After the crying was over, I left the bedroom still thinking about what
my dad had said. I know I was still thinking about it when I came across
my little brother. I grabbed him, laid him over my knee, and began giving
him a spanking. “This hurts me more than it hurts you,” I declared.
 My brother didn’t believe it. He knew that I wasn’t correcting him in
love.
Later in life, as I learned to appreciate what a great guy I had for a
brother, I began to feel bad about giving him a spanking. Today I can
honestly say that the memory really does hurt me more than it hurt him.

—Kim

“The LORD disciplines those he loves, and he punishes each one he

accepts as his child” (Hebrews 12:6, NLT).
 September 14

God is great not just because nothing is too big for Him.
God is great because nothing is too small for Him either.
—Mark Batterson

H
ere’s a Bible story I bet you’ve never heard. It’s in the Old
Testament, and it happened the year before the children of Israel
had a king. In fact, this was when they were asking for a king because the
nations all around them had kings and they were feeling left out.
“Are you sure you want a king?” asked the prophet Samuel. “You know
about taxes, right?”
But the Israelites insisted. For Samuel, it was like trying to talk someone
out of getting a tattoo who would certainly regret it.
This is where Saul shows up in the Bible, and I find it interesting to read
what he was doing when he made his appearance. He was searching for his
father’s lost donkeys. In those days, donkeys were about as valuable as
cars. But they differed from cars in that they could wander off on their
own.
Saul and his servants roamed over hills and valleys for days until it
came to the point that he thought they should head back before his father
began worrying about them more than the donkeys.
Then his servant said to him, “Look now, there is in this city a man of
God, and he is an honorable man; all that he says surely comes to pass. So
let us go there; perhaps he can show us the way that we should go.”
“Well said,” Saul replied, and they went off to get Samuel’s help. Later
in the story, the prophet told Saul that his donkeys had been found by
someone else—but he had been waiting for Saul to show up in order to
anoint him king.
What I find amazing about this story is that when Saul and his servant
turned to God to find some donkeys, God helped them out. He cared about
their problem even though He has a whole universe to run. The next time
you wonder whether your problem is too trivial to pray about, remember
the lost donkeys.

—Kim

“Look now, there is in this city a man of God, and he is an honorable

man; all that he says surely comes to pass. So let us go there; perhaps he
can show us the way that we should go” (1 Samuel 9:6).
 September 15

We are born to dream and make the things we dream about.

—Nicola Yoon

W
illiam Kamkwamba wanted to go to school so badly that he would
sneak into classes. This was necessary because high school in his
country of Malawi cost money, and his family had none to spare. They had
just survived a famine, and all of them were much skinnier than they were
the year before.
William wanted to study because he didn’t want to be a farmer. He
wanted to do more than hoe rows of corn for the rest of his life.
When his attempts to slip into classes failed, he went to the library.
There he found a book that gave him the idea of building a windmill that
could generate electricity. His family home had no power. Kerosene
lanterns provided a smoky light in the evenings. If he succeeded, he could
provide clean light that cost nothing.
William scrounged for parts at the dump. He got pieces of plastic
plumbing pipe. He cut the pipes lengthwise, then softened the long pieces
of plastic over a fire until he could flatten them into blades for his
windmill. He used an old radiator fan for a hub and attached it to the crank
of his father’s bicycle. A small generator pressing against the spinning
bicycle tire made electricity.
He and his friends built a rickety tower out of blue gum trees. The
neighbors, and even his own mother, thought he was crazy. But when the
wind started turning the blades and the light bulb that William held up in
his hand burned bright, the neighbors were amazed. They gathered
underneath his tower in wonder. They asked if he could charge their
phones.
News of William’s accomplishment spread beyond his tiny village.
Soon people offered to pay for his high school education. He eventually
received a scholarship to Dartmouth College in the United States.
He ends his book The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by saying, “Think
of your dreams and ideas as tiny miracle machines inside you that no one
can touch. The more faith you put into them, the bigger they get, until one
day they’ll rise up and take you with them.”

—Kim

“But you, be strong and do not let your hands be weak, for your work
shall be rewarded!” (2 Chronicles 15:7).
 September 16

Most of the trouble in the world is caused

by people wanting to be important.
—T. S. Eliot

I
t was one of those weird conversations in elementary school. The kids
were talking about how much money their parents had, and Marly
wanted to join in.
“Well, my parents are rich enough to send me to Eton,” she said,
naming an exclusive school in England. “But my mum sent me here
because she wanted me to mix with normal people.”
Someone in the group starting laughing. “Nice story, Marly,” said
Weston. “I know where your dad works. You’re not rich. And maybe your
mum didn’t want to send you to Eton because it’s a boys’ school.”
How embarrassing for Marly! She got caught making up a story. She
was name-dropping an expensive school because she wanted to feel
important.
That’s why we get caught up in conversations that sound like this:
“I stayed up until one o’clock last night.”
“That’s nothing. I stayed up till three playing video games.”
“I got a hundred dollars for my birthday.”
“Check this out. I’ve got the latest iPhone.”
“Look at my new basketball shoes. They cost a hundred fifty dollars!”
“My family’s going to France on vacation.”
Bragging is kind of a cheesy way to feel important. But there is a better
way. Start by remembering that you’re so important that God would have
started up the whole plan of salvation for just you. Ellen White, referring
to the parable of the lost sheep, points out that “the shepherd goes out to
search for one sheep—the very least that can be numbered. So if there had
been but one lost soul, Christ would have died for that one.”
When you realize how incredibly important you are to God, maybe you
won’t need to convince anyone else.

—Kim

“Since you were precious in My sight, you have been honored, and I
have loved you” (Isaiah 43:4).
 September 17

There are times when we can do all that a

fellow creature needs if only he will trust us.
—C. S. Lewis

L
ee’s short hike ended when he saw the animal at the side of the road.
The skunk had a foot caught in a steel trap, and there was a circle in
the dirt where he had pulled the chain around and around trying to escape.
Lee felt sorry for the creature. He wanted to help. But he didn’t want to
smell like a skunk. Was there a way to help the skunk without paying the
price?
Lee began to talk calmly to the black and white animal while inching
toward it. He would have to get real close in order to release the trap
spring with his foot. Each time Lee moved toward the skunk, it gave the
unmistakable signal that it was ready to attack.
Lee tried to think of a plan. But no clever ideas came to him. If he was
going to help the animal, he would have to come to terms with being
stinky. Looking around, he found a leafy branch.
Lee tried to imagine the skunk’s thinking as he approached with what
looked like a weapon. And sure enough, the skunk misread his motives
and began firing away. Using the branch, Lee pushed down the back of the
skunk and kept the line of fire around his ankles.
Lee advanced through the stench until he saw that he had opened the
trap. The skunk was free. But it was too busy shooting at Lee to recognize
its freedom. Using another stick, Lee lifted up the injured paw. Then the
skunk took off up the hill. Lee didn’t receive even a nod of thanks.
 The rescuer went home smelling a lot like the creature he had rescued.
As he walked, he thought of the One who came to our rescue and who set
no limits on the price He would pay for our release. Jesus has laid down
His own life in order to spring the trap for us. If we will step out of the
trap, freedom awaits us.

—Kim

“But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our
iniquities” (Isaiah 53:5).
 September 18

Even if you are rejected in the world’s

eyes, you are valuable to me.
—Stormie Omartian

A woman dropped off two cardboard boxes full of old electronics at the
recycler. “I’m cleaning up my garage,” she told Victor Gichun, who
helps run Clean Bay Area, a Silicon Valley company that specializes in
recycling computers and other equipment.
“Do you want a receipt?” asked Victor.
“No, I don’t need anything,” she said. She was in a hurry. All she
wanted was to get rid of some junk in an environmentally responsible way.
Only it wasn’t junk. When the staff at the company had time to look
through the boxes, they found an original Apple I computer. It was one of
two hundred circuit boards that were hand built by Steve Jobs and Steve
Wozniak back in 1976 when they launched Apple. The recyclers quickly
found a collector who paid $200,000 for this piece of personal computer
history!
Now Victor is looking for the woman. They have a policy to split
proceeds with donors. They don’t know her name. But they will recognize
her if she shows up and will hand her a check for $100,000.
Right now, you may not feel like you’re a totally awesome person. As
far as you can tell, you don’t have any popular talents or valuable skills.
Who cares that I have a knack for nurturing pets? you may think. Or you
may wonder, Does it make any difference that I can do math in my head?
But don’t leave your special gifts in a cardboard box by the curb. God
has a plan for revealing their value. And He also has a policy for splitting
the proceeds. If you let Him develop those gifts, they will bring joy to you
and blessings to the rest of us.

—Kim

“There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them”
(1 Corinthians 12:4, NIV).
 September 19

When you try to control everything, you enjoy nothing.

—Unknown

A
dmit it. You want to be in control. If only you, instead of your
parents, could control how often you have doughnuts for breakfast.
But we don’t get to control much of anything. Not even our hair. We
might start out on Sabbath morning with every hair in place, but during
that walk from the parking lot to the church entrance, the wind has a way
of flipping over our hairdo like a bad toupee.
Fortunately, God in His infinite compassion has given us two ways to
feel in control. The first is the steering wheel. I’m not going to say
anything more about my love for things with steering wheels except to say
that if my wife’s sewing machine came equipped with one, you couldn’t
stop me from making new drapes for the living room.
The second is the TV remote. When I seize the remote, I become the
supreme ruler of TV land. I can choose any programming I want. Notice
how I can instantly flip from this advertisement for pickup trucks to this
other channel where, ah, they are advertising a sale on pickups, to this
other channel, where they are also featuring an ad for some really tough
pickup trucks.
I don’t think heaven intends for us to always be trying to take control.
Rather, it should be a kind of dance, where sometimes we lead in handling
a situation, and sometimes we bow out as another takes the lead.
When we are at our best, we are like loyal princes and princesses, happy
to give orders and happy to take orders, as long as it happens under the
rule of our heavenly Father.

—Kim

“Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may

lift you up in due time” (1 Peter 5:6, NIV).
 September 20

To be angry is to revenge the faults of others on ourselves.

—Alexander Pope

T
he woman approached the king in a high temper. She demanded
justice. This was part of a king’s job, as it had been since the days of
Solomon. He must listen to cases and make judgements. So King Ibn Saud
of Saudia Arabia listened to the story.
A man had been climbing palm trees to gather dates when he had
slipped and fallen on her husband. While the first man survived the impact,
her husband did not.
“Did he fall on purpose?” asked Ibn Saud. “Were the men enemies?”
“I don’t know the man,” she said. “All I know is that I am owed the
man’s life.”
“Do you want the blood price in money?” asked the king.
“No,” she replied. “I want the head of the man who made me a widow.”
“Surely money would be of more use to you and your children than the
death of this man,” said the king. But the woman’s anger was beyond all
reason. She wanted “blood for blood.”
Then King Ibn Saud passed judgment. “It is your right to exact
compensation,” he admitted. “And it is also your right to ask for this man’s
life. But it is my right to decree how he shall die. You shall take this man
with you immediately, and he shall be tied to the foot of a palm tree, and
then you shall climb to the top of the tree and cast yourself down upon him
from that height. In that way you will take his life in the same way he took
the life of your husband.”
 The king paused. “Or perhaps,” he continued, “you would prefer to take
the blood money?”
The story says that the widow decided to take the money.
We all get hurt by others. Sometimes intentionally and sometimes not.
But holding on to anger really is like trying to hurt someone by falling on
them. Chances are, you’ll feel worse. Practice forgiveness, and the only
thing that has to take a fall is your blood pressure.

—Kim

“Do not say, ‘I’ll pay you back for this wrong!’ Wait for the LORD, and
he will avenge you” (Proverbs 20:22, NIV).
 September 21

Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our

attention from serious things. They are but improved means to
an unimproved end.
—Henry David Thoreau

C
urtis risked a quick glance at the phone he held down below his
desk. He might have gotten away with it, but his eyes lingered on
the screen just a second too long.
“Are you on your phone?” Mrs. Forte’s sharp voice brought the whole
class to attention. She walked over to Curtis with her hand out.
The boy looked like he was making a long, anguished groan, but no
sound came out. He handed it over with a disgruntled toss.
After class he approached the teacher’s desk. “Mrs. Forte, can I have my
phone?” he asked.
“I’m sorry, no,” she replied.
“Oh, but I just got it back,” groaned Curtis, admitting that he had been
grounded from his phone by his parents for the past few weeks.
“That makes me sad,” she countered calmly.
“What do you mean?” he demanded suspiciously.
“I’m sad,” she reiterated. “I know you just got your phone back, and I’m
really sorry that you’re losing it again.”
“Then can I have it?” he asked hopefully, trying puppy-dog eyes for
good measure.
Mrs. Forte was unmoved. “You can get it from the principal’s office
when you pay the fine,” she said dryly.
 “Where am I going to get fifteen dollars?” whined Curtis.
This drama repeats in thousands of classrooms every day. Teachers just
don’t like to lose the attention of their students to Instagram or Snapchat.
Some college teachers drop students a whole letter grade if they use their
cell phones in class.
Even parents and friends don’t like it very much if you ignore them so
you can be absorbed in the glowing rectangle of your phone.
Isn’t it strange that we can disregard people right in front of us to pay
attention to people who are miles away? Sometimes we’re distracted by
jokes and videos from people we don’t even know.
When it comes to your mobile device, don’t let being connected cause
damage to your deeper connections with family and friends.

—Kim

“A certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. And
she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His
word. But Martha was distracted with much serving” (Luke 10:38–40).
 September 22

You cannot change your heart, you cannot of yourself give

to God its affections; but you can choose to serve Him.
You can give Him your will; He will then work in you
to will and to do according to His good pleasure.
—Ellen G. White

I come from a family with big noses. After the pyramids of Giza, they are
the eighth wonder of the world. I didn’t really feel bad about my big
honker, except when I played hide-and-seek. I had to be careful that it
didn’t stick out from behind the tree or wherever else I was trying to hide.
Folks may be amazed when they see my nose, but Mungo Park’s nose
created even more wonder. Mungo was an insanely determined Scottish
explorer who kept pressing deeper and deeper into the heart of Africa at
the beginning of the 1800s. He didn’t stop even after all the other
Europeans in his party had died from fever.
When he came paddling down the Niger River, he surprised the
Africans, who had never laid eyes on a white man. When they saw the
length and sharpness of his European nose, they were stunned. They
couldn’t believe it was natural. Mungo wrote: “They insisted that my nose
had been pinched every day, until it had acquired its present unsightly and
unnatural conformation.”
I don’t know if you really could change the shape of your nose that way
—by pushing or pulling on it. Maybe if I slept facedown on a hardwood
floor, my nose might lose some of its Alpine height. But I doubt it. The
only way to change your nose is to be born with a different one, or to get
surgery.
It’s the same for the heart. Sometimes it seems like you can be a better
person if you push down on your sinful tendencies, hoping to make them
go away. It seems like it might work if you try hard enough, but it rarely
does. God recommends surgery. He says, “I will give you a new heart and
put a new spirit within you.” Some things can’t be changed by pushing or
pulling. I think that’s as plain as the nose on my face.

—Kim

“I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of
flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes”
(Ezekiel 36:26, 27).
 September 23

There are three classes of people: those who see, those

who see when they are shown, those who do not see.
—Leonardo da Vinci

Y
ou would have liked Leo. He was a lot like the smartest, funniest
person in your school, only smarter and funnier. He dressed up a pet
lizard to surprise and scare his friends. He had a pet porcupine and would
laugh and laugh if a friend got stuck with its quills.
There was nothing that Leo could not do. He could paint. He could
make sculptures. He was good at math. He knew everything there was to
know about animals. By watching birds, he came up with ideas of how
humans could fly. What made this really impressive was that he lived four
hundred years before the Wright brothers. He said, “I have always felt it is
my destiny to build a machine that would allow man to fly.”
He designed bicycles three hundred years before they became popular.
He outlined the workings of the steam engine one hundred fifty years
before someone got around to building one. He was a vegetarian before the
word even existed.
You’ve probably heard of Leonardo da Vinci. The most famous
paintings in the world are by him. If you want to see the Mona Lisa or The
Last Supper, you will have to wait in line most of the day.
But here’s the interesting thing about Leo: Even though he could see the
world around him more clearly than anyone else, he still got things wrong.
He thought the sun was only four thousand miles away. (The distance to
the sun is really ninety-three million miles.) He thought elephants ate
stones and were too big to swim. He believed that crocodiles grew to a
monstrous forty feet long.
The flying machines he designed were far too heavy to get off the
ground on human power. So he was completely wrong about his destiny of
being the one to introduce manned flight.
If one of the smartest people who ever lived could make some goofs,
maybe we should always be willing to admit that we could be wrong about
our ideas. A humble spirit can be as beautiful as any of Leo’s paintings.

—Kim

“The humble He guides in justice, and the humble He teaches His way”
(Psalm 25:9).
 September 24

We can know all the right words, yet never be changed.

This is the difference between information and transformation.
—A. W. Tozer

O
ne Sabbath when I was twelve, I stood in the church’s baptismal
tank with my father. He’s a minister, and he was about to baptize
me.
Several of my friends were also being baptized that day. As I looked
around at the people watching—mostly members of the Mountain View,
California, Seventh-day Adventist Church—I felt special, important.
Then my father dunked me, and I came up and smiled for my mother as
she snapped a picture.
Years later I stood in the Jordan River in Israel with my father. He was
about to baptize me again.
This time I looked around at the large cypress trees hanging over the
peaceful green river. I listened to other Christians singing hymns and
having baptisms at this popular site called Yardenit. I felt small fish
nibbling at my toes, sometimes making me jump.
This is the very body of water Jesus was baptized in, I thought in awe.
He really walked on this earth—the Son of God.
And then my father asked if I was ready, and I nodded. He dunked me
under the refreshing water, and I came up and smiled and cried. I didn’t
even notice that my mother again snapped a picture.
Because this time I wasn’t thinking about myself and what I was doing.
I was thinking about Jesus and what He did.
 As I lingered in the water, I noticed a group of three people with their
pastor. They stood in a circle holding hands; then all together they dipped
under the water. They also came up crying and laughing. Jesus was
obviously real to them too.
Some people took small bottles and filled them with water from the
Jordan River, as if the liquid were sacred. But I only wanted to linger in a
place where Jesus might have stood—and see that He still changes lives.

—Lori

“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ
lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the
Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).
 September 25

There are no traffic jams along the extra mile.

—Roger Staubach

M
y brother is so dumb! We were talking about going to Miami in
Florida, and he said, “How long until we get to your Ami?” He
thought I was talking about my Ami as if I owned the place! Can you
imagine?
He was only five years old at the time, so I guess I should cut him some
slack. Maybe we all misunderstand words at that age.
A woman was sharing on a discussion board about a time when she was
little and made a similar goof. She and her mom were ordering dessert at a
restaurant. Her mom described the choices on the menu, and the girl
definitely wanted the chocolate mousse. That sounded great to her.
When the waiter brought a bowl of fluffy chocolate pudding, her face
fell. She had expected an actual small chocolate moose. Like a chocolate
bunny with antlers.
Her mom saw her disappointment but didn’t complain, because kids
make mistakes and it isn’t anyone else’s fault.
But the waiter noticed her sad face and asked, “What’s wrong?” She
told him about her shattered expectations. “Oh, that’s what you ordered,”
he said and took the mousse away.
Soon he came back. He had transferred the mousse into a piece of
aluminum foil shaped into the majestic head of a moose. She was happy.
Many years later she remembers that waiter who went the extra mile.
Maybe he got a big tip for his kindness, or maybe he didn’t. But he made
the world a brighter place for one little girl, and perhaps that brightness has
reached further than we know.

—Kim

“If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles” (Matthew
5:41, NIV).
 September 26

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool

than to speak out and remove all doubt.
—Unknown

T
he subject for the day in the high school science class was the states
of matter. “Can someone give me an example of a liquid?” asked the
teacher.
Silence reigned for just long enough that Spano spoke up. “Silk.” The
class laughed.
“So, you’re saying silk is a liquid?” asked the teacher.
“Yeah,” said Spano.
The teacher tried to help him out. “So, if you were wearing a shirt of
silk, it would just flow off?”
Spano nodded. “Yeah.”
At this, the teacher went to the storage cupboard and brought out some
silk for a demonstration.
“No,” said Spano, “not that silk. The one that comes from bees.”
“You mean honey,” said the teacher.
“Um . . . yeah, I think it’s honey,” agreed the poor student, whose
nickname from then on was Silky Spano.
One of the great tricks in life is to know when to keep your mouth shut
and when to speak up. Early in our marriage, my wife came home with a
curly hairstyle that fell down the sides of her face in such a way that it
reminded me of the ears of a cocker spaniel. A smart husband would have
kept that observation to himself. Unfortunately, my mouth started moving
before my brain could catch up, and there was some brief awkwardness in
what has otherwise been a blissful marriage. Solomon was right when he
said, “The lips of fools bring them strife” (Proverbs 18:6, NIV).
If you like to talk, make it a goal to spend at least a fraction of a second
considering whether to express your thoughts or keep quiet. With a little
care, you can make all your words as sweet as silk . . . I mean honey.

—Kim

“The one who guards his mouth preserves his life; the one who opens
wide his lips comes to ruin” (Proverbs 13:3, NASB).
 September 27

When I said “I do,” I didn’t mean laundry.

—Unknown woman

L
et me invite the unmarried males who are among my readers to turn
in their Bibles to Genesis 2:18. The LORD God said, It is not good for
man to be alone. I will make a helper for him. Otherwise, the plates will
never get put in the dishwasher.
I’m one of those guys whose approach to cleaning up the crockery can
be summed up in the phrase, “Let’s let it soak a little longer.” On special
occasions—such as a total solar eclipse—I do help with the dishes, but
mostly I’m glad to let my wife take care of it.
One of the reasons that I endorse marriage as one of God’s great ideas—
right up there with the opposable thumb and corn on the cob—is that
sometimes your spouse will pick up the chores that you detest. If I had
known ahead of time that Lori would iron shirts, I would have moved up
our wedding date by six months.
I can hear you saying, “You’ve got your wife doing the dishes and all
the ironing. What exactly do you do to help around the house?”
Well, that’s a fair question, although I don’t appreciate your tone of
voice.
I want you to know that I do take on my share of the chores. Every six
months or so, I change the oil in the car.
Lori’s editorial note: Big deal. You drive the car to Jiffy Lube and read
their magazines.
My point is that marriage is handy for getting more things done around
the house. Of course, you shouldn’t get married at thirteen years old just to
get help cleaning your room. Wait until the time is right.
What a relief it is to trust someone to take care of the things you can’t
seem to do very well. We really do need each other in the home, in the
church, and in the world. When you’re facing life’s little wrinkles, it helps
to have someone who will help with the ironing.

—Kim

“The LORD God said, ‘It is not good that man should be alone; I will
make him a helper comparable to him’ ” (Genesis 2:18).
 September 28

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

—Franklin D. Roosevelt

I
t was a great Sabbath afternoon. We had met some friends at their rental
cabin in the Appalachian Mountains. We ate food cooked over an open
fire and talked until the sun went down. Our friends pointed to where they
had seen a bear.
“Really? How interesting,” we said. And then we talked some more.
Darkness covered the mountain when we decided to head back to the car
and start our drive home. A narrow trail wound through the woods for
about a quarter mile to our parking lot. We had flashlights, so we weren’t
in danger of getting lost.
We chatted as we made progress through the trees. My wife spoke in a
louder tone of voice than I would have expected. Then she suggested we
sing. “Oh, when the saints, go marching in.” Lori was belting out the lyrics
with a lot of vigor. That’s strange, I thought. She doesn’t usually sing
when we hike. And she never sings this loud.
That’s when I figured it out. She was singing because she didn’t want to
die. She hoped that her singing would scare away the bears before they got
close enough to smell how delicious she might be to eat.
I won’t keep you in suspense too long. We made it back alive. Later I
found out that nobody in the state had ever died from a bear attack. It turns
out that the fear of bears is more trouble than the bears themselves.
That’s often the case in life—the fears cause more damage than the
things that make us afraid. That must be why one of the most frequent
messages in the Bible is “Fear not.” God loves you so much that He
doesn’t want you to be anxious or afraid. “Take a chill pill,” He says. “I’m
right here with you.”

—Kim

“Fear not, for I am with you;

Be not dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you,
Yes, I will help you,
I will uphold you with My righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:10).
 September 29

If you don’t want anyone to find out, don’t do it.

—Chinese proverb

C
hristian Schönbein was a respected professor of chemistry in
Switzerland, but like all of us, he had temptations. On this particular
day in 1845 he was tempted to do a chemistry experiment at home. His
good wife had expressly forbidden any mixing of chemicals in her kitchen,
but she was away for a while, and what she didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her.
He was absorbed in combining sulfuric acid and nitric acid when he
spilled some of the mixture on the kitchen table. He realized that this
careless moment could stain the table and reveal his disobedience. Quickly
he grabbed the first thing at hand, his wife’s cotton apron, and mopped up
the chemicals. Then he hung the apron over the stove to dry. The table
didn’t look too bad. Disaster had been averted. His wife would never find
out that he had broken the ban on kitchen chemistry.
And then the apron ignited in a flash of flame and disappeared. Oops.
Professor Schönbein knew he was busted.
But there was an upside to his misadventure. The nitro groups in the
acid had served as a source of oxygen to burn up the cellulose in the apron
suddenly and completely. The professor saw potential in the new
compound. Ordinary gunpowder, which had reigned supreme in the
battlefield for five hundred years, exploded into thick smoke, blackening
the gunners, clogging cannons and small arms, and obscuring the
battlefield. His new concoction could be a “smokeless powder” and a
propellant for artillery shells. It came to be called guncotton.
 I don’t know what happened when Mrs. Schönbein came home. Were
there two explosions on that day or only one? I’ll leave it to your
imagination.

—Kim

“You may be sure that your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:23,
NIV).
 September 30

It’s especially hard to admit that you made a

mistake to your parents, because, of course,
you know so much more than they do.
—Sean Covey

S
o I found this old letter written to the advice columnist Ann Landers
from a thirteen-year-old who used the signature “Teen Queen.”
Listen to the words that kids used in 1963:
“Dear Ann Landers: I have the squarest parents in the world. They don’t
understand that the creepy rules of 1930 are for the birds. Yesterday they
ruined my first teenage birthday. My boyfriend, Steve, gave me a cool card
with a $5 bill in it. We are real good friends and I have been dating him for
a whole month. I thought this was very nice of Steve, but my father almost
had a cow. My mother yakked for two solid hours about ‘how crazy the
kids are getting these days.’ Then they ordered me to give the $5 back.”
Teen Queen hoped that Ann Landers would say she could keep the
money. (By the way, a gift of $5 then was like a gift of $40 today. It was a
pretty big deal.) Well, she got no help from Ann, who said, “At thirteen
you shouldn’t be going with any boy, much less accepting cash from him.”
Today kids use different words than they did back in the days of
bicycles with banana seats and high-rise handlebars. Today they might call
parents “clueless” instead of “square.” But every generation is still
tempted to think that their parents are hopelessly out of touch or maybe
even determined for some sick reason to make their lives miserable.
Now that Teen Queen is likely a parent and even a grandparent herself,
she probably understands that most parents are just trying to protect you
and give you the best life possible. Because they love you more than
anyone, you can probably trust their advice more than anyone. Even more
than Ann Landers.

—Kim

“Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ‘Honor your
father and mother,’ which is the first commandment with promise: ‘that it
may be well with you and you may live long on the earth’ ” (Ephesians
6:1–3).
 October 1

Quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten.

—Aldo Gucci

M
y little brother and I were excited about going camping with our
dad. Mom must not have been quite as excited because she
volunteered to stay home and watch the pets—which was strange because
we didn’t have any pets.
The menfolk loaded the car with a pup tent, sleeping bags, and—for an
extra measure of luxury and comfort—two air mattresses. We were ready
for adventure. We drove into the Smoky Mountains until we found a
beautiful slice of nature by a burbling stream. This is perfect, we thought
as set up our tiny tent. Then we all got a little light-headed blowing up the
mattresses. We boys shared a red, plastic mattress that we had bought on
the cheap. Dad had a top-quality mattress.
We ate our sandwiches, sang a song or two, and then bedded down for
the night. The last sound I heard as we drifted off to sleep was the burbling
of the stream. When I woke up I didn’t hear the stream because my
attention was completely captured by rocks that were poking into my back.
Apparently, there was a slow leak in our mattress. And now, in the middle
of the night, it felt as bad as stepping on Legos in my bare feet—only with
my whole body.
But Dad’s mattress was still comfortably plump. So we boys pushed our
way onto his quality mattress as far as we could. Dad didn’t give up a lot
of territory, but we were able to get a shoulder or an arm off the rocks and
onto the comfy mattress without the leaks.
 That experience helped teach me the value of quality. It’s bad enough to
waste money on cheap stuff like a leaky air mattress, but it’s even worse to
offer poor quality work to others. The Bible says that we are to do a job as
if we’re presenting it to the Lord Himself. I guess that means we should do
our work in such a way that it never leaves anyone flat.

—Kim

“Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the
Lord rather than for people” (Colossians 3:23, NLT).
 October 2

In ten thousand objects in nature,

from the oak of the forest
to the violet that blossoms at its root,
is seen the love that restores.
—Ellen G. White

M
arine ecologist Robert Pitman couldn’t believe what he saw. As he
watched from a boat in the waters near Antarctica, he spotted a pod
of killer whales on the hunt. They had zeroed in on a seal trapped on a
floating piece of ice. As Robert watched, the killer whales successfully
knocked the seal off of the ice. But just as the predators circled in for the
kill, a magnificent humpback whale suddenly rose up out of the water
beneath the seal.
In order to better protect the seal, the humpback placed it safely on its
upturned belly to keep it out of the water. As the seal slipped down the
whale’s side, the humpback appeared to use its flippers to carefully help
the seal back aboard. According to the story published in MNN.com, when
the killers had been scared away, the seal was able to safely swim off to
another, more secure ice floe.
Robert was amazed to see the whale rescue an animal that didn’t even
belong to the same species. It was a type of kindness that he thought was
exclusive to humans. Not only do we have police officers, firefighters, and
EMTs to rescue people in trouble; we also have organizations that rescue
dogs and cats from bad situations. Good-hearted folks even work to
rehabilitate wild animals that have been injured.
 Robert began to do more research and found dozens of reports of
humpback whales interrupting attacks by orcas. They would break up the
hunt by slapping their tail on the surface, smacking their flippers, or
bellowing. In one case, two whales got on either side of a baby whale that
was under attack and partly raised it out of the water with their flippers.
So even “dumb animals” can be brave and kind. Maybe that will
encourage us to do better as humans. The next time you see a bully on the
playground or a jokester teasing someone on the verge of tears, maybe you
can come to their rescue. It would be a whale of a good thing to do.

—Kim

“Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the
wicked” (Psalm 82:4, ESV).
 October 3

To hear the whisper of God you must

turn down the volume of the world.
—Unknown

G
randpa and Grandma Perkins were headed out for Sunday breakfast
on that cold winter morning in Maine. Grandpa kept his hulking
Ford in the barn, so he went in to back it out while Grandma walked to the
side of the car. At least that was her plan. On her way, she tripped over a
small snowdrift and fell down. Grandpa, who is as deaf as a turnip, heard
nothing. He saw no one behind the car, so he began backing up.
Grandma felt the undercarriage of the car come over her, pressing her
down to the ground. A tire rolled toward her head.
Then Grandpa hit the brakes. Deaf though he was, he thought he heard a
word of danger or warning. He pulled back in the garage and walked
around the back of the car to discover his wife on the ground. “I’ve never
been so scared in my life,” said the old war veteran as he recalled the
event. “After sixty-nine years of marriage, I couldn’t bear the thought of
living without her.” His wife lay there with road gunk rubbed into her
clothes and tire marks on both of her shoes.
“Goodness! Are you all right?” asked Grandpa.
She was a little sore, but otherwise fine. She changed out of her
smudged clothes, and they headed off to the Hilltop Restaurant for
breakfast.
Their grown daughter, Vicky, knows better than anyone how hard it is
for her father to hear anything. “It’s a miracle,” she says, convinced that
the voice he heard was not a human voice.
If only we could hear God’s voice all the time. It seems like we could
avoid a lot of damage and pain. We might discover opportunities that we
might otherwise miss entirely. Today in your prayer time, take a minute to
listen quietly to what Jesus might want to say to you. His words might
change your life—and even save it.

—Kim

“Whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of

harm” (Proverbs 1:33, NIV).
 October 4

Anyone who says that money cannot buy happiness

has clearly never spent their money on pizza.
—Andrew Fetterly Wilkes-Krier

L
et’s talk about pizza—that wonderful, glorious food that is more
likely than anything else to burn the roof of your mouth. So, where is
your favorite pizza place?
When I went to college in Lincoln, Nebraska, the best pizza was at a
place called Valentino’s. It had a fluffy, sweet crust. Much later, when I
was in the Washington, DC, area, I was told that Ledo pizza was the best
in town. It had a thin, sweet crust.
Later, I liked the offbeat toppings at the California Pizza Kitchen. The
most exotic toppings I’ve ever seen were at a restaurant in Maine called
Otto. Can you imagine a blue cheese, roasted pear, and arugula pizza? It’s
pretty amazing.
For much of my earthly existence, I honestly considered Pizza Hut’s
“Thin ’N’ Crispy” to be the best possible pizza. But then my wife led me
to a place called Manco and Manco in Ocean City, New Jersey. It has a
crispy crust with a savory combination of cheese and tomato sauce that can
make you hear the angels sing. Last Sunday we drove four hours to Ocean
City so that we could enjoy some of their slices for supper. Then we drove
back. It’s that good.
I guess there are two lessons you can get from this. First, that many of
the best pizza places have an o at the end of their name. And the other is
that the most popular pizza will change depending on the place and time.
 I guess it’s the same for humans. Maybe you’re not the most popular
person at your school. But that only applies today. At another place and
time you’ll be more appreciated.
You see, when God made you, He created something amazing. Maybe
people around you will recognize that fact. Maybe they won’t. If they
won’t, maybe the punch line of this joke applies to them: What kind of
person doesn’t like pizza? A weirdough!

—Kim

“My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and
skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth” (Psalm 139:15).
 October 5

It is nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice.

—John Templeton

B
ooker T. Washington was walking down a road in rural Alabama in
the 1880s. Though he was still in his twenties, he was a pretty big
deal. He was the top man at the Tuskegee Institute—a respected school for
teachers—and on his way to becoming one of the most respected African
Americans in the country.
As he passed the home of a wealthy family, the woman of the house
opened the door and called to him. “You there, could you chop some wood
for me?”
Professor Washington smiled, nodded, took off his coat, and started
swinging an ax. When he carried the armload of wood into the woman’s
kitchen, a servant girl recognized him. Later, she asked the woman why
the great teacher was bringing wood into the house. The woman was
appalled at what she had done.
The next morning she arrived at Booker’s office and begged to see him.
Apologizing profusely, she said over and over, “I did not know it was you
I put to work.”
Washington replied with grace and generosity, “It’s entirely all right,
madam. I like to work, and I’m delighted to do favors for my friends and
neighbors.”
The woman was so charmed by his humility and his willingness to
forgive that she made generous donations to the institute and convinced
many of her wealthy acquaintances to do the same. It is said that Professor
Washington raised as much money for his school from one act of chopping
wood as he did from any other fundraising event.

—Kim

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility

value others above yourselves” (Philippians 2:3, NIV).
 October 6

Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo,

but what you want is someone who will take
the bus with you when the limo breaks down.
—Oprah Winfrey

O
h, no! Where’s my retainer?” I wailed. (If you’ve ever worn braces,
you’ve probably spoken those words.)
I had just jumped on the van with other students from Mountain View
Academy. We’d come to Southern California on a school trip and were
staying in the gym at Orangewood Academy. That day we planned to
enjoy Knott’s Berry Farm amusement park.
As I wailed those words, my English teacher and sponsor, Mr. Swanson,
turned off the van engine.
“I put it in a napkin while I ate breakfast,” I explained. “But I must have
thrown away the napkin.”
Mrs. Swanson, his wife, spoke up. “We’d better find it. We’ll help you
look.”
I cringed, knowing what that meant—pawing through garbage in the
dumpster behind the academy kitchen. But we had to do it. Retainers cost
a lot of money, and I was five hundred miles from home and my
orthodontist.
I stepped out of the van. So did some of my friends and Mr. and Mrs.
Swanson. We walked over to the dumpster, and Mr. Swanson opened
some bags of garbage on top. Then we all began to pick up any white
napkin we saw and feel it for a retainer.
 As we touched gooey banana peels and syrupy plates, I crinkled my
nose. I especially felt sorry for my friends and sponsors, who worked
beside me without complaining.
After we had picked through several bags, someone said, “Is this it?”
“Yes!” I exclaimed excitedly.
Mrs. Swanson, a nurse, helped me sterilize the retainer, and finally we
could take off for our fun day.
That whole trip stands out in my memory as a great experience. But
what stands out most is that group of people who showed me Christ as
they bent down and did a dirty job for me. I’m so thankful for Christian
friends—I never want to throw them away!

—Lori

“Two are better than one,

because they have a good return for their labor:
If either of them falls down,
one can help the other up.
But pity anyone who falls
and has no one to help them up” (Ecclesiastes 4:9, 10, NIV).
 October 7

As long as greed is stronger than

compassion, there will always be suffering.
—Rusty Eric

I was standing in line at airport security. I had just about reached the
scanner when I saw the man in front of me sigh and look at his wife.
Then he took a folding knife out of his pocket, showed it to his wife, and
tossed it in the garbage can. He knew the security people would have to
take it from him before allowing him through.
I understood the feeling. I had lost two pocketknives to the
Transportation Security Administration (TSA). They’d had only tiny
blades that were barely big enough to threaten a hamster, but rules are
rules.
After the TSA has taken your knife and you need another, the place to
go is the Smoky Mountain Knife Works in Tennessee. This massive store
has everything from pizza knives to Roman gladiator swords. Do you want
a fat Swiss Army knife with thirty-three different functions? They’ve got
it.
Knives and swords are mentioned often in the Bible. It may seem
strange that Solomon compares greed to having a mouthful of swords. I
guess it illustrates the idea that greed makes us willing to injure others to
get our fill. It means beating up a kid in school to take their money or steal
their expensive tennis shoes.
When a hurricane was heading toward Houston, Texas, one area store
was charging $99 for bottled water. After the hurricane hit, Adventist
Community Services distributed bottled water for free to hundreds of hard-
hit residents. That’s the difference between greed and compassion. That’s
the difference between teeth like swords and a helping hand.

—Kim

“There is a generation whose teeth are like swords,

And whose fangs are like knives,
To devour the poor from off the earth,
And the needy from among men” (Proverbs 30:14).
 October 8

Unless Christianity is wholly false, the perception

of ourselves which we have in moments of
shame must be the only true one.
—C. S. Lewis

I have one hundred billion brain cells. My question is: “What do they do
with their time?” They certainly aren’t remembering where I left my cell
phone.
Generally, our memory is as reliable as a two-year-old flower girl. And I
think I know why. The brain doesn’t care about remembering stuff. Its real
work is avoiding blame.
Say you accidentally mow over Mom’s petunias. Immediately all the
brain cells swing into action to find a way to blame your shoes, the lawn
mower, or the president of the country.
But when you want to remember something, the brain cells scatter like
they’re being asked to wash the dishes. The brain may call up one of its
cells asking if it would please remember the password for your Amazon
account. The cell explains that it would like to say yes, it really would, but
right now it’s avoiding blame for a kitchen fire.
So the brain says, “That’s fine. Have a good evening.” It then proceeds
to call the next cell. This cell would also like to help but claims it has been
on disability since a big slice of cheesecake.
Of course, the brain does a fantastic job of remembering when you do
something embarrassing. Drop your tray in the cafeteria, and it’s like the
brain carves that in granite.
 So blame and shame seem to make our brains work at their best. Shame
is probably the reason we never quite forget our sins. On the other hand,
the wicked have always been known as those who have no shame, so
they’re prone to forget. Why does God let them off so easy?
The doctrine of the judgment helps make sense of this. The judgment is
God’s memory device for those who have gone through life passing blame
instead of admitting shame.
And for those who have remembered and repented from their sins all
along, it is the time when God says, “Sins? What sins? They seemed to
have slipped my mind.”

—Kim

“Now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may

have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming”
(1 John 2:28, NASB).
 October 9

The one who complains about the way the ball

bounces is likely the one who dropped it.
—Lou Holtz

T
his is a story of a poison sofa. We didn’t know that it was dangerous
when we bought it. We just knew that it looked cool and it was
Italian. (All the best sofas are Italian, just like all the best food is Italian—
at least in my opinion.)
The furniture store had sold out of the sofa we wanted, but they did have
a used sofa that was the same color and style. It was not a lightly used
piece of furniture. The shape of a large dog had made a permanent
impression on the cushions. But we wanted an Italian sofa so badly that we
took it home anyway.
We put it in our living room, where it looked OK if you didn’t focus on
the big round dog dent. About that time I came down with a cold. At least I
thought it was a cold. My eyes and nose were running. Same for everyone
else in the house. Then we began to be suspicious of our sofa. We moved
it to the garage, and our colds went away.
You might be around people who are like that sofa—they are making
you feel bad and you don’t know why. This can be true if you spend time
with people who complain a lot. As these kids talk trash about their friends
or their teachers, you will unconsciously imitate their mood. You’ll start
feeling as angry and frustrated as they do. Scientists call this “neuronal
mirroring.”
Think of it this way: If a person were smoking, would you sit there all
afternoon inhaling the secondhand smoke? You’d distance yourself, right?
And you should do the same with complainers. To be among complainers
is like sitting on a poison sofa; no matter how comfy it is, it will leave you
feeling worse.

—Kim

“Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become
blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a
crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the
world” (Philippians 2:14, 15).
 October 10

Nothing tends more to promote health of body and

soul than does a spirit of gratitude and praise.
—Ellen G. White

T
hings were not going well for Truman Everts. He had joined an 1870
expedition to explore the strange and steamy area that would become
Yellowstone National Park.
On his first bad day, he lost track of his group while traveling through a
pine forest. He wasn’t too worried at first. But when the sun went down
and he and his horse were still alone in the wilderness, he got a little
nervous. He continued through the forest.
On his next bad day, he got off his horse to explore on foot, not
bothering to tie the reins to a tree. The horse disappeared, along with
Truman’s blankets, guns, and matches.
Cold weather was coming, and he had nothing to help him survive.
Nothing except a small opera glass. After several days, he thought to use
the lens to start a fire. One night, sleeping close to the fire, his hands
moved into the flames and were burned.
Sleet and snow threatened to freeze him to death, but he survived by
lying on the warm ground near thermal vents. Once he got too close to a
steam vent and badly burned his thigh. Truman struggled on, finding some
nourishment in the roots of a thistle plant.
Friends offered $600 to anyone who could find Truman. Two Montana
men set out to find him. They spotted him crawling on the ground like an
animal. His fingers looked like claws, and the bone showed through the
burn on his hip. He weighed only fifty-five pounds. He had been lost for
thirty-seven days. One of the men nursed Truman back from starvation,
while the other walked seventy-five miles for help.
Did the men get the reward money? Well, no, because Truman thought
he could have made it out of the wilderness without their assistance.
Seems a little ungrateful, doesn’t it?
Maybe today would be a good time to remember when God rescued you
from a dangerous situation or helped you through a hard experience. Then
give Him thanks for that time He “got you out of the woods.”

—Kim

“Let them praise the LORD for his great love and for the wonderful
things he has done for them” (Psalm 107:8, NLT).
 October 11

Lord, give me patience —but hurry up about it!

—Keith Knoche

I
’m a pretty patient person.
“Son, if you leave your bicycle in the driveway one more time, I will
run over it on purpose!”
Excuse me. What were we talking about?
Oh, yes. I really am very patient. Unless I have to interact with human
beings. Then I get twitchy. As long as I’m alone in a dark room watching
TV—without any interruptions—I’m fine. But now that we have a kid
around the house, it seems as though I am always yelling about something.
“Don’t jump on the car roof!” “Don’t spray-paint the sidewalk!” “Don’t
melt your toys with a blowtorch!”
On a recent visit to a restaurant, I returned to the table to find that the
waiter had snatched away the votive candle because it had appeared to
some patrons that my son was using it to start a fire. Of course, he was
deeply hurt by this accusation. “It was a controlled fire,” he said
defensively.
On another occasion, our neighbor called up and said, “I thought you
might want to know that your son is shooting fireworks out of his bedroom
window.” The neighbor acted very calm about the whole incident because
it wasn’t her kid shooting flaming projectiles onto the front lawn as if he
was softening up Iraq for an invasion.
So, as you can see, I’m trying to convince you that the only thing
separating me from a life of perfect patience is one boy. Right. And
vampire bats make lovely pets.
If you think you don’t have a problem with being patient, just wait. Rest
assured that God has created a person who can snap your patience like a
ramen noodle. When you meet them, it helps to remember how much we
need other people to be patient with us. Someday I will be the slow driver
in the wrong lane, or the person counting out twenty-five coupons in the
grocery line.
I hope that advice helps. Oh, oh. I’ve got to run. I think I smell
something burning in my son’s room.

—Kim

“Love is patient, love is kind” (1 Corinthians 13:4, NIV).

 October 12

You don’t choose your family. They are

God’s gift to you, as you are to them.
—Desmond Tutu

T
hirteen-year-old Zach was bored. His mom and sister had gone inside
a store to shop for shoes. Shopping for shoes was so boring that it
made his brain shrink. So he had chosen to stay in the car. But sadly,
waiting in the back seat of a car was not much better. What could he do?
Why not fold down the back seat? he thought. Once he did that, he could
see into the trunk. He thought he might as well crawl back in there. There
was plenty of room. All the trunk had in it was a scraper for taking snow
off the windshield.
Once he curled up in the trunk, he impulsively pulled the seat back up.
There was a click. Oh, no. The back seat was locked in place! Suddenly,
life was a little less boring. But not in a good way. How would anyone
know he was in the trunk?
He took the scraper and slid it up behind the back of the seat. He tried to
wave it back and forth to get someone’s attention.
Later, when Zach’s family came back to the car, his mom noticed the
scraper moving back and forth. “Is that you, Zach?” she said.
He started moving the scraper faster. Unfortunately, Mom couldn’t get
in the car. She had left her keys in there, and Zach had locked the doors for
safety. Mom didn’t know what to do. Should she call Dad at work?
Then she remembered that they had just put a magnetic key box under
the car. So she lay down on the parking lot to feel around for the key. Her
skirt and blazer would have to go to the dry cleaners, but she did it
anyway.
God gave us our family as a gift. Be grateful for every one of them—
even annoying brothers or sisters. You never know when you will need
one of them to help you out of a tight spot.

—Kim

“A friend is always loyal, and a brother is born to help in time of need”

(Proverbs 17:17, NLT).
 October 13

Inside of me there are two dogs. One is mean and evil, and the
other is good, and they fight each other all the time. When
asked which one wins, I answer, the one I feed the most.
—Sitting Bull

S
itting Bull grew up when herds of buffalo still roamed the American
Great Plains. He became a powerful chief who united all the Lakota
tribes in battle with frontier soldiers. He won some battles, such as one
with George Armstrong Custer, and lost others.
When he was born, he was named Jumping Badger. As a boy, he was
nicknamed “Slow” because he seemed to pause in thought before acting.
At fourteen years old, he showed great courage in a battle with warriors
from the Crow tribe. His father gave him a new name—Sitting Bull. It was
an image of a strong buffalo bull that never backs down.
I think the American Indian names are so much more interesting than
our names. There was Chief Crazy Horse and Chief Red Cloud.
Have you ever thought what your Indian name would be? It might be
Princess Many Freckles, or Trips on Shoelaces. If you have a knack for
texting, people might call you Quick Finger. If you’re good at basketball,
you might be named Swish the Net, and friends might call you “Swishy”
for short.
In the Bible, God gave people names that were a lot like the names of
the American Indians. In the Hebrew language Abigail means “a father’s
joy.” Ira means “watchman” and Isaac means “laughter.”
Like Sitting Bull’s father, God sometimes gave special names to His
people. He changed the name of Abram to Abraham, which meant “father
of many nations.” It could have been a little embarrassing for Abraham
because he didn’t have any kids at the time. Later, everyone saw that it
was a good fit.
The Bible says that the day is coming when God will give you a new
name. Don’t you wonder what it will be? One thing I know for sure is that
it won’t be Princess Many Freckles.

—Kim

“To him who overcomes . . . I will give him a white stone, and on the
stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it”
(Revelation 2:17).
 October 14

Pride makes us artificial and humility makes us real.

—Thomas Merton

O
f course you know about Columbus sailing the ocean blue. You also
know how he stumbled across America and became famous. But I
bet you don’t know about one of his most important discoveries in the
New World.
Columbus brought back to Europeans the first pineapples they had ever
seen (or tasted). This was two hundred years before the invention of pizza,
so they didn’t have a lot of good things to eat. When they tasted this super
sweet, tangy fruit, they were amazed.
Soon everyone who was anyone wanted to eat pineapple, but it was hard
to get. Growing pineapples in the cool weather of Northern Europe was a
real chore. They built expensive greenhouses and figured out how to keep
them warm with the heat from tons of rotting horse manure and tanbark.
Each mature pineapple was so precious that it sold for $8,000 in today’s
money. Only kings and queens and the very rich could afford them. And
that’s when a pineapple changed from something you ate to a status
symbol.
It became the fashion to have a pineapple on display at your dinner
party—usually as part of an elaborate centerpiece at the dining table. They
were just for show. In fact, the same pineapple would be rented out to one
dinner party after another until it started to go rotten. People were so busy
showing off that they could afford pineapples that they never had the
pleasure of eating them.
 Today, anyone can enjoy the fresh, juicy taste of a pineapple. But it is a
reminder that pride can sometimes take the blessings that God gives us and
turn them into attempts to impress other people. And that’s when the
blessings turn rotten.

—Kim

“Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty,
nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly
all things to enjoy” (1 Timothy 6:17).
 October 15

When the going gets tough, the tough get going.

—Proverb

T
he three brothers were cowboys. They were young, but their father
gave them a big responsibility. They had to keep an eye on the
family’s herd of cattle and make sure they didn’t wander off into the wide,
open spaces of Western Nebraska.
The boys, Herman, Elmer, and young Oscar, lived in a wagon and kept
the cattle corralled in a canyon several miles from the house. They were
driving the cattle out to the plain to graze on an October day in 1880 when
they were caught in a blizzard. Soon the snow and wind blew so hard that
they could hardly see. They found a little pocket canyon and herded the
cattle into it, riding their horses back and forth across the entrance to keep
the cows from slipping out.
Cows belonging to other ranchers shuffled past in the snowstorm, driven
by the howling wind. Most would never be seen again.
The boys’ summer clothes soaked through quickly. As the temperature
dropped, the cloth froze solid. Herman said he thought it was warmer
when the clothes froze because the wind couldn’t blow through them. The
boys continued to care for the cattle. They felt their icy clothes crack as
they threw hay to the cows.
That night they lay down together under one blanket. There were no
matches or wood to start a warming fire. All they had for warmth was each
other. Eight-year-old Oscar was in the middle, with fourteen-year-old
Elmer and twenty-year-old Herman on the outside. In the morning they
milked a cow for breakfast. Then Elmer left on his horse to ride to the
house to get winter coats and some food. The three boys had kept all the
cows safe.
You may not face the same kind of trial as these cowboys, but you have
tough times of your own. You have demanding classes and difficult
relationships. When the going gets tough, trust God to keep you going.

—Kim

“Count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the
testing of your faith produces patience” (James 1:2, 3).
 October 16

None of us got where we are solely by pulling ourselves

up by our bootstraps. We got here because somebody
. . . bent down and helped us pick up our boots.
—Thurgood Marshall

I
n October 1985, sailors in the San Francisco Bay spotted a young
humpback whale swimming among the ships. Apparently, he had been
migrating to warmer weather down the West Coast and had turned left to
go under the Golden Gate Bridge.
Days passed, and the whale, which was named Humphrey, didn’t leave
the bay. In fact, Humphrey began swimming up the Sacramento River.
What was wrong with the whale? “Perhaps he’s insane,” guessed one
whale expert.
People came out to the river to watch Humphrey. He didn’t do well in
the fresh water. His black skin turned gray, and he seemed tired. People
called with ideas for herding him back to sea. Could they catch Humphrey
in a giant net and carry him to the ocean by helicopter? Probably not. He
weighted forty tons.
One idea they tried was to play the sounds of killer whales, hoping that
would scare Humphrey down to the bay. Failure. Then they got a group of
boats to chase the whale toward open water by banging on pipes lowered
into the water. It worked during the day. But when the banging stopped at
night, Humphrey swam right back up the river.
Three weeks passed. As a last-ditch effort to save the wrong-way whale,
a researcher suggested luring Humphrey with recordings of humpbacks
singing and feeding.
On a November morning, a powerful speaker was lowered over the side
of a private yacht and began playing whale sounds. Humphrey quickly
arrived at the front of the boat. The captain started down the river with
Humphrey close behind. Large numbers of spectators lined the banks of
the river. The next day, Humphrey returned to the Pacific Ocean.
All of us, like Humphrey, sometimes head in the wrong direction.
Maybe you’ve noticed how teachers, parents, and Sabbath School leaders
are always warning you away from bad decisions and encouraging you to
head for the good things in life. Just like the crowd cheering Humphrey on
his swim to the sea, these church members want to see you end up in the
place you belong.

—Kim

“A wise child accepts a parent’s discipline; a mocker refuses to listen to

correction” (Proverbs 13:1, NLT).
 October 17

A great man is always willing to be little.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

I have two stories about vice presidents of the United States. The first
features Teddy Roosevelt, who had the misfortune of staying in a hotel
that caught fire. He was evacuated to the lobby with the other guests. Long
after the fire had been put out, the guests were still kept from returning to
their rooms.
“Surely we can go up now,” said Teddy to the hotel manager. The
official apologized for the delay, but repeated that no one was authorized
to go upstairs.
“But I’m the vice president,” said Teddy.
“Oh, that’s different,” said the manager.
Then, as Teddy started up the stairs, the manager had a question. “Wait
a minute. What are you vice president of ?”
“Why, the United States, of course!”
“Then get back down here,” said the manager. “I thought you were vice
president of this hotel.”
The other story is about Thomas Jefferson during the time he served as
vice president of a very new nation. He arrived at Baltimore’s largest hotel
without any servants and dressed in rather soiled farm clothes. Not
recognizing him, the manager turned him away. Thomas left without a
word of complaint.
Soon, the manager was told he had just turned away one of the most
important men in the country. Horrified, he immediately sent servants out
in the streets to find the vice president and offer him the best available
rooms.
These stories remind me of some advice that Jesus gave about attending
banquets. He said it is better to take a seat of low position at a banquet and
be invited to move up to a more important seat than to take a seat of
highest honor and then be asked to move down to a place of lower status.
Let’s avoid Teddy’s mistake of trying to remind people of our
importance. God is the master of the banquet, and He will put us in the
right seat.

—Kim

“When you are invited, go and sit down in the lowest place, so that
when he who invited you comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, go up higher.’
Then you will have glory in the presence of those who sit at the table with
you. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles
himself will be exalted” (Luke 14:10, 11).
 October 18

One hand cannot wash itself.

—African proverb

T
he Gongol family was on a flight from Iowa to Colorado after
visiting their relatives for Christmas. But it wasn’t a normal flight.
A half hour after takeoff, they noticed the engines of the Boeing 737
power down to idle, and the aircraft began a sweeping turn. Over the
public address system a flight attendant asked if there was a doctor
onboard the plane. More calls went out for medical help, and the Gongol
family saw the flight attendants hurry toward first class.
Somebody at the front of the plane was in trouble. But who? Then
another call came over the speakers. “Are there any non-revenue pilots on
board? Please ring your call button.”
Immediately, Mark Gongol realized that the pilot was the patient. He
looked to his wife. She nodded, and Mark pressed his button. Arriving at
the flight deck, he saw four flight attendants caring for the captain of the
aircraft, who appeared to be having a heart attack.
“Who are you?” asked the woman in the copilot seat.
“I’m a pilot,” replied Mark.
“What do you fly?” she asked.
“I’m an Air Force guy. I fly B-1 bombers.”
The job interview was over. “Have a seat,” said the copilot. She told
him to handle the radios and checklists while they made an emergency
landing at Omaha. The two were busy with cabin pressure, air traffic
control, and programming of the autopilot. At about five hundred feet the
copilot took full control and flew the Boeing 737 to a safe touchdown.
The pilot eventually recovered, and the whole episode ended with
smiles all around. Mark was one of the people who made that happy
ending possible. But the copilot was a hero in her own way. She had the
skills to land the plane on her own. But she wasn’t too proud to call for
assistance, which helped ensure the safety of everyone onboard. It took
two kinds of heroes that day: one who was willing to help, and one with
the humility to ask for help.

—Kim

“Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other
succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone
who falls alone is in real trouble” (Ecclesiastes 4:9, 10, NLT).
 October 19

People eat meat and think they will become

strong as an ox, forgetting that the ox eats grass.
—Pino Caruso

A
s a boy, Ethan Brown spent weekends at the family’s dairy farm in
Maryland. “I would always spend time in the attic of the farmhouse,
and I would build cages for mice,” remembers Ethan. “I would capture the
mice and put them in the cages, and they were very different from the
docile mice you would get at the pet store—they would fly across the
cages. To me it was this wonderful world, and I loved it.”
He felt a strong connection to animals and thought that one day he
would be a vet just like James Herriot. At the same time, he had no trouble
eating animals. “My favorite sandwich was the Double R burger from Roy
Rogers,” Ethan admitted on the podcast How I Built This. “It would have
ham, and then it would have cheese, and it would have the burger.”
As he grew into a teenager, he began to feel that he couldn’t care about
animals and consume them at the same time. His determination to live
meat-free eventually led him to start the company Beyond Meat. He didn’t
just want to make fake chicken and fake beef; he wanted to change the
world. He planned to replace the meat protein at the center of our meals
with plant protein.
If he could do that, he could help people be healthier. He could save
animals from suffering. And he could improve the environment. Pretty
ambitious, huh?
Ethan believes that if he can create foods that taste exactly like the meat
people are used to eating, he can switch out butchered food for new high-
tech entrees. It just might happen. He reminds us that people used to think
they needed animals to pull their buggies and wagons. Then gas engines
came along and provided a better, faster way to travel. Soon cars replaced
buggies.
Will Ethan make the world a safer place for animals and a healthier
place for humans? He’s sure going to try. “In a few generations, vegetable-
based meats may be the only meat some young people have ever
experienced,” he says.

—Kim

“God said, ‘See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is
on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it
shall be for food’ ” (Genesis 1:29).
 October 20

I shall return.
—Douglas MacArthur

I
t was the dead of night, and four PT boats pushed through ocean waves.
These patrol torpedo boats were some of the smallest craft in the US
Navy during World War II. They were really just big plywood speedboats
stuffed with the same V12 engines used in fighter planes. Usually they
executed fast hit-and-run attacks on enemy ships. But tonight they were
smuggling precious cargo through Japanese-controlled waters.
The cargo was General Douglas MacArthur, recognized as one of the
most brilliant minds in the military. The United States president himself
had ordered MacArthur to escape from a tiny island in Manila Bay,
Philippines, that was being bombed to powder by the Japanese.
MacArthur stood at the helm of the boat, his face hit hard by spray as
they crashed into each house-sized wave. He thought about the men he had
left behind. They would probably die in battle or be captured. He had been
prepared to suffer with them. But now they would suffer alone.
Arriving in Australia, he was informed that relief of his men trapped in
the Philippines would not be forthcoming. Deeply disappointed, he issued
a statement to the press in which he promised his men and the people of
the Philippines, “I shall return.”
He repeated the promise often as he led Allied forces from island to
island back toward the Philippines. On this day in 1944, two and a half
years after his nighttime escape, MacArthur jumped from a landing craft
and waded ashore on Leyte. Soldiers hastily rigged an amplifying system,
and MacArthur uttered the electrifying words that everyone wanted to
hear: “People of the Philippines, I have returned.”
Of course, Jesus gave us a similar promise. “I will come again,” He
said. We have been in battle with the enemy for a long time. Some of us
have been wounded badly. The promise Jesus made is one we are all
counting on.

—Kim

“I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there
you may be also” (John 14:3).
 October 21

Fond Memory brings the light

Of other days around me.

—Thomas Moore

W
hat would you save if your house caught fire? I think that moms
and dads answer that question differently. Maybe Dad would be
quicker to save practical things such as the bank papers, whereas Mom
would be more concerned about items with sentimental value—such as the
children.
My wife has already told me to save our photographs. Unfortunately, we
have so many albums that it’s going to take me several trips out of the
house. And I know I’ll end up trying to convince the firefighters that I
must go back into the burning building one more time to rescue a framed
picture of my mother-in-law.
We take a lot of photos. This is what we do in place of having a
functioning memory. Let’s say that we’re having a wonderful vacation at
the beach. I know that my brain will take the memories from the vacation
and file them in the same place as the lyrics to “The Star-Spangled
Banner,” thereby ensuring that I’ll never recall them again. But if I take
pictures, my wife and I can look at them years later and say, “When were
we at the beach? And who’s that person with their arm around us?”
It’s hard to comprehend that not so very long ago people didn’t have
photographs. If your mother said you were a pretty baby, nobody could
produce evidence that in actuality you looked like Gollum. Also, your
children could never make fun of the clothes you wore in high school.
On the other hand, you couldn’t see how happy you were as a child
playing on the merry-go-round, or how beautiful your grandmother looked
at her wedding. There are reasons to capture these moments that pass by so
quickly. No wonder we would want to save them from a burning building.
If we feel that way about pictures of people, imagine how God feels
about the people themselves. Right now, His Spirit is working to draw
each of us into His kingdom. If you think He’s going to wait for a fire to
save us, you would be wrong.

—Kim

“This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be
saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:3, 4, NIV).
 October 22

You should never hit the snooze button

when life gives you a wake-up call.
—Rob Liano

O
ne summer I spent a week visiting my cousin Lisa in New York.
She had a huge upstairs attic room that was part bedroom, part
playroom. We had a great time hanging out there above the trees.
But one thing bugged me during my visit. Lisa, a sound sleeper, had a
hard time waking up. So she’d set her alarm clock to go off a full hour
before we had to get up in the morning.
Say we were getting up at eight. She’d make the alarm buzz at seven, at
which time she’d groan and—with her eyes closed—whack the snooze
button. Then she’d be sound asleep again until the alarm buzzed five
minutes later. She’d do this for an hour—until we really had to get up.
In the meantime I’d lie in the bed across the room fully awake (and
getting more irritated at each buzz). Being a light sleeper, I’d wonder, Why
can’t I go back to sleep too? What’s wrong with me?
But I’ve come to realize that the kind of sleeper we are probably doesn’t
make a big difference eternally. What matters is what kind of sleeper we
are spiritually.
Remember the ten virgins who were waiting for the bridegroom
(Matthew 25)? They fell asleep because he “was a long time in coming.”
Exactly 175 years ago today the early Adventist pioneers watched for
Jesus to come. They had misread prophecy and thought the Second
Coming would be on October 22, 1844. Boy, were they disappointed! In
fact, that event has been labeled “the Great Disappointment.”
If I had been one of those Adventist pioneers expecting Jesus’ return—
or one of the virgins expecting the bridegroom—I don’t think I could have
slept. I would have been too pumped.
But Jesus was telling a parable to urge us to be spiritually alert and
prepared for His coming—whenever it is. So snooze in bed when you can
and get your shut-eye. But in your spiritual life, as you anticipate Jesus’
return, don’t just be a light sleeper. Stay awake!

—Lori

“So watch! You do not know what day or what hour the Son of Man is
coming” (Matthew 25:13, NLV).
 October 23

It is easier to prevent bad habits than to break them.

—Benjamin Franklin

T
homas Austin had been doing very well since immigrating to
Australia. His sheep ranch reached a massive twenty-nine thousand
acres in size. It was good to be rich in Australia, but sometimes he missed
the pursuits of the wealthy back in his home country of England. He
remembered hunting parties that went after rabbits. He couldn’t have such
a thing in Australia because there were no rabbits. None at all.
Which gave Thomas an idea. He ordered a bunch of wild rabbits. How
he was able to do this 130 years before Amazon.com, I don’t know, but the
day came when he released twenty-four well-traveled and slightly seasick
rabbits onto his estate.
Before you pity these poor little bunnies, you should know that this was
the best thing that could have happened to them. Every once in a while,
drunken Australian hunters might chase them with guns, but for the most
part they were in paradise. Australia had no predator—large or small—that
had any interest in eating rabbits. Also, they found themselves surrounded
by lots of delicious plants to eat. It was a wonderful life for rabbits,
focused on eating and raising families of more little bunnies.
Soon there were so many rabbits chewing on the landscape that the
sheep were beginning to resent it. Twenty years after their arrival, the
rabbits had picked clean two million acres and continued multiplying until
the country was basically a seething mass of fuzzy bunnies. This may
sound like fun, but it did make it hard for people trying to raise crops or
sheep or cows.
Thomas thought he was doing a great thing by introducing rabbits into
the Australian bush. But now his country is embarrassed by his mistake.
In the same way, you might want to be careful what habits you
introduce into your life. While a single beer or cigarette might seem
harmless, it can grow into an addiction that takes over your existence.
Compared to that, being buried in bunnies would be a good thing.

—Kim

“Catch us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines” (Song of
Solomon 2:15).
 October 24

Too many people spend money they haven’t earned to buy

things they don’t want to impress people they don’t like.
—Will Rogers

O
h, oh, I feel a daydream coming on. It’s the one in which I’m rich.
And I drive up in a Lamborghini and everyone is really impressed.
What would you buy to impress your friends? Maybe a $300 pair of
basketball shoes or a $1,000 jacket? At the very least you would get a new
iPhone instead of having to use a hand-me-down from the parents.
Look, it’s a daydream. Why not go for broke? You could get an $8,000
Rolex watch. Or how about a $120,000 Hermes handbag? What if your
parents dropped you off at school in a helicopter? Someone would have to
be impressed, right?
Neil was trying to impress a business partner by inviting him along for a
spin in his $200,000 Ferrari. On a country road he accelerated from a full
stop to 102 miles per hour in seven seconds. His “friend” caught it on
video and eventually turned it over to the police. Neil had his license taken
away for eighteen months.
The Bible tells the story of Hezekiah welcoming representatives from
the king of Babylon. He wanted to impress them with all the treasures of
his palace. Later, the prophet Isaiah asked what these visitors had seen.
“There is nothing among my treasures that I did not show them,” declared
Hezekiah. Isaiah prophesied that the time would come when all of
Hezekiah’s treasures would be taken to Babylon.
Impressing people is just another function of pride, the oldest sin in the
universe. It stirs up envy and jealousy and dangerous resentments. We can
daydream about impressing others, but in the end, it can be a nightmare.

—Kim

“Hezekiah received the envoys gladly and showed them what was in his
storehouses—the silver, the gold, the spices, the fine olive oil—his entire
armory and everything found among his treasures. There was nothing in
his palace or in all his kingdom that Hezekiah did not show them” (Isaiah
39:2, NIV).
 October 25

We all need people who will give us

feedback. That’s how we improve.
—Bill Gates

H
ow do you feel about feedback? I’m not talking about that loud
screech in church when the audiovisual guys get distracted. I’m
talking about a different kind of feedback. Like when you bake muffins
and your little brother says he doesn’t want to eat any because he’s afraid
he’ll break a tooth. Or when you’re mowing the lawn and Dad points to
those spots where you may have missed a few blades of grass. It’s
humiliating.
It reminds me of a Hasbro game called Operation. Maybe you’ve seen
it. You try to be a surgeon—removing body parts with a pair of tweezers
from a picture of a patient. You attempt to take out the “funny bone” or the
“broken heart” without touching the edge of the openings in “Cavity Sam.”
If the tweezers touch the edge, a buzzer goes off and a light glows red.
To win the game, you need to make your hand as steady as possible.
Every time the buzzer goes off, it can make you more and more nervous,
and sometimes it can drive you bonkers.
It would sure be easier to play the game if you took the batteries out.
Then you wouldn’t be bothered by all that feedback. Of course, the game
would lose its challenge and its sense of fun.
Feedback can be annoying. If you choose, you can turn it off. You can
ignore your parents, teachers, or friends who point out your mistakes. But
if you value feedback, you can improve your game in all kinds of ways—
from the way you fix your hair to your jump shot in basketball. As one
person said, “Praise makes you feel good. Critique makes you better.”
Feedback: You can think of it as an annoying buzzer you want to turn
off or as a way to improve how you operate.

—Kim

“The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice”
(Proverbs 12:15, NIV).
 October 26

It’s not whether you win or lose,

it’s how you play the game.
—Grantland Rice

I
t’s football season, a chance to fight the representatives of another city
without all the unpleasantness of actually going to war. In the old days,
if a guy wanted to enjoy a surge of tribal pride, he had to find a sharp stick
and go attack the village next door. It was a dirty, messy business that took
up all weekend and required a good medical plan.
Now we modern men let other people battle it out on the football field
while we stay home, offering occasional words of encouragement and
advice from our La-Z-Boy recliner. Unfortunately, this still eats up most of
our weekends.
Those guys out on the field hold our pride in their hands. If they fumble
the ball, our self-esteem also takes a tumble. It’s hard to look other people
in the eye when your team loses by more than two touchdowns. When we
win, we’re winking and waving at everyone. “So,” we say, “this is what it
looks like from the top of the world.”
Why do we care what these large, sweaty men do out on the football
field? The rest of the world doesn’t care. They’re all playing soccer.
I guess you never know what will catch our attention. Our passion is
excited sometimes by things that are important—and sometimes by things
that aren’t.
Which may be one reason we humans need a God. God has a gentle way
of leading us to those things that deserve our passion. He coaches us to
win in matters of justice, mercy, and peace. And in many other matters, He
shrugs His shoulders and lets us enjoy the game.

—Kim

“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.

And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8, NIV).
 October 27

There’s a lot of blood, sweat, and

guts between dreams and success.
—Paul “Bear” Bryant

P
aul “Bear” Bryant coached the University of Alabama’s football
team. He had a squad meeting one time and told his players, “This is
a class operation. I want your shoes to be shined. I want you to have a tie
on, get your hair cut, and keep a crease in your pants. I also want you to go
to class. I don’t want no dumbbells on this team. If there is a dumbbell in
the room, I wish he would stand up.”
Joe Namath, who would one day be elected to the Football Hall of
Fame, rose to his feet. Bear looked with surprise at his young quarterback.
“Joe, how come you’re standing up? You ain’t dumb.”
Joe shrugged. “Coach, I just hate like the devil for you to be standing up
there all by yourself!”
Coach Bryant did stand alone as having the most wins of any college
football coach. He won a total of 323 games, including six national
championships. He described his formula for winning as a combination of
never giving up and hard work. “It’s not the will to win that matters—
everyone has that,” he said. “It’s the will to prepare to win that matters.”
He told his players, “I’ll put you through hell, but at the end of it all, we’ll
be champions.”
The Bible writers often sound like coaches who want us to win: “We
also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance;
and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not
disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by
the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Romans 5:3–5).
That’s a winning strategy from a different coach Paul. He’s no
dumbbell, that’s for sure.

—Kim

“We also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces

perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope”
(Romans 5:3, 4).
 October 28

Although the world is full of suffering,

it is also full of the overcoming of it.
—Helen Keller

L
ittle Helen Keller fell sick when she was nineteen months old. When
the fever broke, she could no longer see or hear. “I was too young to
realize what had happened,” she said later. “When I awoke and found that
all was dark and still, I suppose I thought it was night, and I must have
wondered why day was so long coming.”
As she grew older, she became more frustrated in her dark world, where
she couldn’t talk with anyone. It made her angry, and she would bite and
kick like a wild animal.
When she turned six years old, her parents hired a teacher who had once
been blind. Anne Sullivan tried to teach Helen words by writing letters in
her hand. Helen didn’t get it until they were at a water pump. Anne held
Helen’s hand under the cool water. In the other hand, Anne spelled out w-
a-t-e-r.
“Suddenly . . . the mystery of language was revealed to me,” Helen later
recalled. “I knew then that ‘w-a-t-e-r’ meant the wonderful cool something
that was flowing over my hand.” For the rest of the day she exhausted
Anne by demanding the names of objects around the house.
The world opened up to Helen, and she wanted to learn all about it.
Anne taught her how to read books in Braille. Helen felt her limitations
leave her when she was reading a favorite book. Eventually she went to
college and became the first blind-deaf person to graduate with a bachelor
of arts degree.
While she was in school, she wrote down her experiences, and it became
a best-selling book. People wanted to meet her and invited her to speak.
Helen used her fame to make people aware of the struggles of people who
are blind. She met with presidents and convinced government officials to
start programs to help people with disabilities.
When Helen suffered the loss of her sight and hearing, nobody could
guess that she would go on to experience fame and adventure, while
inspiring millions to overcome the obstacles in their own lives.

—Kim

“We know that all things work together for good to those who love God,
to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).
 October 29

Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all

Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
—John Keats

A
s the young poet John Keats was dying from tuberculosis, he wrote
to his girlfriend, “I have left no immortal work behind me—nothing
to make my friends proud of my memory—but I have loved the principle
of beauty in all things, and if I had had time I would have made myself
remembered.”
It did seem as if John would be forgotten as a writer. All his books of
poetry had sold only about two hundred copies before he passed away at
age twenty-five. Some thought John should have stuck with his training as
a doctor and pharmacist. “It is a better and a wiser thing to be a starved
apothecary than a starved poet,” wrote one mean critic.
But his friends believed in him. John was staying with his buddy
Charles Armitage Brown when he discovered a nightingale that had built
its nest near the house. “One morning he took his chair from the breakfast
table to the grass-plot under a plum tree, where he sat for two or three
hours,” remembers Charles. When John returned, Charles noticed that he
was tucking some scraps of paper behind some books. Charles retrieved
the papers and found the poem “Ode to a Nightingale.” Encyclopedia
Britannica describes it as “one of the final masterpieces of human work in
all time and for all ages.”
Now the young man who thought he would be forgotten is considered
one of the greatest poets of his century. Millions recognize the beauty in
his romantic verses.

And when thou art weary I’ll find thee a bed,

Of mosses and flowers to pillow thy head.

Do you ever feel like you are unnoticed by the world? Well, it
sometimes takes people a while before they recognize true beauty. God, on
the other hand, can see it immediately because He put it there.

—Kim

“He has made everything beautiful in its time” (Ecclesiastes 3:11).

 October 30

If the Lord be with us, we have no cause of fear. His eye is

upon us, His arm over us, His ear open to our prayer.
—John Newton

M
y cousin Lisa won’t ride escalators. She’s scared she’ll fall down,
and then the moving metal stairs will grab her as they slide under
the floor. Every once in a while I forget about her fear and get on an
escalator. When I look back, she’s still standing where I left her.
Uncle Calvin is scared of germs. Every time he eats in a restaurant he
vigilantly wipes his flatware with his napkin. Sometimes he even dunks it
in his glass of water to rinse it.
Everyone I know has fears of some kind, whether of car wrecks or
caterpillars. I’m scared of murder. Really, I’m scared of murderers. And
the problem is that I can’t tell a murderer from any other person, so I’m
scared of a lot of people.
Recently when I was worried that my neighbor was a murderer, my
friend Chris told me something important: God doesn’t want us to be
scared. It hurts Him when we feel anxious.
He’s not angry or impatient with our fears, no matter how small-time
and human they may be. In fact, in the Bible when we read about God
communicating to people Himself or through angels, we find Him
consistently concerned about how they might react to such a visit. Often
He assures them, “Don’t be afraid!”
Whether our fears are rational or irrational, grounded on evidence or all
in our heads, God knows they are real to us. And that means they are
important enough for His sympathy and comfort.
Satan is the master of scary—leading his evil angels to pose as spirits of
dead people (ghosts), spooking the night with creepy noises and freaky
phantasms (zombies, demons, vampires, werewolves), and creating
superstition and panic. He’s the first and ultimate terrorist.
Jesus, on the other hand, brings rest, trust, and freedom from fear.

—Lori

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the
world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid”
(John 14:27, NIV).
 October 31

Good blood always shows itself.

—Proverb

T
he more I hear about vampires, the less I like them. It’s just rude to
suck the blood out of a person without either a “please” or “thank
you.” Good thing they aren’t real.
Unfortunately, there are some real people who have vampire tendencies.
Dr. Alexander Bogdanov was a Russian revolutionary who lived one
hundred years ago. He believed he could achieve eternal youth if he
exchanged blood with a series of younger men. After undergoing eleven
blood transfusions, he announced that his eyesight had improved and he
had stopped going bald. An enthusiastic comrade reported that “Bogdanov
seems to have become seven, no, ten years younger after the operation.”
It was after the twelfth transfusion that things went terribly wrong. The
young patient whom Alexander picked had the infectious diseases of
tuberculosis and malaria, as well as a difference in blood type. Within two
weeks, the vampire doctor was dead.
Do you know that Jesus is the exact opposite of a vampire? While
vampires take blood to continue living, Jesus gave His blood to give us
eternal life. As you can see in today’s text, He actually told His followers
that they needed to drink His blood to have life. When He said that, a lot
people crinkled up their noses and went “Ewww.”
Today we understand that Jesus didn’t mean it literally. He gave us a
picture of how much we need a transfusion of His purity, goodness, and
power. We remember this idea when we drink the grape juice during our
church Communion service.
So maybe Alexander was right about there being power in the blood.
Only next time, he should choose the right donor.

—Kim

“Jesus said to them, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the
flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you’ ”
(John 6:53).
 November 1

Our patience will achieve more than our force.

—Edmund Burke

B
ob looked through the glass of the vending machine. He had put in
one dollar, then pushed the button for a Twix. Gears had whirled,
and the candy bar had moved closer. But then it stopped, dangling from a
spiral hook.
“I was, like, ‘Oh, man,’ ” Bob told the Des Moines Register. “So I put in
another dollar, and then it wouldn’t do anything.”
He banged on the side of the vending machine. He rocked it back and
forth. But the candy bar would not drop into the chute.
Bob decided he would make that candy bar drop. He looked around the
warehouse where he worked and spied a four-ton forklift. He started it up
and drove it over to the vending machine. He picked the machine up two
feet and dropped it to the floor. After dropping it several times, he reached
into the vending machine chute and found his Twix bar. In fact, he found
three Twix bars. He was happy. He had won.
But not everyone was happy. He boss was disturbed that he had beat the
machine on the floor like a dog’s toy. Bob was fired.
“That machine was trouble,” Bob remembers. “They fired me, and now
I hear they have all new vending machines there.”
Bob’s experience reminds us that sometimes it’s better not to try to
force things to go the way we want. When we add more muscle to a
situation, we risk breaking things and relationships. But if we try patience
and gentleness, we may find the truth of the old saying “All things come to
those who wait.”

—Kim

“With patience a ruler may be persuaded, and a soft tongue will break a
bone” (Proverbs 25:15, ESV).
 November 2

There is no exercise better for the heart

than reaching down and lifting people up.
—John Holmes

A
ngela Nguyen delivers pizza. But Angela does more than give
people their favorite circle-shaped Italian food. She also gives them
a lift.
If she’s delivering pizza to a kid’s birthday party, she might belt out a
round of “Happy Birthday.”
“There’s more to it than just dropping off a pizza and saying, ‘$17.95,’ ”
she told The Atlantic. When she met a family with a sick girl, she started a
fundraising campaign so that the mother could stay home from work and
care for her daughter. Sometimes she would help out an elderly customer
by picking up their mail or taking out their trash.
She began to build a relationship with one elderly man named Lee, who
ordered a pizza every Saturday morning. She found out it was his food for
the weekend. During the week, Meals on Wheels brought him one meal a
day. But on the weekends, Lee depended on Domino’s.
Angela delivered the pizza to a twelve-foot camping trailer without
running water or electricity. She began to worry about what would happen
when winter came to their corner of Minnesota. She bought him a heater
with her own money and started a GoFundMe page. In a couple of months,
people donated enough money for Angela to buy Lee a small house.
Angela says that she goes out of her way to do something nice for her
customers because it makes her feel good. “You can’t be good to
somebody else without feeling good yourself,” she says. So if you want to
get a lift for yourself, start by giving someone else one.

—Kim

“You must support the weak. And remember the words of the Lord
Jesus, that He said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’ ” (Acts
20:35).
 November 3

The unexamined life is not worth living.

—Socrates

I once had a long conversation with my cousin Clint about why we should
wear pants. I had been raised to think that clothes were a good thing. I
had just assumed that we could all agree on that. But Clint wasn’t so sure.
He had been reading about an ancient Greek philosopher named Socrates
who said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.”
To Clint, that meant that he should examine why he does anything—
even why he wears clothes. So he thought and thought. All his friends
hoped he would come up with at least one reason because they didn’t want
to see too much of their hairy buddy.
After much consideration, Clint arrived at a good reason to wear
clothes. In fact, he came up with three reasons.
First, clothes provide insulation. Clint lives in Nebraska, where the
winters can really frost your pumpkin. He figured he needs clothes to keep
warm.
Second, he wants to stay out of jail. If he tried to show up at the mall in
his birthday suit, the police would definitely interfere with his shopping
plans.
Third, clothes provide pockets. The great thing about wearing pants is
that they have pockets in which you can put your stuff. One reason that
Adam and Eve were fine in the Garden of Eden without clothes is because
they didn’t have to haul around a cell phone, car keys, and a wallet.
I admire Clint for giving thought to why he does the things he does. So
often we follow the crowd without thinking. We watch a movie just
because everyone is talking about it and discover that we wish we hadn’t.
Or we laugh along with the rest of the crowd when someone insults an
unpopular classmate.
Taking time to examine our actions is one way to always be clothed in
wisdom.

—Kim

“Wise people think before they act; fools don’t—and even brag about
their foolishness” (Proverbs 13:16, NLT).
 November 4

A man’s pride can be his downfall, and he needs to

learn when to turn to others for support and guidance.
—Bear Grylls

T
he sultan Alp Arslan may have been the world’s most powerful man,
just not its most humble. By A.D. 1071, his armies had conquered the
areas of modern Turkey and Iran. So he gave himself the title of “Heroic
Lion.” That would be like telling your teachers at school that from now on
you want to be called “Super Awesome Bear.” Of course, he ruled his part
of the world, so he could be called anything he wanted.
The sultan’s soldiers were great horsemen and archers who rode across
Asia wearing helmets of black and red. When they came to the Oxus
River, they had to deal with several fortresses, one of which was strongly
defended by a governor named Yussuf al-Kharezmi. After several days of
desperate fighting, the governor was forced to surrender. Brought before
the sultan, he was condemned to death.
Yussuf, in desperation, drew his dagger and rushed upon the sultan. Alp
Arslan, who took great pride in his reputation as an archer, motioned to his
guards not to interfere. He would show them he could handle this on his
own. Quickly he drew his bow, but his foot slipped, the arrow glanced
aside, and the assassin’s dagger sank into his chest.
Have you ever gotten in trouble when you were showing off? It happens
to all of us, but it happens much less often to the humble.
Dying, Alp Arslan warned his son Malik Shah, “Remember well the
lessons learned, and do not allow your vanity to overreach your good
sense.” Sounds like good advice for anyone.

—Kim

“Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall”

(Proverbs 16:18).
 November 5

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.

Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
—Martin Luther King Jr.

T
he gang that Jeff belonged to nicknamed him Midnight. During one
of his prison stays, he called Bobby, his preacher brother. “What do
you do to give yourself over to God?” he asked.
“I’ll send you chapters out of the Bible to read,” Bobby answered.
As he got each chapter, Midnight would study it with other members of
the gang.
“Hey, Midnight, are you having a study group today?” asked a prisoner
one morning.
“Don’t call me Midnight,” replied Jeff. “I’ve given my life over to the
Lord. I don’t need a gang name.”
But there was only one way out of the gang. They would choose five
guys to beat Jeff for three minutes. If he lived, he was free to go.
Jeff called Bobby. “They are going to beat me down tomorrow,” he
said.
“Jeff, they can kill you,” Bobby responded.
“I’m willing to die for God,” Jeff replied.
At the appointed time, he met with the gang. “Do you have any last
words?” they asked, giving him a chance to change his mind.
“I would never give up my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,” he replied.
Then three young men came at him swinging. Jeff twisted and ducked
away from their fists. The first round ended, and next they sent in two
heavily muscled gangbangers. Each blow was like being hit by a brick.
After he got up from the floor, Jeff looked at the guys who had beat him
and said, “I want you to know, I have forgiven every one of you.”
Jeff continued his Bible studies with other prisoners. In the two weeks
following his beatdown, twenty-two other gang members left the gang and
endured the same trial by fists in order to follow Jesus.
Jeff has since been released from prison. But while there, he got a new
nickname. One day as he walked out onto the exercise yard, the inmates
began clapping. “Man of God! Man of God!” they chanted. Midnight was
gone, and now there was a new man, walking in the light.

—Kim

“The people living in darkness

have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death
a light has dawned” (Matthew 4:16, NIV).
 November 6

In our prayers, we talk to God, in our Bible study, God talks

to us, and we had better let God do most of the talking.
—Dwight L. Moody

I
magine driving down the road with the radio on when suddenly the DJ
speaks directly to you.
That’s what happened to Jack Thompson. According to a story by the
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Jack was camping with his
family when he heard this radio message: “Will the Thompson family,
believed to be traveling somewhere in Surrey, contact Chesterfield
Hospital, as Mrs. Thompson’s mother is dangerously ill.”
“We just weren’t expecting it to be for us,” said Jack. “It put us into a
bit of a panic.”
They were a long way from Chesterfield, but they headed straight to the
hospital. Jack remembers how scared his wife was during the journey. She
was startled by the broadcast and had no details about the situation. They
did arrive in time to see their mother. The SOS message had given them
the chance to be with her at the end.
When radio was at the height of its popularity, the BBC station would
send out SOS messages that were directed to just one or two people out of
the millions listening.
Linda Miller was six years old when she became very ill with an
inflammation of the bone. At the time, she was staying with her aunt while
her parents were vacationing in London. An SOS message went out on the
radio, but her parents weren’t tuned in.
 Remarkably, a stranger knocked on their car window to alert them to the
fact that their daughter was ill in a hospital. He had heard the message and
recognized their license plate. Linda’s parents rushed to the hospital. Linda
recovered and was fine, but the stranger kept in touch, sending letters to
find out how she was.
Most people would say that the Bible is like a radio broadcast, a general
message going out to the masses. But here’s the strange thing: when you
read the Bible for any length of time, you’ll find a text that seems like it
was written just for you. I encourage you to open the Bible today and see
what that message might be.

—Kim

“When your words came, I ate them;

they were my joy and my heart’s delight,
for I bear your name,
LORD God Almighty” (Jeremiah 15:16, NIV).
 November 7

Your value doesn’t decrease based on

someone’s inability to see your worth.
—Unknown

Y
oung Maria Skłodowska was smart. But so what? She was Polish at
a time when Poland was ruled by Russia. In the view of the Russian
Empire, Poles weren’t worth much. And she was a woman. Women
weren’t valued much at this time in history. And she was poor, which also
hid her value.
She did very well in school, but in 1883 when she was ready for college,
there wasn’t a regular institution that would allow a woman to enroll.
Fortunately, there was a secret group of professors who saw the value of
educating girls. They ran the “Flying University,” which met in private
homes in Warsaw. This is where Maria studied.
She went to work as a private teacher for a family so that she could earn
money for her sister to go to medical school in Paris. She soon fell in love
with the family’s brilliant older son. Tragically, their plans to marry were
rejected because she was poor.
She continued to study on her own until she had enough money to go to
Paris. Once there, she had to live in a cheap apartment without heat and
had so little food to eat that she sometimes fainted from hunger.
There were people who saw Maria’s value and tried to help her. One
was Pierre Curie, who arranged to share some laboratory space with her so
that she could do her experiments. They fell in love and were married.
That is why you may have heard of her as Marie Curie, a pioneer scientist
in radioactivity who was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize.
People may not always recognize your worth. But don’t let their random
opinions discourage you. God proved your value when He sent His son to
make sure you were redeemed. Follow His leading and see what kind of
prize He has for you.

—Kim

“Since you were precious in My sight,

You have been honored,
And I have loved you;
Therefore I will give men for you,
And people for your life” (Isaiah 43:4).
 November 8

The purpose of prayer is not to notify God but to express our

trust, our faith, our expectation, and our heart desire.
—Watchman Nee

T
hink of three very different places. How about Three Rivers Stadium
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Rain City Burgers in Seattle,
Washington; and the cockpit of a 767 flying high over Dallas, Texas.
Obviously, you can’t do the same things in each place. A Pittsburgh
Pirates slugger couldn’t hit a triple off the wall in Rain City Burgers.
Likewise, a person would find it difficult to get a milkshake delivered to
second base at Three Rivers Stadium. And to be sure, you can’t catch a
foul ball or watch a shake being made if you’re forty-five thousand feet
above Texas.
There is, however, at least one thing you can do at each of these
locations (and anywhere else, for that matter). Pray.
When the bat breaks in half and hits a fan in the front row, you can pray.
As you savor the flavor of a Hawaiian veggie burger (or an Oreo
milkshake), you can thank God for it. And the 767? What better prayer
place than airspace?
Prayer can connect you with God at any time and at any place. Through
prayer, you can be anywhere on the planet and immediately be close to
God. Talk to Him about your dreams and your worries. Talk to Him about
the people who annoy you and the people you like.
There may be times when you don’t feel that He’s listening. But your
microphone is always on. He’s listening, waiting for you to speak His
name. No matter where you are, you’ll find that you’re both at the same
place.

—Kim

“For the eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and His ears are open to
their prayers” (1 Peter 3:12).
 November 9

A world without a Sabbath would be like a man

without a smile, like a summer without flowers,
and like a homestead without a garden.
—Henry Ward Beecher

C
arlos Vitor da Costa Ressurreição was a soccer star. He was paid
good money to play in front of thousands of screaming fans as
goalkeeper for Brazil’s Londrina Esporte Clube.
But as he studied the Bible, he became convinced that he should keep
the seventh-day Sabbath. He worked up the courage to tell his club that he
would not play or attend training sessions on Saturday. Their response was
to not renew his contract. It was clear to him that he could follow his
boyhood dream or he could follow God, but he couldn’t do both.
“I actually thought it was rather impossible someone would even offer
me to play soccer professionally again,” Carlos told the Adventist news
agency in South America. But he decided to make it a matter of fervent
prayer. “I never got in touch with any club to ask for a job. I never
contacted any agent; I talked to no one, but just prayed,” he added.
Soon after, he got a call from another soccer club in the south of Brazil.
They offered him a contract with an unusual guarantee—that he could
have Sabbaths off.
“Other than praying, I did nothing for it to happen,” said the goalkeeper.
“My talent is my ministry. Maybe God opened this door so that many
others may get to know the gospel message and God’s Ten
Commandments. I don’t know, but I just know that if I follow in faith,
there is no limit to what God can do.”

—Kim

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor
and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your
God” (Exodus 20:8–10).
 November 10

Give to God what’s right—not what’s left!

—Adrian Rogers

J
ohn Mathews was beginning a sermon that he had preached before.
He had this way of starting that grabbed the attention of everyone in
the church. He would pick someone at random and offer them a twenty-
dollar bill.
He scanned the congregation, and his eyes landed on a woman in the
front row. “Do you believe I will give this to you?” he said, holding the
bill in her direction.
“Yes,” she said without a moment’s hesitation.
John was a bit surprised. Usually people doubted they would get the
money.
During the closing song, John went to find the woman and pay up. She
said, “I want to talk to you.” After they moved out into the lobby, she
introduced herself as Mae.
“Why did you choose me?” Mae asked.
“I don’t know,” John said. He had never been to that church. “Just a
random selection, I guess.” John could see her eyes fill with tears, which
were about to roll down her cheek.
Mae began to tell her story: “This past week when I was figuring out my
tithe and offering, I realized that I was short of money in paying another
bill. But I gave anyway. And guess what? I was short exactly twenty
dollars.”
Do you believe that God cares for us and that He is interested in helping
take care of a twenty-dollar shortfall? Twenty dollars is not much money,
but when God is working with it, miracles happen that strengthen our
confidence in how He leads us.
Now Mae has a stronger faith, and so does John.

—Kim

“Honor the LORD with your possessions,

And with the firstfruits of all your increase;
So your barns will be filled with plenty,
And your vats will overflow with new wine” (Proverbs 3:9, 10).
 November 11

Seek respect, not attention. It lasts longer.

—Ziad K. Abdelnour

T
odd found a rattlesnake in the brush near a gas station. You might
think this would be a good reason to get in your car and drive quickly
away. But Todd’s brain works a little differently from yours and mine. He
thought this would be a great opportunity for a selfie. It was bound to
impress his friends, right?
He caught the snake and posed. In the process of getting the picture, he
also got bit. “My whole body was shaking,” he told news reporters. “He
literally paralyzed my whole body. My tongue was like out of my mouth,
my eyes were off to the side.”
Todd was rushed to the hospital and survived. But other people don’t
survive their ideas for a great selfie. They fall off cliffs holding their
phones in the selfie position. They get hit by trains trying to take
“daredevil selfies.”
A Chinese businessman got carried away taking selfies with a walrus at
a wildlife park. I mean, he was literally carried away by the walrus.
A Russian boy fell to his death attempting to take an “extreme selfie”
while hanging from a nine-story building. So many people injure or kill
themselves while taking pictures of themselves that the Russian police
have distributed a pamphlet of safety tips. Here’s one of the tips: Don’t
take a picture of yourself while holding a gun.
I hope the pamphlet helps, because the last time anyone did the
numbers, they found that more people were dying from taking selfies than
were killed by sharks.
Do we really need attention and “likes” this badly? Todd got plenty of
attention after getting kissed by a rattlesnake. News programs all over the
world picked up the story. But I’m guessing that if he had it to do over
again, Todd would prefer to get a little less attention for a crazy selfie and
a little more respect for his intelligence.

—Kim

“The wise shall inherit glory, but shame shall be the legacy of fools”
(Proverbs 3:35).
 November 12

Curiosity is thought on its entering edge.

—Charles Henry Parkhurst

I include this quote about curiosity by Charles Henry Parkhurst mostly

because I think it is curious how he died. He was a pastor in New York
City who was known for calling out the police and politicians who were
making sleazy deals with criminals. He actually made the city a (slightly)
more honest place.
But every biographical sketch of Pastor Parkhurst also mentions the
strange way his life ended. He died while sleepwalking off the second-
floor porch of his home.
How does a thing like that happen? I’m not sure, but it turns out that
people in a dream state do all kinds of activities. One teenage girl, who
was going through a stressful time in high school, would take baths in her
sleep.
One man was even more productive. He cooked in his sleep, making
omelets or stir-fry.
A wife woke up in the middle of the night to discover her husband
mowing the lawn without a stitch of clothing on. Having heard that it
could be dangerous to wake a sleepwalker, she unplugged the electric
mower and let him carry on. When the husband got back in bed, he
couldn’t believe what he had been up to. “Look at your feet,” said his wife.
One of the most interesting cases is that of Lee Hadwin. During the day
he is a nurse. But at night he creates art as he sleeps. When Lee was a teen,
he woke up to discover he had been drawing on his bedroom walls. As he
grew older, he would wake to find everything in the vicinity—tablecloths,
newspapers, clothes, and walls—covered in artwork.
Hoping to harness his nighttime talent, he started leaving art materials
out when he went to bed. Sure enough, when he awoke he found complete
sketches beside him. Sketches good enough to get the attention of art
galleries.
For most of us, sleeping too much keeps us from doing what we need to
do. I’m glad there are a few people who can get things done even while
they snooze.

—Kim

“How long will you slumber, O sluggard? When will you rise from your
sleep?” (Proverbs 6:9).
 November 13

Money is a terrible master but an excellent servant.

—P. T. Barnum

T
he other evening I was window-shopping on Worth Avenue in Palm
Beach, Florida. Palm Beach is a strange place because 87 percent of
the people who live there are millionaires. They drive Bentley luxury cars
and have servants who walk their fluffy white dogs.
At the shops along Worth Avenue, they have an unofficial motto: If you
have to ask how much it costs, you probably can’t afford it. A pair of
Jimmy Choo shoes covered in tiny crystals costs $4,595. A pair of socks
goes for $175. One store sold purses for as much as $80,000. And they
were all secondhand!
Walking through this colony of the very rich, it made me think about
how nice it would be to have unlimited money. Think of it: You could buy
any clothes you wanted or any electronic gadgets. You could hire a servant
to do all your chores and to make sure your phone is always charged. If
you wanted to fly to Paris for the weekend, just jump in your private jet
and go.
Here’s a question for you. Would you rather be super wealthy, or would
you rather have God leading in your life? I would understand if you think
it’s a tough question.
There’s a man in the Bible who responded to that question, and he chose
the money. He was the rich young ruler who came to Jesus to ask what he
must do to be saved. When Jesus suggested that he sell all his possessions
and give to the poor, the ruler grew sad and walked away.
 It’s easy to think that money is the answer to all your problems. But
that’s not true. The deep pockets in Palm Beach still have plenty of
troubles. Whenever you have to choose between following Jesus or
following the money, be sure you make the right choice.

—Kim

“Here now is the man

who did not make God his stronghold
but trusted in his great wealth
and grew strong by destroying others!” (Psalm 52:7, NIV).
 November 14

That’s what I consider true generosity: You give your all,

and yet you always feel as if it costs you nothing.
—Simone de Beauvoir

I
t was suppertime. Actually, it was past suppertime, and we were
becoming more desperate to find a place to eat as we wandered around
the tourist town of Saint Augustine. The first place we looked up on our
phone had gone out of business. The second was too expensive.
All fourteen-year-old Reef really wanted on this chilly fall night was a
bowl of soup, so when the chalkboard in front of a restaurant advertised
mushroom soup, he was ready to take a table. There was really nothing
else on the menu for our vegetarian family, but we agreed to give it a try.
The soup was as lovely as a poem, and the chef sent out a plate of
vegetables that my wife declared to be the absolute best.
The restaurant was mostly empty, and our meat-free order had been
rather small. Reef began to feel sorry for the waiter. “Let’s give him a big
tip, Dad,” he said.
“OK,” I agreed.
“A really big tip,” emphasized Reef.
This made me nervous. “How big?”
“Twenty dollars,” said Reef.
My penny-pinching heart froze within me, and I couldn’t form a
response. I thought that maybe we could afford to go with Reef’s generous
impulse, but I wasn’t sure.
The waiter brought the bill. “I took one of the soups and the vegetables
off the order,” he said. Apparently he was feeling generous too. And
finally, I got the spirit of generosity as I piled bills on the table.
“Are you sure?” asked the waiter as he looked at the large tip. Yes, we
were sure.
I don’t know why the waiter wanted to be generous at the same time as
Reef. It might have something to do with one of the Bible’s proverbs,
which says, “A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others
will be refreshed.” How’s that for a valuable tip?

—Kim

“A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be

refreshed” (Proverbs 11:25, NIV).
 November 15

In this world it is not what we take up,

but what we give up, that makes us rich.
—Henry Ward Beecher

R
ichard Branson pushed the play button and listened to the demo tape
left by the eighteen-year-old musician named Mike Oldfield.
Richard owned a successful music store in London, so he had heard a lot
of different kinds of music. But he had never heard anything like this
before. It was a sound of bells mixed with flutes and guitars. “I remember
thinking it was hauntingly gorgeous,” said Richard.
He took the tape to the different record companies, but none were
interested. Sure, it was good, but it had no singers. They couldn’t imagine
that an instrumental album would be successful. Richard decided he would
start his own record company to share Mike’s music. He called it Virgin
Records, and their first album was Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells.
Next he planned a big concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall so people
could hear Mike’s awesome music. Famous guest musicians agreed to join
Mike on stage. It was just the event that was needed to launch the album.
But things took a turn for the worse. While driving to the concert, Mike,
who was extremely shy, had a panic attack. “Look, Richard, I can’t go
through with it,” he said. “I can’t go on stage and face people.”
Richard thought fast. As he saw it, the success of his new company
rested on this moment. He turned to Mike and said, “I know that you can’t
psychologically do the concert, but, uh . . .” Here Richard pulled the key
out of the luxury car he was driving. “If I was to give you the keys to this
Bentley, do you think you could overcome your fears?”
Mike paused for a moment and said, “All right.”
Tubular Bells became a big hit, and Richard later sold the Virgin Record
company for one billion dollars.
A time may come when you need to risk some luxury or possession that
you’re holding on to in order to follow the path that Jesus has for you. Be
ready to make that sacrifice, and you’ll be ready for a fantastic future.

—Kim

“The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls,

who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he
had and bought it” (Matthew 13:45, 46).
 November 16

I am not a crook.
—Richard Nixon

I am not a crook,” President Richard Nixon declared at a press conference

in 1973. He had never liked news reporters very much, but now they
were asking annoying questions about a burglary at Democratic
headquarters in Washington, DC.
Five men had broken into the offices to bug the phones and copy
documents. They had large sums of money that were traced back to the
Committee to Reelect the President. As time went on, it became obvious
that the president’s top men had ordered the break-in and that the president
had run a crooked effort to cover it up. Certain that he would be charged
with a crime, Nixon resigned from the United States presidency less than a
year after claiming he was not a crook.
I really don’t think President Nixon considered himself to be a bad guy.
In fact, few people think they are much worse than anyone else. In the
book How to Win Friends and Influence People, you can read the story of
“Two Gun” Crowley. At eighteen years old, he was already one of the
most dangerous criminals in New York City. Following his murder of a
police officer, he became the center of a police chase that trapped him in a
fifth-floor apartment. For two hours he fired at the three hundred lawmen
outside his window while his girlfriend reloaded his guns.
After being hit four times, he scribbled out a note addressed “To whom
it may concern.” As blood flowed onto the paper, he wrote: “Under my
coat is a weary heart, but a kind one—one that would do nobody any
harm.”
We are all sinners, whether we want to admit it or not. But the Bible
says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our
sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” Only with the purifying
power of God in our lives will any of us be able to honestly say, “I am not
a crook.”

—Kim

“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not
in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our
sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:8, 9, NIV).
 November 17

The moments of happiness we enjoy take us by surprise.

It is not that we seize them, but that they seize us.
—Ashley Montagu

E
very year when the Super Bowl rolls around, I remember the time I
won a free, all-expenses-paid trip to the Super Bowl. I never win
drawings and raffles at church and school socials, but I hit the big-time
once.
For those of you who want to know how I pulled this off, here’s my
secret: I used my Visa card. One day in October I went to Sports Authority
and bought an exercise outfit for my sister for Christmas. I charged it.
A couple months later I got a notice that I’d won the Visa/Sports
Authority Super Bowl Sweepstakes. Wow! I could hardly believe it
(actually, I didn’t believe it at first—I thought it was a scam).
My family and friends couldn’t believe it either. After all, I wasn’t even
a football fan! (Notice I said wasn’t.)
The Super Bowl was in Atlanta that year, and when I arrived, I met
Dawn, who was senior marketing manager at Visa at the time. I just had to
ask her one question.
“Dawn, what were my odds of winning this all-expenses-paid trip to the
Super Bowl?”
She smiled and said, “One in 1.1 million.”
“Are you serious? How did it work?”
“Well, during the months of September and October all the Visa charges
at Sports Authority stores nationwide were isolated, and a computer
randomly selected one—yours!”
I was amazed. Then Dawn told me about another program run in 1998
and 1999 (sadly, not anymore) called “Visa’s Magic Moments.” She
explained, “If a consumer’s Visa purchase’s processing time matched that
day’s randomly selected one-second ‘magic moment,’ the consumer won.
A credit would appear on their next statement.”
She added, “One man’s daughter’s college tuition for one semester was
free!”
Cool, huh?
Well, your odds of winning a free trip to a Super Bowl aren’t great. But
your chances of going to heaven are fabulous. Jesus bought our ticket with
the sacrifice of His blood and is preparing our rooms. Soon He’ll come
back for us. Now, that will be a magic moment!

—Lori

“If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you
to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:3).
 November 18

Many a small thing has been made

large by the right kind of advertising.
—Mark Twain

A
s a kid, my favorite place in the grocery store was the cereal aisle.
There were so many shiny boxes filled with crunchy combinations
of sugar and food coloring. And sometimes those boxes had prizes inside!
I remember begging my mom for Trix cereal because it included a little
plastic airplane.
Mom wasn’t easy to convince. She believed that breakfast cereal—like
dog food—should be cheap and healthy. For breakfast, we had either
boiled oatmeal or her homemade granola, which was basically oatmeal
formed into dry clumps.
Eventually Mom did say “yes,” and I couldn’t wait to get home and root
around in the box to find my prize.
All kinds of things have been given away in cereal boxes to get the
attention of kids like me, but one of the most interesting was when the
Quaker Oats Company gave away a piece of Canada.
When you opened your box of Puffed Wheat, you didn’t get a clod of
dirt covered in moose hair. No, you got an official-looking deed of land for
one square inch of property in Canada’s Yukon territory—the site of a
famous gold rush.
I’m not sure what you’re supposed to be able to do with a piece of land
one inch across. I guess you could plant one carrot. Or dig for gold with a
teaspoon. One thing is for sure: it wouldn’t take long to mow.
 Well, it turned out that the fancy-looking land deeds in the cereal boxes
weren’t real. Quaker Oats did own land in Canada, but none of the land
was legally transferred to breakfast cereal customers. Ten years after the
promotion, Canada eventually took back the property because of unpaid
taxes. Now it’s a golf course.
If you bought cereal hoping to own real estate in the Yukon, you were
left empty-handed. To be honest, many of those colorful boxes of cereal
are empty of any real value—nutritional or otherwise. I have to admit that
some of the healthiest foods don’t come in shiny boxes, just like Mom’s
granola.

—Kim

“At the end of ten days their features appeared better and fatter in flesh
than all the young men who ate the portion of the king’s delicacies. Thus
the steward took away their portion of delicacies and the wine that they
were to drink, and gave them vegetables” (Daniel 1:15, 16).
 November 19

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth
on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and
dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
—Abraham Lincoln

I
n 1863, President Abraham Lincoln was invited to make remarks at the
dedication of a National Cemetery at the location of the Battle of
Gettysburg. He was not the main speaker at the event. Edward Everett,
widely known as the finest orator in the country, spoke for two hours, his
voice ringing out over the crowd of twenty thousand.
Then Lincoln stood up, delivered the ten sentences of the Gettysburg
Address, and sat down. People weren’t sure what had happened. Some
remembered a churchlike silence followed the speech. Others remembered
sustained applause. One person who recognized the beauty of the speech
was Edward Everett, who wrote to Lincoln saying, “I should be glad if I
could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion,
in two hours, as you did in two minutes.”
Those of a different political party than the president had critical words.
The Chicago Times newspaper said, “The cheek of every American must
tingle with shame as he reads the silly, flat and dishwatery utterances of
the man who has to be pointed out to intelligent foreigners as the President
of the United States.”
Ouch. But it’s also kind of embarrassing to dismiss a speech that would
become the most recited oration in the nation. On the 150th anniversary of
the Battle of Gettysburg, The Patriot-News of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania,
apologized for referring to the speech as “silly remarks.” The paper
admitted that they “failed to recognize [the speech’s] momentous
importance, timeless eloquence, and lasting significance.”
Their apology showed the right amount of humility and respect. Saying
you’re sorry for writing or speaking harsh words can always bring healing.
By the way, Lincoln made an error when he said “the world will little
note, nor long remember what we say here.” Well, 156 years after that
November day, we still remember Lincoln’s opening line: “Four score and
seven years ago . . .”

—Kim

“Don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will
be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!” (James 5:9, NIV).
 November 20

The power in God’s dream for you is limitless. To see that

dream and act upon it can change your immediate physical
circumstance, even mold and alter your destiny. Nothing
can stand in the way of a dream birthed in the mind of God.
—Wintley Phipps

A
s a teenager with a smooth baritone voice, Wintley Phipps was
drawn to the glamorous world of pop music. He met the superstars
of his time, Little Richard, Sly Stone, and Tom Jones. And he dreamed of
being a superstar himself.
He got a gig in a nightclub and liked to amp up the crowd with his
singing talent. His voice opened many doors, including an invitation to
Kingsway College in Oshawa, Ontario. It was a great opportunity, but as
Wintley attended there he became restless.
One evening he blew up at the dean of men. “I can’t stand this place any
longer,” stated Wintley. “I don’t fit in here with all these stupid rules and
regulations. I’m leaving just as soon as I can get a train back home.”
Dean Culmore looked at him calmly. “Is that what you really want to
do, Wintley?”
“Yes,” spat out the lanky teenager. “We’re not allowed to do anything
we want to do. I don’t think I could ever reach my destiny from here.”
The dean paused, then looked the boy in the eye. “For once, why don’t
you do what God wants you to do, Wintley, instead of what you want to
do?”
Writing about that time in his autobiography The Power of a Dream,
Wintley says, “Instinctively I knew that I would never be fulfilled, I would
never fit in anywhere, I would never have peace until I yielded my life to
God’s irresistible will.”
That night he turned his life over to new management. “Lord,” he
prayed, “whatever You want me to do, I’ll do it.”
So did God snatch away his dream of becoming a pop music star? Well,
Wintley might say that God took that dream and upgraded it. The man
with a booming baritone has had a stellar career singing spiritual songs. He
has performed on TV shows like Saturday Night Live and The Oprah
Winfrey Show. He has sung for presidents and been nominated for
Grammy Awards.
What are your dreams for the future? Why not turn them over to God
and see if you’re eligible for a dream upgrade?

—Kim

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart

and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight” (Proverbs 3:5, 6, NIV).
 November 21

You must remember to love people and use things,

rather than to love things and use people.
—Fulton J. Sheen

I
’ll tell you when the things of this earth grow strangely dim; it’s when
you have to move them to a new house. After packing your third box of
cat toys, you begin to wonder, How did we end up with so much stuff ?
Our closets are full of stuff, our basements are full of stuff, and if you’re
a girl, your purses are full of stuff. Now, in all honesty, if I had to be
stranded on an island with only one object, I’d vote for my wife’s purse.
Food, building materials, medical supplies—it’s all in there.
The purse is such a good idea that I think men should have them. Guys
could carry their most important possessions with them wherever they
went: Little Debbie snacks, a cell phone charger, and maybe a pet hamster.
School would be a better place if guys carried purses. I can imagine a
student saying, “Hey, a screw just popped out of my laptop. Does anyone
have a six-millimeter Allen wrench?” Then all the guys in the class would
start rummaging through their purses until they found one.
Whether we have a purse or not, we all have plenty of stuff. Some of it
seems precious. Then I think of those TV interviews with families standing
in front of a home leveled by an earthquake or fire. They always say,
“Yeah, we lost everything, but that doesn’t matter. We’re all safe.”
When we weigh our relationships against our possessions, there’s no
contest. The more intense the relationship, the more dramatically it
devalues everything around it. Which is just another way of saying that
when you turn your eyes upon Jesus, the things of earth will grow
strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.

—Kim

“He said to them, ‘Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of
greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions’ ” (Luke
12:15, NIV).
 November 22

The worst thing to me would be that you put on the face

you think people want to see, and then they don’t like it
and you think, Would they have liked the real me?
—Elizabeth Edwards

R
oyal Caribbean ships often bring their passengers to the town of
Labadee in the country of Haiti. Labadee is all about fun in the sun.
It has a long, curving beach, palm trees, waterslides, trampolines, and a
superlong zip line that lets you fly over the bay.
Every day, the village is filled with three to four thousand ship
passengers who eat, shop, and lie in the sun while their skin sizzles and
burns.
But when the cruise ship sails away in the evening, Labadee disappears.
All the Haitians selling souvenirs go home. So do those who were serving
food or running the zip line. Labadee is not a real village. It has no homes,
so schools, and—believe or not—no Walmart. It exists only for people
vacationing on cruise ships.
Why does the cruise company make an artificial town instead of sailing
to one of the dozen port cities in Haiti? Well, real towns can be messy.
Tourists would see people suffering in extreme poverty. They might be
bothered by pushy street vendors selling trinkets or even be robbed by
criminals.
At Labadee, everything can be controlled so that tourists see only
happy, healthy people. They don’t have to see, hear, or smell anything
unpleasant.
 Do you ever feel like you can’t be real with people? Sometimes we hide
our weaknesses and pretend to be smarter, richer, or tougher than we
actually are. It is pride that pushes us to be something we’re not in order to
impress others.
Jesus says, “Come as you are.” That’s how you can tell if someone
honestly loves you—they see your real self and they accept you anyway.
Give people a chance to see the real you today. Like Labadee, fake is OK
for a few hours, but who wants to live like that forever?

—Kim

“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and
lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:28, 29).
 November 23

“There is no greater honour than to be the instrument in

God’s hands of leading one person out of the kingdom
of Satan into the glorious light of Heaven.
—Dwight L. Moody

S
oon after his conversion, Dwight Moody resolved that he would not
let a single day pass without speaking to at least one person about
Jesus. With that attitude, you might not be surprised that he became a
world-famous evangelist.
As his life grew more busy, he would sometimes forget his resolution.
One night the minister was walking home late when it occurred to him that
he had not spoken to one single person that day about accepting Christ. As
he strolled up the Chicago street, he saw a man standing under a lamppost.
He stepped up to this stranger and said, “Are you a Christian?”
The man recognized Moody and replied, “That is none of your business,
whether I am a Christian or not. If you were not a sort of a preacher I
would knock you into the gutter for your impertinence.”
Mr. Moody said a few awkward words and went on his way.
Weeks passed by. One night Mr. Moody was in bed when he heard a
tremendous pounding at his front door. He jumped out of bed and rushed
to answer it. He wondered if the house was on fire. He opened the door
and faced a distraught man.
“Mr. Moody, I have not had a good night’s sleep since that night you
spoke to me under the lamppost,” said the stranger. “Tell me what I have
to do to be saved.”
 Mr. Moody invited him in and shared the gospel story.
If you did one thing for Jesus each day, what would it be? You can
pledge to read the Bible every day. You can promise to pray for a friend or
relative each day. Or you can plan to do something kind for someone.
Promise God a piece of your day, and see what He does with it.

—Kim

“LORD, I have called daily upon You; I have stretched out my hands to
You” (Psalm 88:9).
 November 24

It is easy to halve the potato where there is love.

—Irish proverb

K
ing Solomon, who bragged that he denied himself nothing that his
eyes desired, never had a chance to eat a potato. Neither did any
other person you know from the Bible stories. The Bible heroes might
have some questions when they get to heaven and they eat their first baked
potato with butter and a little salt. “Where have You been hiding these?”
they might ask God.
The answer is Peru. Spanish explorers found the potato in South
America and brought it over to Europe in the 1500s. People weren’t sure
what to think of the starchy tubers. But they soon discovered that you
could grow a lot of potatoes without a lot of land. (Modern farmers can
grow 170 pounds of spuds in a space the size of a parking spot.)
This was great for poor people who were often on the edge of starvation.
Now they had more to eat than when they grew wheat on the same amount
of land. Historians believe that this abundant new source of nutrition was
responsible for a quarter of the population growth in Europe between 1700
and 1900.
So when you eat some golden french fries, remember that we owe that
part of our diet to Peruvian farmers. We owe rice to the Chinese, mangoes
to the East Indians, corn to the Mexicans, and pizza to the Italians.
The same is true for spiritual food. You can learn a lot from reading the
Bible for yourself. But you can also learn from other people who have
been exploring God’s Word. Who knows what you will discover if you
join a Bible study group? You can learn from sermons as well. Instead of
feeling sorry for yourself for being bored during a sermon, listen closely to
find a tasty truth you may never have found on your own.

—Kim

“He said to them, ‘Therefore every teacher of the law who has become a
disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings
out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old’ ” (Matthew 13:52,
NIV).
 November 25

Eating a meal together can be a place of joy, celebration, and

friendship—we can show love for each other and celebrate life.
—Jean Vanier

M
en don’t eat well without supervision. Take my friend Mark as an
example. He’s an intelligent, capable guy in every regard. Except
he has no clue how to feed himself.
If his wife goes anywhere, she has to leave him a bag of chips with
detailed serving instructions. The refrigerator can be full—and he would
still starve. It’s like leaving a terrier alone with a case of Alpo and an
electric can opener.
I think all of us get lazy about food when we’re by ourselves. Before
marriage, I never made salads because I couldn’t face the grueling work of
ripping lettuce leaves. Even peeling back the aluminum foil on a TV
dinner seemed exhausting. This is embarrassing to talk about, but once I
tried to heat beans on a stove burner without taking them out of their
original can. That’s lazy.
Some of us need a food that will climb up on the table under its own
power, cover itself with gravy, and send an emergency broadcast over the
TV that supper is served. Until then, most of us will just have to make do
with breakfast cereal.
It is actually a researched fact that both boys and girls eat better when
they eat with family. Regular family meals are linked with eating more
fruit and vegetables. But that’s not all. The University of Minnesota
reported that teens who ate seven or more meals with their families each
week generally had higher grade point averages. They were also less likely
to feel depressed, drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes, or use marijuana than
those who ate with their families less than twice a week.
So just say no to eating TV dinners solo. Everyone eats better if they eat
together.

—Kim

“They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and
sincere hearts” (Acts 2:46, NIV).
 November 26

Remember that a person’s name is to that person the

sweetest and most important sound in any language.
—Dale Carnegie

Y
ou know, some words are just plain fun to say.
Ballyhoo: This words refers to promoting or making a lot of noise
about something.
Addis Ababa: The capital of Ethiopia.
Ravioli: Actually, all the names of pasta are fun to say: ziti, linguine,
tortellini.
Ginkgo biloba: A tree sometimes used in natural cures. Once a friend
gave me a bottle of ginkgo biloba pills because they heard it could
improve brain function.
Piffle: Nonsense or to talk in a feeble, aimless way.
Quagmire: Muddy land or a sticky situation.
Hootenanny: An informal performance by folk singers, typically with
the audience joining in. It’s almost as much fun to say as to attend. Which
brings us to one of the most enjoyable words to say of all time.
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious: Made popular in the old Disney
movie Mary Poppins, this word means extraordinarily good or “Hey, look,
I can say a really, really long word.”
While these words are fun to say, do you know what everyone likes to
hear most? Their name.
When writing his book of tips called How to Win Friends and Influence
People, Dale Carnegie said, “Remember that a person’s name is to that
person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.”
When you say a person’s name, it lets them know you are focused on
them and that you care about them as a person. It’s much better than
saying, “Hey, you in the green sweater.” The Bible says that God calls
each of us by name. Isn’t that good to hear?

—Kim

“Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name;
you are Mine” (Isaiah 43:1).
 November 27

We can complain because rose bushes have thorns,

or rejoice because thorns have roses.
—Alphonse Karr

I
’m feeling a surge of gratitude. At the moment, I’m thankful for hot
showers. Take away the hot shower, and you’ll see your family’s
standards of personal cleanliness drop so fast you’d think you were all in
junior camp. Soon you could go out for an evening at the symphony and
discover that even the elite of society smell like the monkey house at the
zoo.
I’m also thankful for cinnamon rolls and summer evenings and that the
dog doesn’t bite me very often.
But I don’t have to feel grateful if I don’t want to. As a holiday,
Thanksgiving is inevitable. But as a sentiment, it is entirely optional.
You can express thanksgiving for fresh raspberries—or you can
complain about their little seeds that get stuck between your teeth. You can
be sad that you can’t afford new designer shoes—or you can be thankful
that Dad doesn’t know how many shoes you already own.
If you look at it the right way, everything gives you a reason for being
grateful (with the exception of hurricanes and those little stickers they put
on fruit).
This “give thanks in all things” attitude is also evident in one of my
relatives, who was forced as a young man to live in a 1972 Chevy pickup.
“Sure, it was cold, cramped, and hygienically challenged,” he says. “And it
took a broad-minded woman to consider a date with me. But on the other
hand, there were no responsibilities and no bills. I had maximum mobility
and plenty of fresh air.”
So I’m trying to be thankful in all circumstances—to stop and take
notice of the good things around me. Hot shower or cold shower, I don’t
want to overlook God’s showers of blessings.

—Kim

“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for

this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:16–18).
 November 28

All great and honourable actions are accompanied

with great difficulties, and must be both enterprised
and overcome with answerable courages.
—William Bradford, Plymouth Colony governor

T
ime travel is possible. If you visit Plymouth, Massachusetts, you find
a village that takes you back four hundred years. In this living history
museum called Plimoth Plantation, every resident pretends to be one of the
Pilgrims who first arrived in the area in 1620.
For one thing, they talk like the King James Bible. They say “Yea” for
“Yes.” Instead of saying “I think the sun will come out,” they speak it
backward: “The sun will come out, think I.” Talking about the American
Indians, they might say they felt “a bit afeared of them.”
They cook their food in a fireplace, and it tastes terrible. Every meal
repeats some combination of blackened vegetables and corn. While they
are in character, the residents of Plimoth Plantation can’t enjoy a bag of
chips or a Kit Kat.
If you try to talk with them about cars or mobile phones, they just look
at you with amazement. “I’ve never heard of such a thing,” they say. There
is a modern world out there with jets and space stations and pizza, but it is
part of their job to block it out.
In a similar way, modern men and women can block out the spiritual
world. “If we don’t see it, it doesn’t exist,” they say. They are surrounded
by nature—God’s very own craft project—but they choose not to see Him.
Meanwhile, their friends and neighbors have their eyes opened to see how
God is providing for their needs and answering their prayers.
Isn’t it interesting that God stays just invisible enough so that everyone
has the choice to see Him or not? Our heavenly Father provides for us all.
But on Thanksgiving, it is up to us whether we direct our gratitude to Him
or narrow our view to just what we can see at this place and time. Even the
Pilgrims knew better than to do that.

—Kim

“Give thanks to the LORD, call on His name. Make known His deeds
among the peoples; make them remember that His name is exalted”
(Isaiah 12:4, NASB).
 November 29

Run to need. Not from it!

—Aidan Thomas Anderson

A
idan Thomas Anderson was bored. A fancy restaurant may be a
great place for grown-ups, but the seven-year-old wanted to be
somewhere else. Anywhere else. His mom said he could leave the table if
he didn’t go far, so he went to the hallway leading to the restrooms and sat
on the floor.
Aidan checked his pockets and found his cheap harmonica. He didn’t
have any skills, but he started playing anyway. He blew one note. Then he
paused and blew another note. The night was warm, so he took off his hat
—a stylish fedora—and set it on the floor beside him. Soon he got a
surprise. A passing person dropped some money in his upturned hat.
That’s interesting, he thought and kept playing. More people gave him
tips.
When his mom was ready to leave the restaurant, he showed her the
money in his fedora. It totaled eighty dollars. It was an astonishing amount
of cash for a kid his age. What would he do with it?
He had heard that orphans in Africa were eaten up with parasites. One
dollar would buy four pills, which could purge the parasites and give the
children a chance to recover healthy lives. His eighty dollars in tip money
could buy 320 pills. I can make a difference, he thought. So he gave it all
away to this good cause.
As people heard what he had done, he was invited to tell his story to
groups. They gave him more donations to help others. After five years he
had raised sixty thousand dollars. Now that he is a teenager, he travels the
country—and the world—sharing the necessity and joy of giving.
“Don’t wait to find your passion in giving,” he says. “Find it now, find
it today. Use who you are and what you love to make a difference.”
He’s had quite an adventure since that boring night at a restaurant. And
you know something else? Today he can really jam on that harmonica.

—Kim

“Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said, ‘It is more
blessed to give than to receive’ ” (Acts 20:35).
 November 30

It’s not a slam at you when people are rude.

It’s a slam at the people they’ve met before.
—F. Scott Fitzgerald

I
t was a drizzly winter day as I made my way across the city park. I
noticed a young man with a dog on a leash coming in my direction. The
dog was a white terrier of some sort with short legs and a lumpy, lopsided
head. My, that’s an ugly dog, I thought.
I hate to admit this, but sometimes when I think of something, I also say
it out loud at the same time. This was one of those occasions. I have no
explanation except that I honestly thought of my comment as a friendly
observation. Sort of like, “Hey, we sure have had a lot of cold weather
lately, haven’t we?” I mean, who cares if his dog is ugly or not? It wasn’t
like the dog was trying to get a date to the prom, right?
The young man blinked. I don’t think he would have been more
surprised if I had dumped a bucket of potatoes on his head. He sputtered
an insult of his own, gave the leash a jerk, and walked quickly away.
This event happened many years ago, and I still feel bad for ruining the
man’s day with my rude comment. But here’s the worst of it: I may have
ruined the day for several people. Researchers have found that rudeness is
contagious like a disease. If you treat Billy rudely, it increases the odds
that Billy will go and treat Sarah in an uncivilized manner.
So it is very likely that the man I met in the park went on to make a curt
comment to the next person he saw. Maybe he insulted his girlfriend’s hair
or made fun of the way a friend pronounced “aluminum.”
 It’s strange to think that our words can infect people like a flu bug.
Maybe we should keep our mouth clean in the same way that we wash our
hands to keep viruses from spreading.
It doesn’t matter if your dog is ugly, but it can affect a lot of people if
your words are.

—Kim

“The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among

our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of
nature” (James 3:6).
 December 1

Grace is nothing more nor less than the face that love
wears when it meets imperfection, weakness, failure, sin.
—Joseph Cooke

T
he comedian Jim Gaffigan made me laugh when he described the
leafy vegetable kale as “really bitter spinach with hair.” I guess we
all have foods that we would prefer to leave in the back of the refrigerator.
When President George H. W. Bush turned sixty, he said to his wife,
Barbara, “I am never going to eat broccoli again.” And, according to Mrs.
Bush’s last report, he hasn’t. President Harry Truman also disliked
brussels sprouts, which are like bitter baby cabbages.
I myself will run screaming from the room if someone serves boiled
okra, a vegetable that seems to me as slimy as someone else’s spit.
What food makes you frown and push your plate away? Is it
mushrooms, tomatoes, or mayonnaise? Some people think cilantro—used
in Mexican cooking—tastes like soap. Others think red beets taste like
“sweet dirt.”
Then there are foods that would make almost all of us gag. In Iceland
they eat shark meat that they have left to rot in the ground until it smells
like floor cleaner. In Cambodia they like fried spiders the size of
tarantulas. Ewww!
Today’s quote says that the definition of grace is showing love for
someone who is not very lovely. Our sins may repel God in the same way
as a plate of fried spiders would repel us, but His love reaches down to us
anyway. And His grace does something else. It makes us more lovely, so
that one day we will be fit company when we sit down at heaven’s banquet
table. Where they may, or may not, have brussels sprouts.

—Kim

“God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still
sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
 December 2

With all the abundance we have of computers and

computing, what is scarce is human attention and time.
—Satya Nadella

N
obody begs for my advice, but I am a guy and therefore possess a
need to “share” my opinion—even when people show small signs of
disinterest, such as sticking their fingers in both ears and singing the
“Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Today I would like to reach into my
storehouse of wisdom and talk about computers.
Where did the personal computer (PC) come from? Once upon a time
computers were big, expensive machines that performed dull jobs, such as
printing insurance bills. Of course, a big, expensive machine sparks the
same response in grown men that a stray puppy does in little girls—we
want to bring it home.
When guys were finally able to buy their very own personal computer,
they weren’t exactly sure what to do with it. They considered sending
insurance bills to their friends, then settled on the idea of using the
computer as a typewriter. And so it remains to this day. My home
computer is powerful enough to predict the earth’s weather patterns. What
do I use it for? To type stuff.
How do I get my parents to buy me a new computer? Remind your
parents that if you don’t learn to use the latest computer, you’ll be left
behind in school and never get a job. So ask them if they mind if you live
in their basement for the rest of your life. Usually that works.
How do I get on the internet? You will find the most helpful
information about getting on the internet . . . um . . . on the internet.
Are computers good or evil? Let me be quick to point out that
computers are not the root of all evil. I think that’s either money or big
government—I’m not sure which. But I’ll tell you one thing: fiddling with
computers can absorb all your time. Some folks who ignore technology
find they have more time for people. In my opinion, that could be a good
thing.
You can take your fingers out of your ears now.

—Kim

“Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works,
not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together” (Hebrews 10:24, 25).
 December 3

The secret to permanently breaking any bad habit

is to love something greater than the habit.
—Bryant McGill

O
ne evening my mom and I rushed to get ready for the school’s
Christmas program. My dad and sister had already walked ahead to
the gym. We lived right behind the school, so Mom and I headed down the
stairs to the basement door.
Because we were in a hurry, we didn’t turn on the light. But as we
stepped into the dark basement, eerily lit by the moon outside the glass
doors, we saw him.
My mother gasped and stepped backward on my toes, almost knocking
me over. My heart began to pound and I caught my breath as I saw the
outline of the man in the shadows. He was between us and the glass doors.
We stood frozen—and so did he. He didn’t move an inch.
Finally my mom found enough courage to reach her hand behind me
and flip on the light switch. I exhaled the breath I had been holding all this
time. And then I laughed.
There perched on the Ping-Pong table was Smoking Sam. This lifelike
mannequin had become part of my dad’s “5-Day Plan to Stop Smoking”
presentations. Lacking arms and a lower body, Smoking Sam had a
cigarette-sized hole in his mouth so he could “smoke” cigarettes. Then my
dad would turn him around, exposing his back and showing what those
cigarettes did to his “lungs,” which consisted of a white filter now turned
an ugly, sticky brown and black from the nicotine.
 Smoking Sam was a favorite character among attendees at these
sessions. He had a way of scaring the cigarettes right out of their pockets!
I had watched my dad’s presentation many times and listened to the
struggles of the attendees. I came to admire the people who, with God’s
help, ignored their cravings and quit a highly addictive habit.
Well, Smoking Sam remained in our basement until the next series of
meetings, and I grew comfortable playing downstairs and hanging out with
him. And I never found myself tempted to smoke cigarettes. Maybe
Smoking Sam had scared me enough too.

—Lori

“Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is
in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?”
(1 Corinthians 6:19).
 December 4

I have been impressed with the urgency of doing.

Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being
willing is not enough; we must do.
—Leonardo da Vinci

W
hen Matthew came for a visit, he left the place a complete mess.
Matthew was a hurricane that began near Africa and then crossed
the Atlantic, where he left a trail of destruction through Haiti, Cuba, and
the Bahamas. Then he tracked up the East Coast of America.
I walked along Vilano Beach in North Florida and saw where the
hurricane had pushed waves a hundred feet up onto the beach. The water
powerwashed away tons of sand, which wouldn’t be so terrible except that
million-dollar houses had been built on that sand.
Looking at one house, I noticed that the waves had washed away all the
sand under the house and driveway so that you could see daylight
underneath. The whole floor of the house collapsed and dumped furniture,
books, and clothes into the new “basement” made by Matthew. I could
walk under the house and look up into their living room.
Right next door to this battered home was a smaller two-story house. It
had no visible damage. The owners had belted the house with a concrete
and steel foundation that resisted the worst the hurricane could throw at it.
It reminded me of the parable that Jesus told about the wise and foolish
builders. The foolish man built on sand and had problems. Jesus said that
this builder was like a person who hears the instructions that Jesus gives
for living a good life, but then never does them.
 Somehow, knowing what is right and even talking about what is right at
Sabbath School isn’t nearly as useful as doing what is right. When we
actually act on the teachings of Jesus, we are strengthened for the storms in
life. We will have a foundation that won’t get washed out from under us.

—Kim

“Anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a

person who builds a house on sand” (Matthew 7:26, NLT).
 December 5

One reason sin flourishes is that it is treated like

a cream puff instead of a rattlesnake.
—Billy Sunday

T
here were two sides to Dr. Mounce. There was the nice side. You
could see immediately that he was friendly and energetic. He was
generous and interested in helping people. Maybe that’s why he became a
medical doctor.
In contrast to his nice side, there were his writing pens. Dr. Mounce
gave away lots of ballpoint pens with messages imprinted on them. The
messages were as brash as getting hit in the face with a wet weasel. Here’s
an example:
“Tobacco users have halitosis, body & clothes & homes stink—for
shame.”
Here’s another message he gave away on pens: “50,000 people stopped
smoking last week. They died. You may be next.”
Dr. Mounce just plain hated smoking. He saw how it hurt his patients,
and he wanted it wiped from the earth. “Stop smoking today,” said one of
his pens. “Give your body time to recover from the deadly filthy habit. Be
happy with you.”
It seems like the good doctor had figured out how to love sinners and
hate the sin. Hating sin is the beginning of getting rid of it. It was a hate
for slavery that ended that practice.
A leader from the early days of Christianity named Ignatius said, “It is
impossible for a man to be freed from the habit of sin before he hates it,
just as it is impossible to receive forgiveness before confessing his
trespasses.”
Is there a sin in your life that you’re beginning to really hate? If so, I
know where you can get some pens imprinted.

—Kim

“Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good”

(Romans 12:9, NIV).
 December 6

He who is not contented with what he has, would

not be contented with what he would like to have.
—Socrates

I have a good life, but every once in a while I notice that some people live
better. Like the time I accidentally ended up in a luxury hotel. It was a
cool morning in October, and I noticed that the towel racks were heated.
So I was enveloped in a fluffy warm towel as soon as I got out of the
shower.
That’s when I decided that I would like to be rich. My towels would
always be warm. I could be like Jackie Onassis, who had the sheets on her
bed changed twice a day so that they would feel crisp and clean whether
she was turning in for the night or just taking an afternoon nap.
You can go to a higher level of luxury and drive around in a Rolls-
Royce in which they arrange tiny fiber-optic lights in the car’s ceiling.
That way, when you look up, you see the constellations of the night sky.
Or you can take it to a still higher level of luxury like that of Catherine
de’ Medici, the queen of France. She hired a man whose only job was to
make perfumes that would give her a smell different from any other
woman.
You can take luxury to an even higher level. It is said that a man of
ancient Greece was so pampered that he could not sleep on a bed of rose
petals because it gave him blisters. Wow!
It just goes to show that no matter where you are in life, you can find
someone who has it better than you. Paul, the guy who wrote most of the
New Testament, experienced both fine living and the not-so-fine living of
being thrown in prison. He said he had learned the secret of being content
in any situation. For him, any kind of life was good if God was with him.
Even if life isn’t a bed of roses, with the right company, it’s good
enough.

—Kim

“I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I

have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation,
whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do
all this through him who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:12, 13, NIV).
 December 7

Whatever is given to Christ is

immediately touched with immortality.
—A. W. Tozer

H
ave you ever been to Kyrgyzstan? Yeah, I didn’t think so. But if you
go to this mountainous country near China, you should visit the
Seventh-day Adventist church in Tokmok. You will notice that after the
children’s story, the storyteller will ask, “Did anyone memorize a Bible
verse this week?”
Then you will see a boy named Vitaly raise his hand to share a Bible
verse. He does it every Sabbath. When he was asked why he memorizes a
new Bible verse every week, Vitaly smiled shyly and said, “I memorize
verses as a gift to God.”
A while back, his Sabbath School teacher had told the children, “God
gives us many gifts. What gift do you have for God today?”
Vitaly had thought about it. God had given him many gifts. He lived
with his grandparents, whom he loves. He had a safe home, a warm bed,
and a few toys. And he attended a good school. But Vitaly didn’t have any
cash for an offering to God. For a long time he wondered what gift he
could give.
Vitaly thought, I have a pretty good memory. Maybe I’ll memorize a
verse from the Bible every week. When he told his Sabbath School teacher
about his idea, she agreed that memorizing would make a wonderful gift
for God.
Vitaly’s story went on to inspire kids from all around the world when
Adventist Mission editor Andrew McChesney shared it in the mission
quarterly.
What gift do you have for God? Maybe you can come up with a creative
gift just like Vitaly. Your gift may be to sing enthusiastically in church or
to visit a lonely neighbor. Remember, all the wise men didn’t bring the
same gift to the baby Jesus. They each had something special to give. And
so do you.

—Kim

“Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use
them” (Romans 12:6, ESV).
 December 8

Great effects often result from small beginnings.

—Elizabeth Heyrick

D
o you like sweets? Many of us are drawn like a powerful magnet to
cookies, cakes, candies, and soft drinks. Can you imagine giving up
eating anything made with sugar? That is exactly what Elizabeth Heyrick
did because she believed that she could make the world a better place by
not buying sugar.
She lived in the time of slavery. Slaves on Caribbean islands such as
Jamaica grew sugarcane. Then the sugar was sold in Elizabeth’s country of
England. The money from the sale of the sugar bought more slaves, who
were worked to death in ten to twelve years.
Elizabeth and her friends believed that if they stopped buying sugar
from the Caribbean, they could shut off the money that was buying slaves.
One pamphlet described it in gory terms by saying, “In every pound of
sugar used we may be considered as consuming two ounces of human
flesh.”
Elizabeth wrote a pamphlet herself that said, “We are all guilty of
supporting and perpetuating slavery. The West Indian planter and the
people of this country stand in the same moral relation to each other as the
thief and receiver of stolen goods.”
Her ideas began to spread. The poet Robert Southey spoke of tea as “the
blood-sweetened beverage.” When English citizens sat down for a cup of
hot tea, more and more of them refused to add sugar. The demand for
Caribbean sugar dropped by a third. Sugar grown in the country of India
without slave labor began to sell in huge quantities. People bought sugar
bowls imprinted with the words “East India sugar. Not made by slaves.”
Stores promised to stop selling sugar from the Caribbean.
Elizabeth gave up sugar to show that she was sincere in her concern for
the slaves. Her spirit of sacrifice spread until three hundred thousand
people in England were also boycotting “slave sugar.” Nine years after she
wrote her pamphlet, slavery ended in the Caribbean. Elizabeth was
absolutely right when she said, “Great effects often result from small
beginnings.”

—Kim

“To what shall we liken the kingdom of God? . . . It is like a mustard

seed which, when it is sown on the ground, is smaller than all the seeds on
earth; but when it is sown, it grows up and becomes greater than all
herbs” (Mark 4:30–32).
 December 9

When anger rises, think of the consequences.

—Confucius

W
hen I was in high school, I’d have my hair cut by a family friend.
Lorna worked at a salon during the day, but she’d come to our
home one evening every few months and cut my mom’s hair and then
mine—at a discounted price.
Now, Lorna was a talented hairstylist, but she was also a friend who felt
comfortable opening up to us. She’d be snipping away at my mom’s hair
and talking about the fun camping trip she and her husband had enjoyed.
Snip, snip, snip. My mom would ask interesting questions, and Lorna
would chatter away happily. Snip, snip, snip.
“Thank you,” my mom would say, looking at the result in a hand mirror.
“You know just how to work with my curly hair.”
But then sometimes Lorna wasn’t having a great day. As she stood over
one of us sitting in our kitchen chair, she’d rant, “So, my husband brings
home this enormous set of stereo speakers.” Snip, snip, snip. “And I said,
‘Where are you going to put those monstrosities?” Snip, snip, snip. “And
how much did they cost? You might have discussed this with your wife!”
On those evenings, the haircuts didn’t turn out so well. Unfortunately, I
was sitting in the chair the night she told us she was going to divorce her
husband. “He’s just a lazy bum!” she reported. Snip, snip, snip. “And I’m
tired of working long hours while he lounges around!” Snip, snip, snip.
Her small, sharp scissors were flying through my hair, now grazing past
my ear, now edging along my chin. “Yeah, his free ride is over!” Snip,
snip.
“Ouch!” I cried, my hand going to my neck. It felt wet. Blood was
running down to my collar.
“Oh, I’m so sorry!” Lorna exclaimed.
I ran to the bathroom. There, along my neck, was a gouge where her
scissors had stabbed me. As I cleaned up the wound, I thought, Boy, when
she’s good, she’s very good. But when she’s mad, she’s bad.
That’s why it’s good to remember the snippet of wisdom from King
Solomon that follows.

—Lori

“Do not make friends with a hot-tempered person, do not associate with
one easily angered” (Proverbs 22:24, NIV).
 December 10

God’s address is at the end of your rope.

—Dallas Willard

I
t had been a great summer for fourteen-year-old Juan Rivera. His
family had moved north to Oklahoma to work in the agricultural fields.
They were able to earn enough money to feed their large family.
The kids made friends, and Mr. Rivera met people who wanted Bible
studies. When the summer ended, no one wanted to leave. But as the
weather turned colder, the Riveras found less work on the farms.
Eventually, snow covered the ground and there was no work at all. They
could not afford enough food to fill all the hungry mouths sitting around
the table.
It was during a hungry time that the children remembered a box of
money that their father had hidden away. “Let’s use that money to buy
food,” they said.
“No,” said Mr. Rivera. “Those are the tithes and offerings we’re saving
to take back to our church in Texas.”
Juan and the other children argued, but it was no use. Mr. Rivera was
sorry that his kids went to bed hungry. But he couldn’t spend money that
belonged to God. All he could do was pray late into the night that the Lord
would provide.
Mr. Rivera was still awake after midnight when he looked outside. The
full moon lit up the snow-covered fields. The stars sparkled. It was too
beautiful to keep to himself.
“Hey, kids, get up,” he said. “We’re going for a ride.”
 Juan wrapped himself in a blanket and piled into the old Ford station
wagon. It was a great night for a drive. They could see for miles. In the
distance, Juan saw the glitter of eyes by the road. Dad stopped the car, and
the kids chased after a family of raccoons.
As the raccoons ran away into the dark, the children noticed three boxes
that the creatures had been sniffing. The kids opened the largest box and
found it full of frozen food. So were the other boxes.
Not only was there enough food to fill up Juan and his brothers and
sisters, but there was enough to share with other families.
Juan never forgot that midnight ride and what it taught him about
trusting God.

—Kim

“I have been young, and now am old; yet I have not seen the righteous
forsaken, nor his descendants begging bread” (Psalm 37:25).
 December 11

Worry is the interest paid by those who borrow trouble.

—George Washington

T
here are simply not enough things that can eat you.
In the old days, when Mrs. Daniel Boone left the house, she had a
good chance of meeting a bear. That made her life much more interesting.
Even a school board meeting can be thrilling if you’re anxious about
making it home afterward without wringing bear spit out of your skirt.
But today you can travel far and wide in North America and never be in
danger from any of God’s creatures—unless you count the bacteria in
truck stop restrooms.
So we’re living in a country that’s as safe as a parked Volvo, and,
frankly, we will perish from boredom if we don’t introduce some danger
into our lives. That’s why we can be grateful for the internet.
I recently came across a website that added a bracing sense of danger to
my holiday celebrations. This site alerted me to the hazards of spruce
Christmas trees. Apparently, spruce needles are so sharp that if a child
should accidentally brush against the tree—mothers, you may want to
cover your ears to avoid the horror I am about to describe—the child will
experience a painful, pricking sensation on exposed areas of his skin!
Perhaps you’ve also noticed that television news shows try to whip up a
sense of danger in everyday life. I tuned in the other night to hear this
teaser: “Are you sleeping on something dangerous? Your bed could turn
into a ball of fire!”
Well, I had to watch. A very serious investigative reporter demonstrated
how your mattress and bed linen will catch fire if—surprise—you leave a
candle under the bed.
On this earth we’re pretty safe, but never perfectly safe. There is always
enough danger to give us a little anxiety—which may be why Jesus put a
few lines in his Sermon on the Mount about not being anxious about
tomorrow. He seemed to know that even in a time when bears aren’t
roaming the streets, people can still get eaten alive by worry.

—Kim

“Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall

we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles
seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things”
(Matthew 6:31, 32).
 December 12

Today you are you! That is truer than true!

There is no one alive who is you-er than you!
—Dr. Seuss

C
an you finish this sentence? “ ‘Maybe Christmas,’ he thought,
‘doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas . . . perhaps . . .
means a little bit ____!’ ”
Maybe you’ve read the book How the Grinch Stole Christmas! Or
maybe you remember the book The Cat in the Hat. Both of these were
written by Dr. Seuss. Dr. Seuss, whose real name was Theodor Seuss
Geisel, had a talent for both writing and drawing, but his work was a little
too original for some folks. In fact, his droopy drawings were downright
strange.
When Dr. Seuss submitted his first children’s book to a publisher, he got
nowhere. He remembers receiving dozens of rejection letters for his
manuscript And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. One publisher
indicated that it was “too different from other [children’s books] on the
market to warrant selling.”
But readers soon learned to love the Dr. Seuss difference, making him
one of the most famous and successful children’s authors of all time.
Do you worry that people think you’re strange?
Jesus had something to say about that: “If you belonged to the world, it
would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I
have chosen you out of the world.”
It sounds like Jesus has picked you for a special place in His kingdom.
Some people won’t understand you for the simple reason that you’re not
exactly like everyone else they know. But when you embrace being
different in the way that God wants you to be different, then interesting
things will start to happen. As Dr. Seuss once said in a book, “You’ll be on
your way up! You’ll be seeing great sights! You’ll join the high fliers who
soar to high heights.”

—Kim

“If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you
do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world” (John
15:19, NIV).
 December 13

The coolest toys don’t have to be bought; they

can be built. In fact, sometimes the only way
they’ll ever exist is if you make them yourself.
—Adam Savage

A
s we come closer to Christmas, it’s time to think of the joy of
giving. Specifically, the joy of other people giving gifts to you. Be
sure to make a list to help them know which injection-molded, high-tech
toys you want.
It might be fun to think about how different your toys are from the toys
that kids had in other times and places. About a hundred years ago, a
missionary named Samuel Konigmacher wrote about the games that kids
played in the African bush.
The girls would tie a corncob or an orange to their back, and that was
their doll baby. The boys would cut a stick for a bow, then make their own
string by rolling out a fibrous leaf on their leg. A certain kind of stiff grass
worked fine for arrows. They spun tops, and they played a game like
bowling in which teams lined up oranges on two sides. Players would
bowl oranges to try to knock out of place the oranges belonging to the
other team. They also liked to skip rope using sweet-potato vines for the
rope.
Some of their activities were so dangerous that your parents would
never, ever let you play along. Boys your age, and maybe younger, would
trap lions and leopards. One way to do this was with a deadfall trap, which
was no more than a heavy log raised on a slender stick with a rope tied to
the stick as a trigger. They put live bait under the log, and when a jungle
cat walked up to the bait, they would drop the log on it. Of course, they
had to be very close to the predator’s teeth and claws to make the trap
work.
I hope you get all the awesome toys on your Christmas list. But if you
don’t, you might have to make your own fun. There’s got to be a box of
oranges or a sweet-potato vine around there somewhere.

—Kim

“Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said, ‘It is more
blessed to give than to receive’ ” (Acts 20:35).
 December 14

Only while sleeping one makes no mistakes.

—Ingvar Kamprad

M
y cousin Teresa puts the word “fun” in funeral. She works at a
funeral home making arrangements for memorial services. One of
her jobs is creating the program folders that describe the dearly departed
and outline the order of the service. This is where she gives people the
giggles. She doesn’t do it on purpose, but she sometimes misspells words
in the program that catch people’s attention.
Like the time she wrote about the dead person’s “special friend Johnny.”
Only it came out “special fried Johnny.” At another funeral, she meant to
write that the deceased was survived by his wife, Mary. When the guests at
the funeral looked at their program, it actually talked about “his wide
Mary.”
At another funeral, she put in the program that the group would sing
“When We All Get to Heaven.” Except that when it was printed, it said,
“When We All Get to Heaving.” Sounds like a sick choice for a hymn,
doesn’t it?
Does Teresa hate herself when she makes these mistakes? Does she
curse the spell-check software that absolutely let her down? No. She just
laughs at herself and tries not to make the same goof twice. “God is
perfect,” she says. “We aren’t.”
It is pride that causes us to beat ourselves up for making mistakes. Truly
humble people accept themselves in the same way God does—as flawed
and frail humans. They aren’t happy when they make mistakes, but they
aren’t surprised either. They make the best of the situation. If they’re lucky
like Teresa, they can even find a way to put the “fun” in malfunction.

—Kim

“For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust” (Psalm

103:14).
 December 15

Surprise is the greatest gift which life can grant us.

—Boris Pasternak

C
hristmas is just around the corner—that wonderful time of year
when families get together to exchange both gifts and the flu virus.
There’s lots of shopping to do. I think it’s easiest to shop for kids
because they’re not shy about telling you what they want—sometimes
even renting billboards along your route to work.
Adults are more cagey. Especially mothers, who will say things such as,
“You don’t have to buy me anything. What more can I ask for than the
privilege of cooking for you and cleaning up after you?”
Actually, my own wife will not tell me what she wants for Christmas.
This, no doubt, is a result of my deeply held belief that the best gifts are a
surprise.
In our early years of marriage Lori would say, “I’d love to have a new
vacuum cleaner for Christmas.”
And I would respond, “Well, now I can’t get that for you, because it
wouldn’t be a surprise.”
Soon Lori learned to ask me only for things she doesn’t want. “I could
sure use some dental floss,” she’ll say.
I know I’m not the only one who values surprise. I’m thinking of
Melanie, who married into a family whose chief preholiday amusement
involves guessing what gifts are coming their way. They are not above
shaking presents, snooping in closets, or peeking into shopping bags.
Every time one of her purchases is discovered, Melanie insists on
returning it to the store, often with an in-law close behind saying, “But I
really wanted that.” One year she had to buy a new present three times for
the same relative.
In my mind, surprising gifts contain elements of the divine. When we
bring our desires to our heavenly Father, He often asserts His privilege to
surprise us—to give us something better than we asked for. Or to deliver
what we asked for in an unexpected way.
If you want someone who will simply deliver the items on your wish
list, then you’re not looking for God. You’re looking for Santa Claus.

—Kim

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down
from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of
turning” (James 1:17).
 December 16

To protest against injustice is the foundation

of all our American democracy.
—Thurgood Marshall

T
hurgood Marshall had a very serious name. But he was not a serious
student. He always got in trouble at school. And the principal always
gave him the same punishment. He told him to go down in the school
basement and memorize a section of the United States Constitution.
Thurgood said that when he left elementary school in Baltimore, he had
memorized the whole document, beginning with “We the People of the
United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union . . .”
It turned out that the Constitution became a big part of his life. When he
grew up, he became a lawyer who worked on behalf of African Americans
in a time of great prejudice. He believed that it didn’t fit with the
Constitution that blacks couldn’t go to the same schools as whites. He
helped make sure that black teachers were paid the same as white teachers.
He argued against laws that forced blacks to sit in the back of the bus.
He said, “A child born to a black mother in a state like Mississippi . . .
has exactly the same rights as a white baby born to the wealthiest person in
the United States. It’s not true, but I challenge anyone to say it is not a goal
worth working for.”
Later, Thurgood was the first African American to be appointed to the
Supreme Court. As a judge in the highest court in the land, it became his
job to interpret the Constitution he had memorized as a boy.
We remember Thurgood today as a champion of equal rights. Because
of him, we really do have a “more perfect union.”

—Kim

“He will bring justice to the poor of the people; He will save the
children of the needy, and will break in pieces the oppressor” (Psalm
72:4).
 December 17

I have a memory like an elephant. I remember

every elephant I’ve ever met.
—Herb Caen

M
y brain is a lot like our garage in that it has run out of space. At
least that’s my explanation for why I can’t remember anything.
When it comes to memory, my mind has a mind of its own. I come to it
on bended knee, saying, “Please, could you find someplace in those
billions of neurons to store my Google password?”
It says, “Sorry, I just used the last of the space for a McDonald’s jingle
—‘Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese . . .’ ”
I say, “I don’t need to know that. I’m a vegetarian!”
“I guess I forgot about that,” goes my brain with a shrug.
I really wish I could remember people’s names. Someone with a
familiar face will approach me, and I’ll desperately ring up to the brain:
What’s the name of this person who is embracing me like a long-lost
relative?
I can almost hear the brain suppress a snicker as it says, “I’m not sure I
have that file anymore. I think I had to clear it out to make room for your
part in the church Christmas play.”
Of course, we don’t want to remember everything. We don’t want to
remember the embarrassing things we said or the terrible mistakes we
made. Isn’t it comforting that God says that even He will forget our sins.
Those are memories that we can all do without.
 —Kim

“For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their
lawless deeds I will remember no more” (Hebrews 8:12).
 December 18

I would rather be Herod’s pig than his son.

—Caesar Augustus

H
erod was a completely horrible person. You may remember this guy
from the Christmas story. When the wise men arrived in the land of
the Jews and asked about the birth of a prophesied king, Herod acted all
interested and helpful, just so he could kill the newborn before He became
a threat to his own power.
This king was just plain nasty. He married a Jewish princess to increase
his status with his people, almost forgetting that he was already married.
He got his old wife and their child out of the way by banishing them to a
distant country.
Herod’s new wife got disturbed when she found out that every time
Herod went on a long trip, he gave instructions to kill her if anything
happened to him. Later, Herod became convinced that she wanted to
poison him, so he had her killed.
Actually, he was flat-out paranoid. Afraid that his sons were too eager to
take over his job as king, he had three of them executed. This caused
Herod’s boss, the same Caesar Augustus who ordered the census in Luke
2, to make this remark: “I would rather be Herod’s pig than his son.” He
knew that with the Jewish laws forbidding the eating of swine’s meat, pigs
had a better chance of survival in the palace than his own family.
Herod proved he was a homicidal maniac when he found out that wise
men had skipped town without telling him where to find the Messiah. To
make sure that future king wouldn’t slip through his fingers, he gave
orders to kill every child under the age of two in the Bethlehem area.
Herod was a powerful guy who could do whatever he wanted. But God
sent dreams to the wise men and Joseph to block Herod’s plans. Whenever
you are treated badly by kids or adults, remember that they aren’t in
control of everything. God is. And He will make sure you win in the end.

—Kim

“An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, ‘Arise,

take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I
bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him’ ”
(Matthew 2:13).
 December 19

The Son of God became a man to enable

men to become sons of God.
—C. S. Lewis

B
ack in the 1800s, if you were a mentally ill resident of New York
City, you were taken away to the lunatic asylum on Blackwell’s
Island. It’s hard to think of a place more wrapped in mystery and plunged
in depression than Blackwell’s Island. Most folks preferred not to think
about what happened there.
But all that changed because of a gutsy young reporter who went by the
name of Nellie Bly. Conspiring with her editors at the New York World,
Nellie pretended she was “melancholy” and was soon taken away to the
dreaded island.
Once on the island, she no longer pretended to be ill. “I always made a
point of telling the doctors I was sane, and asking to be released,” she said,
“but the more I endeavored to assure them of my sanity, the more they
doubted it.”
She was trapped and alone. The staff cleaned her up by dumping three
buckets of cold water over her head. A single towel was shared by dozens
of patients.
The food consisted of gruel, spoiled meat, dirty water, and bread that
was little more than dried dough. Dangerous patients were tied together
with ropes. After ten days, her friends at the newspaper came for her.
She wrote about her nightmare in a series of articles, pointing out that
the conditions at the asylum were more likely to drive a person crazy than
bring about their cure.
Her readers demanded that dramatic changes be made at Blackwell’s
Island to improve the treatment of the patients. This was made possible by
her courage and willingness to step into the world of the mentally ill and to
suffer with them.
This, of course, is what Jesus did when He gave up His preferred seating
in heaven and confined Himself to this dark planet. Compared to heaven,
earth must have seemed like an insane asylum. But because He came, we
know He cares. And we all have the hope of being set free.

—Kim

“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in
the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but
made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and
coming in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:5–7).
 December 20

When you are kind to others, it not only

changes you, it changes the world.
—Harold Kushner

B
o walked into the middle school cafeteria, sat down, and unzipped
his lunch bag. No one else sat at the table. He was going to eat
alone. Again.
Bo was autistic, which meant he was awkward in talking with other
kids. Occasionally, he would flap his hands like little wings. He was just
strange enough that no one came to sit with him and make friends.
Until today. A college guy in a football jersey slid in across from him.
“Can I sit here?” he asked politely, setting down his plate with two slices
of pizza.
“Sure, why not,” replied Bo. They began talking, and Bo discovered that
he was with Travis Rudolph, who was then the wide receiver of the Florida
State Seminoles football team. Bo was amazed. He loved the Florida State
team. He was having a great lunch.
Off to the side, an adult took a photo and sent it to Bo’s mom. “Who is
that eating with my son?” she asked.
“Just a football star,” was the idea behind the reply.
It made the mom so happy that she teared up. Her son didn’t have to eat
alone on this day.
Mom shared the photo on Facebook, and soon the story of the kind
football player showed up on sports sites. Without meaning to, Travis
Rudolph got press attention from all over the world. “I just wanted to go
say hi to the kid, because I saw him eating alone,” he told BBC.com. “I
didn’t even know anybody took a photo of it.”
It sounds like Travis made a touchdown without even knowing he had
the ball.

—Kim

“We commend ourselves as ministers of God: . . . by purity, by

knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness” (2 Corinthians 6:4–6).
 December 21

Loose Lips Sink Ships

—War Advertising Council

D
uring World War II, we worried about spies. And for good reason.
Occasionally, German submarines sneaked up to our shores under
the cover of darkness and dropped off English-speaking Nazis. Advertising
posters reminded Americans not to repeat anything they knew about war
plans. Enemy agents could overhear information and use it to better aim
their attacks against our ships and troops.
The most famous of these posters said “Loose Lips Might Sink Ships.”
The British had a similar poster that said “Zipp It! Careless Talk Costs
Lives.” Even the Germans put out the same message with a poster that
basically said, “Shame on you, blabbermouth!”
Careless talk still causes damage. During recess Averil sat with some
friends at the school entrance. The conversation turned to Ethan, and
Averil couldn’t wait to vent. “He is sooo annoying,” she began. “I mean,
he never shuts up.”
No one was agreeing with her. They just seemed to be looking in her
direction and saying nothing. Which was fine with her because she had
more to say. “You can’t have an intelligent conversation with him because
everything that comes out of his mouth is totally stupid. He is as annoying
as a herd of mosquitos.”
“He is also standing right behind you,” said Eric.
There was an awkward pause. Averil turned red and began sputtering
about the evils of eavesdropping.
 “Mosquitos don’t run in herds,” said Ethan quietly, before continuing on
his way into the school.
You may not be shocked to discover that Averil and Ethan never got
along after that. Hurtful words tend to get back to the person you’re talking
about more often than you might expect. That’s why it’s a good idea to
“Zipp it!” when you’re tempted to criticize someone. Remember, loose
lips can sink relationships.

—Kim

“Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for
necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers” (Ephesians
4:29).
 December 22

People are so worried about what they eat between Christmas

and the New Year, but they really should be worried about
what they eat between the New Year and Christmas.
—Unknown

I
f you’re reading this with friends or family, you should ask them what
foods remind them of Christmas. I bet one person will mention
peppermint candy canes or sugar cookies. But I wonder if anyone will say
that their favorite Christmas treat is grasshoppers.
This time of year is grasshopper season in the East African country of
Uganda. Rodney Muhumuza with the Associated Press wrote about the
country’s “newest snack craze.”
“Children scamper in the bush, jumping here and there to catch
grasshoppers before they hop away. On a good day, they will fill a plastic
bag with the insects to fry and eat as a snack.” A Ugandan named O. J.
Gerald described the taste, “You fry with some onion and a little bit of salt
and it’s very tasty. Very crunchy in your mouth.” Street vendors sell the
prepared insects for about the same price we pay for potato chips in North
America.
It is fitting that grasshoppers are a Christmas food because they have a
connection with the Christmas story. About the same time that an angel
came to Mary, another angel came to a priest named Zacharias to
announce the birth of a son. This son would grow up to prepare Israel for
the arrival of the Messiah. John the Baptist became a mighty prophet who
called everyone to repent from their sins and be baptized.
 And here’s the connection: the Bible says that he lived in the desert and
ate locusts, similar to grasshoppers, and wild honey. John didn’t have a
comfortable life. I’m sure he would have preferred to eat the wonderful
food that you’re enjoying during the holidays instead of locuts. But he had
a job to do for Jesus.
I guess we all have a mission to prepare people to meet Jesus. Whether
or not it involves grasshoppers, let’s hop to it.

—Kim

“Now John himself was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt
around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey” (Matthew
3:4).
 December 23

The mark of a civilized person is how

he treats those underneath him.
—Cleveland Amory

I
t was Christmas Eve when Cleveland Amory rescued a bone-thin, dirty,
and wet cat. He wrote about that experience in the best-selling book
The Cat Who Came for Christmas.
Cleveland’s heart always went out to animals, which is how he lost one
of his jobs. He was a commentator on NBC’s Today Show in 1963 when
he went to cover a “Bunny Bop.” During this fundraising event,
participants chased rabbits with clubs and stones.
Usually, his spots on the Today Show were marked by a gentle humor.
But the report on the Bunny Bop diverted to a sharper kind of sarcasm
when he suggested that it should be the participants who should be hunted
and not the rabbits. So many hunters existed that it would be humane to
“thin their ranks,” he said.
Viewers got mad, and the TV network told Cleveland to never talk
about animal rights again. But he did and got fired.
He started the Fund for Animals to provide protection for our furry
friends. One of the Fund’s most famous actions was a protest against the
clubbing of baby harp seals in Canada. Fund workers obtained a trawler,
converted it to an icebreaker, and cut through ice for five days to reach the
seals. They then painted them with a red organic dye, which was harmless
to the animals but made their coats worthless. Eventually, the clubbing of
the seals was halted.
 The Fund bought Black Beauty Ranch, a Texas hideaway for unwanted
and abused animals. When Cleveland passed away, the 1,150-acre ranch
was home to more than six hundred animals, including horses, cats, elands,
bobcats, white wolves, ostriches, iguanas, and llamas.
The Fund started by Cleveland had a motto: “We speak for those who
can’t.” Whether he was adopting a cat or protecting a llama, his kindness
to animals will never be forgotten.

—Kim

“The righteous care for the needs of their animals, but the kindest acts
of the wicked are cruel” (Proverbs 12:10, NIV).
 December 24

At Christmas, all roads lead home.

—Marjorie Holmes

O
ne Christmas Eve some years ago, I sat under the tall, lighted tree at
my parents’ house. The whole family had gathered for our tradition
of opening presents—one at a time, from the youngest to the oldest.
The youngest was Julie, my niece. As she opened a “My Twinn” doll,
she looked at it adoringly and then hugged it. We took a few pictures, and
she contentedly cradled the doll as we moved to the next family member.
Her brother, Sam, opened a box of Legos. “Oh, little Legos!” he
shouted. “Thank you!” Running to an open area on the carpet, he dumped
the box out and began to assemble it and play with it.
After we’d gone around the circle a few times, I began to notice a
pattern in reactions. Julie lined up her gifts and admired them. Sam paused
to play with each one. Doug, my brother-in-law, put all gifts to immediate
use; soon he was wearing two pairs of socks, a new belt, a hat, and a new
flannel shirt, while reading a humor book he’d received.
But my German grandma—the oldest—was the most fun. She had just
turned ninety-four, and after opening each gift, she’d exclaim, “Ach, I’ve
never seen anything like it!” or “Ach du liebe Zeit! I’ve never seen
anything so nice in all my life!”
We found that a little hard to believe, considering that she’d lived so
long and traveled extensively. But it sure made us gift givers feel good.
That was my grandma’s last Christmas on earth. But I can’t wait to hear
her say those words again—and this time I’ll know they will be absolutely
true: “Ach du liebe Zeit! I’ve never seen anything like heaven! I’ve never
seen anything so nice in all my life!”
I’m so grateful that Jesus came the first time—and I’m even more
grateful that He’s coming back—for Grandma and the rest of us.

—Lori

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard,

and no mind has imagined
what God has prepared
for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9, NLT).
 December 25

Each of us is an innkeeper who

decides if there is room for Jesus!
—Neal A. Maxwell

W
ould you like to have a storybook Christmas this year? As anyone
who has read a good Christmas story can tell you, the most
important ingredients of a wonderful, heartwarming holiday are (1)
poverty and (2) disease.
The best Christmas stories begin with a family that is so poor that they
boil old gum wrappers to make soup. The hardworking mother knits socks
for the family from pocket lint that she collects from kindly strangers. In
the evening Dad gathers the children around the dim light of their last
candle. “Things are really slow in the dental floss recycling business,” he
says. “I’m afraid there won’t be any presents this year.”
Doesn’t this sound like a great story? You’ve probably already gone to
find a Kleenex.
I once visited a Bible study class in which everyone shared a favorite
Christmas memory. And do you know what? The best stories were rooted
in poverty.
One woman told about a Christmas when her husband was going to
school on the GI Bill. They literally didn’t have a nickel to spare, so they
agreed that they wouldn’t exchange gifts. But on Christmas day her
husband surprised her with an electric toaster. Where had he found the
money? After much probing, she got him to admit that he’d skipped lunch
for a week at the university diner to save the price of the toaster.
 That is the magic—no, wait. Magic is too pagan a word—that is the
mystery and wonder and grace of Christmas: That out of poverty comes
beauty. That out of the cold weather comes family warmth. That out of a
stable comes a King.

—Kim

“She brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling
cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in
the inn” (Luke 2:7).
 December 26

If you love somebody, let them go, for if they return,

they were always yours. And if they don’t, they never were.
—Kahlil Gibran

C
hristmas is over. So right now you’re either thankful for the gifts
you received or thankful for the liberal return policy at Walmart.
If you’re thinking about returning gifts, there are several important
considerations:
Consideration one: How will the gift giver react to the return? My
family runs the whole range, from one unnamed relative, who considers it
a stain on her personal honor if you return her gift, to another, who begs
you to return her present before you’ve even torn off the wrapping. “Let’s
drive over to the store now,” she insists.
Consideration two: Is it even possible to return the gift? My brother
once received a gold Rolex watch as a present from my mother—which
was very nice, except that I had never seen gold rust before. We
discovered that my mom buys her Christmas gifts from Tijuana pushcart
vendors. Let me just say that shopping establishments with wheels rarely
have a return policy.
Consideration three: Will you get cash or store credit? Does it really
help you to get a twenty-dollar credit in the Muffin Pan Store?
Fortunately, many stores shell out cash when you come traipsing back
with their merchandise. They can’t be happy about this. They would rather
keep your money and let you keep the cabbage steamer or the electric sock
warmer.
 It must have taken courage for store owners to begin to offer a return
policy. How can you win by giving people their money back?
Sometimes I wonder why God has such a generous return policy.
Everyone whom God redeems is free to return to sin. The option can be
exercised anytime.
The devil, on the other hand, does his best to block any attempts to
return to righteous living.
So how can God win when He has such a generous return policy? His
only chance is that we’ll realize that His gifts are worth keeping.

—Kim

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do
not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1,
NIV).
 December 27

Let every man and woman count himself immortal . . .

Let him say not merely, “Christ is risen,” but “I shall rise.”
—Phillips Brooks

F
lorida is a great place to go for Christmas break if you want to warm
up. But not during the Christmas of 2017. Cold, arctic air had pushed
all the way down to Miami. You knew it was cold when the beaches were
empty and the people you did see were bundled up like polar explorers.
You also knew it was cold when you saw iguanas falling out of the trees.
South Florida boasts an active population of these big, green lizards that
have all descended from pets that escaped into the outdoors. Sometimes
you can spot them sunning themselves by a pool just like a tourist. But
mostly they hang out in trees eating leaves.
When the cold weather sweeps down on them, they stiffen up and lose
their grip on the tree branches. Thump! They fall to the ground in a frozen
position like a four-foot-long plastic toy.
Some people felt bad for the iguanas. Others felt hungry. Miami has
many immigrants from South and Central America, where they call the
iguana the “chicken of the trees.” For them, the free-falling lizards
appeared like manna from heaven.
One man couldn’t believe his luck. He drove around the city picking up
the iguanas and throwing them in his car. They were cold and gray, but as
the man drove home, the warm air in the car thawed out his passengers.
The big lizards began scrambling around the car and caused the driver to
crash.
 Remember the story of Jesus arriving at the home of a girl who had
died? Enough time had passed that mourners had gathered in the
courtyard. Then Jesus said, “She is not dead. She is sleeping.”
The mourners cackled with laughter. Of course, she is dead, they
thought. But the next thing they knew, the girl was walking out to meet
them. It probably freaked them out.
Jesus is like the heater in the car full of frozen iguanas. What’s dead
doesn’t stay dead when He’s around. Isn’t that good news?

—Kim

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in
Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).
 December 28

My hairstyle is called “I tried.”

—Unknown

A
s I mindlessly drove to school, I read the bumper stickers around
me. Some were political, some were rude, some were funny.
Then I saw a bumper sticker I could relate to. I pulled up to get a closer
look. Yup, I’d read it right. Here’s what it said: “Honk If You Hate Your
Hair.”
I felt like laying on the horn. But I wasn’t sure if they would understand
my message.
Yes, I was having a bad hair day. In fact, I’ve had more bad hair days
than good ones. How about you?
When I was dating the man who later became my husband (and who
happens to be the author of this devotional book), my hair was permed and
came down the sides of my face, touching my shoulders. One day he
commented casually that maybe I should get a haircut. “It looks like you
have dog ears,” he said to emphasize his point.
Sigh. (Are you surprised that I still married him?)
Another time my dad’s wife and I were going to town. I had just come
from a walk on the beach, and as we got into the car, she said tentatively,
“Uh, I think you forgot to comb your hair.”
Sigh. (I had fixed my hair, but it had gone all crazy in the salt air.)
For years I’ve tried to tame my hair. I’ve experimented with a variety of
salons and products.
Maybe that’s why one of my favorite Bible texts is Matthew 10:30 (see
below). Jesus was giving His disciples a pep talk about how they shouldn’t
worry or be afraid because God has their back and cares more about them
than they can ever imagine.
So the next time you get frustrated with your hair, don’t honk. Just
remind yourself, “Someone knows how many hairs I have. He loves me
that much—whether I’m having a good hair day or a bad one!”

—Lori

“God knows how many hairs you have on your head” (Matthew 10:30,
NLV).
 December 29

All you need is one person to say yes to an idea.

—Joy Mangano

J
oy Mangano was a teen working at an animal hospital when she came
up with her first invention—a fluorescent flea collar that made cats
and dogs more visible to cars at night. She didn’t sell any, but it must have
been a good idea because a year later the giant pet company Hartz come
out with a similar product.
Years passed, and Joy began working on another invention in her
father’s garage. Using a three-hundred-foot-long loop of cotton string, she
designed a floor mop that she could wring out by sliding up a section of
the mop handle. Joy was sure that other moms would love this mop
because they would never need to get their hands wet and dirty while
wringing it out.
After a year of showing it to people in supermarkets and at boat shows,
she convinced the QVC shopping channel to buy one thousand. It could
have been her big break, but when the QVC hosts presented the mop on
TV, the phones didn’t ring off the hook. Joy told the people at QVC, “Let
me try.”
Getting in front of the camera herself, she sold eighteen thousand mops
in twenty minutes! The mop began to make millions of dollars a year. But
she didn’t stop there. She invented other helpful household products, such
as a portable steamer for getting wrinkles out of clothes and a memory
foam pillow. She even invented a clothes hanger with a velvet surface that
keeps clothes from slipping off and falling on the floor. She’s sold seven
hundred million of those.
“I see the world through product,” Joy told HuffingtonPost.com. “I
could be walking and see someone struggling with a product and my brain
just stops . . . How can I make someone’s life a little easier?”
That’s a way we can all be inventors. We can invent a way to make life
a little easier for a friend or a family member. We can wash the dishes for
Mom or help a friend with a school project. I bet the world needs our ideas
for kindness even more than it needs a velvet clothes hanger.

—Kim

“Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive
to do what is good for each other and for everyone else” (1 Thessalonians
5:15, NIV).
 December 30

The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious.

It is the fundamental emotion which stands at
the cradle of true art and true science.
—Albert Einstein

T
he other day I heard someone talking to their iPhone. “Siri, I’m sad.”
A comforting voice answered from the small speaker, “I’m sorry
to hear that. It’s OK to feel sad once in a while.”
Hmm, I thought. I didn’t realize that Siri can address feelings.
Later, I decided to see if Siri would give me the same response. “Siri,
I’m sad,” I said.
The familiar voice of my Siri answered, “For this emotion, I prescribe
chocolate.”
“Good idea!” I exclaimed. “Let’s try that again and see if you have
another good answer . . . Siri, I’m sad.”
“Life, as I understand it, is sad, beautiful, and everything in between,”
her voice soothed.
Wow, that’s even poetic, I thought. I wonder if Siri can handle a tougher
question. “Siri, where is God?”
“It’s all a mystery to me,” she responded.
“Siri, where is God?” I tried again.
“Humans have religion. I just have silicon.”
“Siri, where is God?” I tried once more.
“I’m really not equipped to answer such questions.”
I thought, Who really is equipped to answer that question?
 Remember when Job asked God why he suffered so much tragedy? In
the end, God came and spoke directly to Job. “Who is this that obscures
my plans with words without knowledge?” God demanded (Job 38:2,
NIV). And then God asked the questions—and Job had no answers. That’s
when he told God, “I am unworthy—how can I reply to you? I put my
hand over my mouth. I spoke once, but I have no answer—twice, but I will
say no more” (Job 40:4, 5, NIV).
Job discovered he didn’t need to (and couldn’t) know and control
everything. Job’s part—like ours—was to trust.
At the end of his conversation with God, Job humbly stated, “Surely I
spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know”
(Job 42:3, NIV). Like Siri, he was confessing, “I’m not equipped to answer
such questions.”

—Lori

“Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for
me to know” (Job 42:3, NIV).
 December 31

Die, my dear? Why that’s the last thing I’ll do!

—Groucho Marx

T
oday is the last day of the year, and it makes me think of the famous
last words of celebrities. One example is comedian Bob Hope’s
response to his wife, Dolores, who had asked him where he wanted to be
buried. “Surprise me,” he quipped.
A star of the British stage, Gladys Cooper brushed her hair on the last
evening of her life. She looked at herself in the mirror, then remarked to
her nurse, “If this is what viral pneumonia does to one, I really don’t think
I shall bother to have it again.”
The Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen spent the last years of his life
bedridden. One day he heard his nurse suggest that he was feeling better.
“On the contrary!” he snapped, and promptly died.
Some face death with a plucky swagger. “Die?” the actor John
Barrymore replied to a friend. “I should say not, dear fellow. No
Barrymore would allow such a conventional thing to happen to him.”
The last words of the actor Douglas Fairbanks are recorded as being “I
never felt better.” Obviously, he was mistaken. And so was the Civil War
general John Sedgwick. During a battle in Virginia, he was walking
around in the open directing artillery placements, even though Confederate
sharpshooters were in the area. He made fun of the soldiers around him
who were ducking to avoid the gunfire. “Why are you dodging like this?
They couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance.” Whereupon a bullet struck
him and he fell down dead.
 Do you know what the last words of Jesus are in the Bible? At the end
of Revelation, He says, “Surely I am coming quickly.” These last words
are not a funny or brave way of saying goodbye. Quite the opposite. They
are Jesus saying, “I’ll be right back.” They give us hope and remind us that
a resurrection is coming. Because of Him, some famous last words may
not be last words after all.

—Kim

“Surely I am coming quickly” (Revelation 22:20).