Forwarded Messages

Commencement Speech Given in the Ateneo de Manila University for the Graduates of 2015 You cannot imagine how great an honor it is for me to speak before you today. And that is certainly not a cliché or an exaggeration. Few people would ever guess that despite the many blessings I’ve received in over 30 years as a ballerina, most of my young life was spent pining for something that you all have and I don’t—a diploma from the Ateneo de Manila University. You see, I come from a certified Blue Eagle family. My father, his brother and my siblings all graduated from the Ateneo, with all four men in my family in the Honors Class since their elementary grades. Although I married a magna cum laude from Harvard. (Sorry, my husband made sure that I stuck that in there somewhere.) When I was seventeen, fresh out of high school, I found myself standing at a crossroad in my life: I was accepted in both the Ateneo and UP for college. But I decided to go to Russia instead and pur...

Steve Jobs was a revolutionary. He turned an industry around. He did it by doing things differently than how they were being done. His pitch was: Everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in thinking differently. The way we challenge the status quo is by making our products beautifully designed, simple to use and user friendly. We just happen to make great computers. The early church was revolutionary in a different way — a much more important way. Their pitch could have been: Everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in Jesus and living differently. The way we challenge the status quo is by living lives that are beautifully designed and simple. We just happen to live generous lives. 

One day a man saw an old lady, stranded on the side of the road, but even in the dim light of day, he could see she needed help. So he pulled up in front of her Mercedes and got out. His Pontiac was still sputtering when he approached her. Even with the smile on his face, she was worried. No one had stopped to help for the last hour or so. Was he going to hurt her? He didn't look safe; he looked poor and hungry. He could see that she was frightened, standing out there in the cold. He knew how she felt. It was that chill which only fear can put in you. He said, 'I'm here to help you, ma'am. Why don't you wait in the car where it's warm? By the way, my name is Bryan Anderson.'

Hi! I am  KALI , your official Message Forwarder for this site. As our first post for the year, you will not read a forwarded message but a thank you note from your admin. I do not know you personally and vice versa; but there is this chain that connects us. Thanks to Blogger , to Facebook , to Twitter ... super thanks to the technology that bind us together. I want to thank you for sharing your valuable time with me by reading the posts and forwarding the same. This site actually started one typical day at the office; I paused from for a while to relax and refresh my mind. I went online to check, to look for something nice to read... I cannot recall any more where I landed, but I know that it was not what I wanted. So I signed in to my email account, checked my inbox and went over the files of forwarded messages to uplift my mind. And as they say, the rest were history.

     Abilities are like tax deductions ---   we either use them, or we lose them.   Imagine receiving a gift from wealthy person who is renowned for his taste in selecting perfect and valuable presents for everyone on his list. Wouldn't this be a gift you would be eager to open? Sadly, many people have been given gifts from the perfect Giver, but they never bother to open them or use them for their intended purpose. God has given each of us abilities. And He never makes a mistake. His gifts are never the wrong size or style or inappropriate in any way. No one has ever needed to return a gift from God. If we open these heaven-sent gifts, we can use them in a way that will benefit others and bring glory to our Creator. Do you know what your true gift are? Are you using them? Or are they lying dormant, gathering dust? If so, it;s time to tear into that aging wrapper paper. Putting your God-given talents to work is one of the most satisfying things you can do...

EVEN THE BEST RACEHORSES HAS TO STOP FOR OATS ONCE IN A WHILE... God doesn't sweat. He doesn't get tired or suffer with aching muscles. He never needs to take an aspirin or use Ben-Gay. Yet what did He do after creating the world? He rested. He took the time to step back, cease working, and enjoy His creation. If an all-powerful Being took the time to rest, that should speak volumes to us mere mortals. We need to rest occasionally. We need to take time to recover physically, emotionally, and spiritually from life's demands. We need to take stock of where we've been, where we are, and where we're headed. We need to take time to be a friend, a parent, a child of God.

Envy takes the joy, happiness and contentment out of living. Jealousy isn't referred to as the "big green monster" for nothing. God hates jealousy so much that it made His top-ten list -- the Ten Commandments. He etched in stone the following words: "You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor." In workplace terms, this commandment from the book of Exodus could read, "You shall not covet your co-worker's salary, his corner office or award plaques, his title, budget, or privileges, or his favored status with the company president."

I walked into the grocery store not particularly interested in buying groceries. I wasn't hungry. The pain of losing my husband of 57 years was still too raw. And this grocery store held so many sweet memories. He often came with me and almost every time he'd pretend to go off and look for something special. I knew what he was up to. I'd always spot him walking down the aisle with the three yellow roses in his hands. He knew I loved yellow roses. With a heart filled with grief, I only wanted to buy my few items and leave, but even grocery shopping was different since he had passed on. Shopping for one took time, a little more thought than it had for two. Standing by the meat, I searched for the perfect small steak and remembered how he had loved his steak. Suddenly a woman came beside me. She was blonde, slim and lovely in a soft green pantsuit. I watched as she picked up a large package of T-bones, dropped them in her basket.. Hesitated, and then put them back. S...

An inspiration... Kenny Easterday is a 35-year-old American man born with a rare disease (sacral agenesis) that prevents his spine from growing correctly. Doctors amputated his legs when he was a baby to use his shinbone for completing his underdeveloped spine. Kenny never liked wheelchairs and refused to wear prosthetic legs, so he learned with his dad to walk on his hands and to move with a skateboard.

 A four-year-old child, whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman, who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old Gentleman's' yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there. When his mother asked him what he had  said to the neighbor, the little boy just said, 'Nothing, I just helped him cry.' --- Teacher Debbie Moon's first graders were discussing a picture of a family. One little boy in the picture had a different hair color than the other members. One of her students suggested that he was adopted. A little girl said, 'I know all about adoption, I was adopted.'  'What does it mean to be adopted?', asked another child. 'It means', said the girl, 'that you grew in your mommy's heart instead of her tummy!' --- On my way home one day, I stopped to watch a Little League baseball game that was being played in a park near my home. As I sat down behind the bench on the first- ba...

When I was a kid, my Mom liked to make breakfast food for dinner every now and then. And I remember one night in particular when she had made breakfast after a long, hard day at work. On that evening so long ago, my Mom placed a plate of eggs, sausage and extremely burned biscuits in front of my dad. I remember waiting to see if anyone noticed! Yet all my dad did was reach for his biscuit, smile at my Mom and ask me how my day was at school. I don't remember what I told him that night, but I do remember watching him smear butter and jelly on that biscuit and eat every bite!

By Tom Norvell Much of our world is in a constant state of change. However, there are some things that never change: * Sometimes the treatment does not work and the patient does not get better. * Sometimes the prodigal does not come home. * Sometimes the working conditions do not improve. * Sometimes the attitude stays the same. * Sometimes the marriage falls apart.

Lord, help me look ahead. It's time to look ahead. Help me to turn my attention away from the things that have already passed and direct my focus toward the things that are yet to be. I've spent too much time looking back. I have spent too much time dwelling on the things that I cannot change. I have spent too little time on the opportunities that lay ahead.

One young academically excellent person went to apply for a managerial position in a big company. He passed the first interview, the director did the last interview, made the last decision. The director discovered from the CV that the youth's academic achievements were excellent all the way, from the secondary school until the postgraduate research, never had a year when he did not score good grades. The director asked, "Did you obtain any scholarships in school?" the youth answered "None."

In the movie "Shenandoah," Charlie Anderson, James Stewart's character, sits down to eat with his family and prays the following:  Lord, we cleared this land. We plowed it, sowed it, and harvest it.  We cook the harvest. It wouldn't be here and we wouldn't be eating  it if we hadn't done it all ourselves. We worked dog-bone hard for  every crumb and morsel, but we thank you Lord just the same for the  food we're about to eat, amen.  Whether we admit it or not, that's a fairly common attitude. In fact, it's so common that God warned His people about this ungratefulness thousands of years ago. In the book of Deuteronomy, He told them: