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CONCRETE LOVE Our Daily BreadJuly 28, 1998 "Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing." 1 Corinthians 13:3 The story is told of a child psychologist who spent many hours constructing a new driveway at his home. Just after he smoothed the surface of the freshly poured concrete, his small children chased a ball across the driveway, leaving deep footprints. The man yelled after them with a torrent of angry words. His shocked wife said, "You're a psychologist who's supposed...

AIM HIGH A college professor prepared a final exam for his students. The test questions were divided into three categories, and the students were instructed to choose questions from only one of the categories. The first category of questions was the hardest and worth fifty points. The second, which was easier, was worth forty points. The third, the simplest, was worth thirty points. Upon completion of the test, students who had chosen the hardest fifty-point questions were given As. The students who had chosen the forty-point questions received Bs. Those who had settled for the easiest thirty-pointers were given...

LIVING PRAYER Brother Lawrence was a monk who lived almost 300 years ago and worked in the galley of his monastery. He wrote a book, The Practice of the Presence of God, which today is considered a classic in the area of Christian devotion. Brother Lawrence spent much of his time in the monastery scullery scrubbing pots and pans. He also had a collateral duty as the monastery cobbler. In these jobs, he said, he learned to glorify God in simple tasks and to pray with his hands. By bringing to each small job the best of his ability,...

THINKING OUT OF THE BOX "A new idea is first condemned as ridiculous, and then dismissed as trivial, until finally it becomes what everybody knows." - William James One of the great war films of all time was made in the '50's, "Away All Boats", starring Jeff Chandler. It chronicles the adventures of a fictional APA (Amphibious Assault Ship, forerunner of today's LHA'a), USS BELINDA, fighting its way across the Pacific. The ship's skipper, Captain Jebediah Hawkes, is a seasoned veteran, a good guy, but not liked by the crew. They don't understand many of his methods and think...

DON'T GET NUKED The Navy and Marine Corps rightly spend much of their time on chemical, biological and radiological training. As bombs and triggering devices become more mobile and terrorists become more sophisticated, it is important to prepare ourselves for disaster while hoping that it will be avoided. Regarding chemical and biological warfare, it is especially difficult to believe that something so small and invisible can be so deadly and dangerous. Just a little toxin in the air . . . and the next thing you know you're doing the "funky chicken" on the ground. Bad attitudes can be...

ONLY GOD GIVES PEACE The Lord will give [unyielding and impenetrable] strength to His people; the Lord will bless His people with peace. Psalm 29:11 One of the greatest ways God speaks to us and leads us is through the inner witness. In other words, we just know inside what is right or wrong. It is a deeper level of knowing than "head knowledge". This type of knowing is in the spirit...we simply have peace or a lack of peace. By the presence or absence of peace, we know what we should do. I once spoke with a woman...

THE GIFT OF THE MAGI Those of you who are more "mature" Marines & Sailors will remember one of the pre-eminent TV series of the '50's, Rod Serling's Twilight Zone. Many of these programs were quite scary, but they usually had a good moral and made the point in a rather unforgettable manner. On one episode, an astronaut is readying for his blast off on a fifty-year mission to outer space. He is to be placed in a state of suspended animation and will not age one day by the time he returns to Earth. As fate has it,...

THE REAL MEANING OF PEACE There once was a King who offered a prize to the artist who would paint the best picture of peace. Many artists tried. The King looked at all the pictures, but there were only two he really liked and he had to choose between them. One picture was of a calm lake. The lake was a perfect mirror for the peaceful towering mountains all around. Overhead was a blue sky with fluffy white clouds. All who saw this picture thought that it was a perfect picture of peace. The other picture had mountains too....

THE CRACKED POT A water bearer in India had two large pots, each hung on the end of a pole which he carried across his neck. One of the pots had a crack in it, and while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water at the end of the long walk from the stream to the master’s house, the cracked pot arrived only half full. For a full two years this went on daily, with the bearer delivering only one and a half pots of full of water in his master’s house. Of...

THE POWER OF LOVE What most people need to learn in life is how to love people and use things instead of using people and loving things. This story will keep you singing! Like any good mother, when Karen found out that another baby was on the way, she did what she could to help her 3-year-old son, Michael, prepare for a new sibling. Karen and her spouse found out that the new baby was going to be a girl, and day after day, night after night, Michael would sing to his sister in Mommy's tummy. The pregnancy progressed...

~ GIVING THANKS ~ Psalm 92:1 - 5 1 It is a good thing to give thanks unto the LORD, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High: 2 To shew forth thy loving kindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night, 3 Upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery; upon the harp with a solemn sound. 4 For thou, LORD, hast made me glad through thy work: I will triumph in the works of thy hands. 5 O LORD, how great are thy works! and thy thoughts are very deep." Psalm 95:1...

PULLED IN TWO DIRECTIONS 21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.....23 For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ... (Philippians 1:21,23) As Christians, we are pulled in two directions. We all want to go to heaven, but this life also holds great appeal. We are like the youngster in Sunday school who listened intently while the teacher told about the beauties of heaven. She concluded by saying, "Raise your hand if you want to go to heaven." Every hand shot up immediately...except one....

FROM ONE MEAN MOM We had the meanest mother in the whole world! While other kids ate candy for breakfast, we had to have cereal, eggs, and toast. When others had a Pepsi and a Twinkie for lunch, we had to eat sandwiches. And you can guess our mother fixed us a dinner that was different from what other kids had, too. Mother insisted on knowing where we were at all times. You'd think we were convicts in a prison. She had to know who our friends were, and what we were doing with them. She insisted that if...

A FRIEND IS...... The person who gives you the better of two choices. Holds your hand when you’re scared. Helps you fight those who try to take advantage of you. Thinks of you at times when you are not there. Reminds you of what you have forgotten. Helps you put the past behind you, but understands when you need to hold on a little longer. Stays with you so that you have confidence. Goes out of their way to make time for you. Helps you clear up your mistakes. Helps you deal with pressure from others. Smiles for you...

A FRIEND IS...... The person who gives you the better of two choices. Holds your hand when you’re scared. Helps you fight those who try to take advantage of you. Thinks of you at times when you are not there. Reminds you of what you have forgotten. Helps you put the past behind you, but understands when you need to hold on a little longer. Stays with you so that you have confidence. Goes out of their way to make time for you. Helps you clear up your mistakes. Helps you deal with pressure from others. Smiles for you...

THE PARABLE OF THE FENCE Once upon a time there was a little boy who was talented, creative, handsome, and extremely bright...a natural leader. The kind of person everyone would normally have wanted on their team or project. But he was also self-centered and had a very bad temper. When he got angry, he usually said, and often did, some very hurtful things. In fact, he seemed to have little regard for those around him...even friends. So, naturally, he had few. "But," he told himself, "that just shows how stupid most people are!" As he grew, his parents became...

A GREAT MARINE Several years ago as the H & S Battalion Chaplain at MCB, Camp Lejeune, I visited the people in the different work spaces, including the rather large main post office. One day a little conversation took place with a young Marine Lance Corporal. This unplanned encounter has remained with me, and it seems worth passing on. The Lance Corporal was standing by a very large sack of mail. His job, every day, six days a week, for many hours, was to sort the mail from that large sack and place the letters into smaller sacks, depending...

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEKEND There is a line separating dedication-to-duty from "work-a-holism". Dedication to duty is good, healthy, and positive. Work-a-holism, on the other hand, is negative, harmful and eats away at family relationships. We must know the difference between the two. Let me tell you about a man who was called the Greatest American Soldier of the 20th Century: General George C. Marshall. Born in Uniontown, PA in 1880, he graduated from Virginia Military Institute in 1902. As a junior infantry officer in the US Army he served two tours in the Philippines, in several stateside camps, then...

THERE ARE NEEDS, AND THEN THERE ARE NEEDS "The bird does not sing because he has an answer; he sings because he has a song." Old Chinese Proverb Peppermint Patty, of Peanuts cartoon fame, can be impatient at times. You Peanuts fans may recall one of those times. School was about to begin, and Peppermint Patty went shopping. She entered the store, and proceeded directly to the counter, and said, "Sir, I need some school supplies...some pencils, some paper, a loose-leaf binder, and some answers. I need a lot of answers." Most of you have probably encountered someone who...

THAT'S WHAT YOU THINK Sowing a thought reaps an act. Sowing an act reaps a habit. Sowing a habit reaps a character. Sowing a character reaps a destiny. The battle for the soul and the very essence of life goes on in our thought life. We are what we think (Proverbs 23:7). What we think, therefore, needs protection and can be controlled. II Corinthians 10:5 tells us to bring every thought into captivity. Good thoughts will produce good habits. For believers there are four keys in helping to develop good habits: 1. Follow God's Word daily, because it is...