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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 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 KEY TO FAILURE I recently read a devotion in God's Little Devotional Book for Women, which really touched my life. This book was copyrighted in 1996 by Honor Books, Inc. in Tulsa Oklahoma. The story on pages 98 and 99 tells of a painter who wanted to produce one work which would please everyone. So she painted a picture, and hung it in the public marketplace. She posted directions for people to mark the places they did not like with a small paint brush. She was surprised when she returned to find her picture was just a blob....

DARE TO DREAM Someone once commented that "One of the most powerful things in the world is a dream. Not those dreams that come to us while we sleep, but those we consciously pursue while we are awake." Think of how dreams have shaped our modern life. Of Martin Luther King whose famous speech began, I have a dream today." And of Robert Kennedy who said, "Some men see things as they are and ask "Why?"; I dream things that never were and ask 'Why not?'" Think of how children's lives are often shaped by their parent's dreams. I...

ISN'T IT OBVIOUS? This warning label (among about a half dozen warning labels) appears on my son's baby carriage: Do not fold carriage with baby inside! It may seem funny to state something so obvious, but I suppose to cover themselves against lawsuits from people who couldn't figure out to first remove the baby, they put on the warning label. The Prophet Micah gives us easy-to-follow instructions for a good life that seems so obvious and elementary we wonder, is that all we have to do to live happily and peacefully? The answer is YES! All we need do...

INTEGRITY: THE HEART OF NAVY CORE VALUES by a Submariner The following essay was written by a young enlisted submariner as a disciplinary assignment after a Captain's Mast for taking a shortcut in a maintenance procedure. Both the author and his Commanding Officer have agreed to its publication. Integrity is the heart and the very essence of each Navy Core Value, but more importantly, it is the foundation on which every aspect of submarine operations is built. Integrity must be the standard instilled within the innermost heart of every man who takes a submarine to the uttermost depths of...

LET GO AND LET GOD As children bring their broken toys with tears for us to mend... I brought my broken dreams to God because he was my friend. But instead of leaving him in peace to work alone... I hung around and tried to help with ways that were my own. At last I snatched them and cried, "How could you be so slow?" "My child," He said, "What could I do? You never did let go."

REFLECTIONS ON GROWING OLD(ER) Someone once said that we are now living in the age of age. In fact, there are more old people alive today than at any time in history. There are, today, more people over 65 in the United States than the entire population of Canada. Faced with these figures, and faced with the fact that you will someday be, if you are not already, in the category of the aged, the old, or the elderly, how do you, or will you, look upon the final chapter of your book of life? Some look at age...

A CHEERFUL HEART IS GOOD MEDICINE Proverbs 17:22 A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones. Which came first the chicken or the egg? We may never know the answer to this question, but when it comes to living a fulfilled life, the joy precedes the good feelings. As a matter of fact, the joy is the antidote to the woes of life. Humor is great medicine. Humor helps us to see the big picture. It provides us with a new context by which to view our situation. It gives us a...

A HUMBLE SPIRIT It's always surprising to me when someone, in an honest and unguarded moment, confides that God could never use THEM. They may keep up appearances most of the time, but, down deep, they just don't feel worthy. Have you ever felt that way? If so, you're in luck; God places a high value on humility! In fact, your sincere recognition of your own need may just be the key that opens the door to a deeper, more genuine and rewarding spirituality. Isaiah wrote, "For thus says the High and Holy One Who inhabits eternity, whose name...

ON A GOOD DAY Our worth is tested every day. We are given the choice of being nice to people or uncharitable. We are given the choice of doing our work as well as we can or of goofing off. Some days it seems the tests are harder than on others, but every day brings with it some kind of test. Even the really good days! To have everything go wonderfully for us, to feel like a million dollars, to have one of those days when nothing and nobody can upset us, they are days when we might think...

ON PRAYER The Sacred Scriptures urge us to pray always. That seems impossible at first sight; you can't spend your life on your knees. But people pray in many ways. Physical positions and movements, the lotus position for Buddhists, kneeling and folding hands for many Christian faith groups are prayer. Any attention paid to God is prayer. Whether or not any words are spoken, the actions themselves express awareness of, and communication with, God. As St. Teresa of Avila put it, way back in the 16th century, "For though we are always in the presence of God, it seems...

MAKING ASSUMPTIONS A story making the rounds this past week told of a policeman who was heading home after a long, hard day on patrol. He had dealt with a whole succession of difficult people, and a mountain of frustrating paperwork. All he wanted at this point was to kick back, unwind, enjoy some peace and quiet, and maybe watch a few innings of baseball on TV. But, as he neared home, he was startled by a vehicle that came careening around a sharp curve and narrowly missed his squad car. As the car passed within a few inches...

LIFEBOAT One of the great World War II films was LIFEBOAT, about the ordeal faced by survivors of a passenger ship that was sunk by a Nazi U-Boat in the middle of the Atlantic. The film details their struggle for survival in a small lifeboat, fighting the elements, thirst and then fighting against each other. Each person has their own ideas about how to navigate the little boat: they argue about who should be in charge; and they find little things to fight over even when they run out of things to fight over. Eventually they come to understand...

AN HONEST DOUBTER The often heard quip, "He or she is a doubting Thomas," usually is given in a negative way...someone who can't get with the program or is not a team player. The origin of this statement goes to the passage in John's Gospel. Thomas, who somehow missed the first appearance of the resurrected Jesus to the rest of the disciples, states he will not believe until he sees and touches the Lord. He is a realist, a man who is shattered in his faith after witnessing the arrest and death of Jesus. He is honest enough to...

BACK TO SCHOOL By Naval Support Activity Chapel Staff A child came home from his first day of school. His mother asked, “What did you learn today?” He said, “Not enough. I have to go back tomorrow”. Going back to school is always difficult for both teachers and students. It also means more traffic with school buses back on the road; probably the only ones delighted about schools reopening are the parents. Going back to school can be a milestone. Kindergarten, sixth grade, high school and college are all significant marks of progress and change (especially when the kid...

GROWING DEEP AND STRONG One day my mother and I were working together in the garden where we were transplanting plants for the third time. Grown from seed in a small container, the plants had been transferred to a larger container; then transplanted into the garden. Now, because I was moving, we were transplanting them once again. Inexperienced as a gardener, I turned to my green-thumbed mother. "Isn’t this bad for them?" I asked, as we dug them up and shook the dirt from the roots. "Won’t it hurt these plants, being uprooted and transplanted so many times?" "Oh"...

TIPS FOR THE PITS We have all been there....Blue Monday. Nothing is more miserable than feeling depressed. Depression has been, and continues to be, the world's #1 public health problem. All of us are susceptible to depression. It all begins with the blues, which come and go like the common cold. The "Poor Me" syndrome hits us and drags us to the pits of depression. What are the signs of depression? Dragging through the day, wondering how we will get through it; getting bogged down at the least little obstacle; thinking negatively about everything; all we see are pessimism...

WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET The poet wrote, "Two men looked out through prison bars: one saw mud; the other saw stars." Commenting on this, Father John Powell once wrote: "In the pursuit of the fullness of human life, everything depends on this frame of reference, this habitual outlook, this basic vision which I have of myself, others, life, the world, and God. What we see is what we get." Don't you find that to be true? There's a lot about our world that isn't the way we would want it to be: cruelty, hatred, injustice, jealousy,...

JUST FOR TODAY As I go through some "troubles" in my own life, I've worked out this "formula" to help me be a useful and happy person. See if it doesn't work for you! JUST FOR TODAY: I will try to live through this day only, and not tackle my whole life problem at once. JUST FOR TODAY: I will be happy. I will assume to be true what Abraham Lincoln said: "Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be". JUST FOR TODAY: I will try to strengthen my mind. I will study. I...