PRAYERS & POEMS FOR SCOUTERS

Heroic service does not come from policy manuals.  It comes from people who care - and from a culture that encourages and models that attitude.
Valerie Oberle, VP, Disney University Guest Programs

Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.
Hebrews 13:16

To the world I may be one person,

But to one person I may be the world.

unknown

"Heroes are the people who do what has to be done when it needs to be done, regardless of the consequences."

- Author unknown

Where Was God In All Of This?

First of all, God was trying to discourage anyone from taking this flight. Those four flights together held over 1000 passengers and there were only 266 aboard.

God was on 4 commercial flights giving terrified passengers the ability to stay calm.  Not one of the family members who were called by a loved one on one of the highjacked planes said that passengers were screaming in the background.

On one of the flights God was giving strength to passengers to try to overtake the highjackers.

God was busy trying to create obstacles for employees at the World Trade Center.  After all only around 20,000 were at the towers when the first jet hit.  Since the buildings hold over 50,000 workers, this was a miracle in itself.

How many of the people who were employed at the WTC told the media that they were late for work or they had traffic delays?

God was holding up 2-110 story buildings so that 2/3 of the workers could get out.  It was amazing that the top of the towers didn't topple when the jets impacted.

God was in the rescue workers who were running into the buildings as most people were running out.

God was in the flight attendant who called her husband as her plane was being hijacked to tell him that she loved him.

God was in the two men who carried a wheelchair-bound woman down 70 flights of stairs to safety.

God was in the people who stood bleeding, in line to give blood.

God was in the strangers in cars, picking up strangers stranded in the city and taking them home to their families.

God is in the people who are begging to volunteer, to do anything to help

God is in the thousands, if not millions who are flooding blood banks thousands of miles away to help people they have never met.

God is in the people who are comforting someone even when they don't know what to say.

God is in the people who watched and cried for people who may remain anonymous in name, but never in their sacrifice.

God is in my neighborhood where I see flags waving from every home.

God is in the men and women, looking at 110 stories of rubble, and seeing only the opportunity to find survivors.

God is with the heroes, most of whom will never be on the news, whose stories will only be told to their closest friends and family; but who saved someone's mother, father, sister, brother, daughter, son, husband, wife, grandmother, grandfather, aunt, uncle, cousin, lover, colleague, acquaintance, teacher, mentor or friend with a single act of kindness, compassion and bravery.

God was not in the hearts of the people that caused these inhumane events.  However, God was indeed there, where he was needed the most.
-- Author Unknown

You Are Blessed

You are blessed    If you woke up this morning with more health than illness
You are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week.

If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation
You are ahead of 500 million people in the world.

If you can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death
You are more blessed than three billion people in the world.

If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep
You are richer than 75% of this world.

If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace
you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy.

If your parents are still alive and still married
you are very rare, even in the United States.

If you hold up your head with a smile on your face and are truly thankful
you are blessed because the majority can, but most do not.

If you can hold someone's hand, hug them or even touch them on the shoulder
you are blessed because you can offer healing touch.

If you can read this message, you just received a double blessing in that someone was thinking of you, and furthermore, you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world that cannot read at all.

Have a good day, count your blessings, and pass this along to remind everyone else how blessed we all are.

My thanks to Fred for sending the following

Subject: Raising a Child

I have seen repeatedly the breakdown of the cost of raising  a child, but this is the first time I have seen the rewards  listed this way. It's nice, really nice.

The government recently calculated the cost of raising a child   from birth to 18 and came up with $160,140 for a middle-income family.  Talk about sticker shock! That doesn't even touch college tuition.   For those with kids, that figure leads to wild fantasies about all the money we could have banked if not for (insert your child's name here).

For others, that number might confirm the decision to remain childless.   But $160,140 isn't so bad if you break it down.  It translates into $8,896.66 a year, $741.38 a month, or $171.08 a week.  That's a mere $24.44 a day! Just over a dollar an hour.

Still, you might think the best financial advice says don't
have children if you want to be "rich." It is just the opposite.

So, What do your get for your $160,140?

* Naming rights. First, middle, and last!

* Glimpses of God every day.

* Giggles under the covers every night.

* More love than your heart can hold.

* Butterfly kisses and Velcro hugs.

* Endless wonder over rocks, ants, clouds, and warm cookies.

* A hand to hold, usually covered with jam.

* A partner for blowing bubbles, flying kites, building sandcastles, and skipping down the sidewalk in the pouring rain.

* Someone to laugh yourself silly with no matter what the boss said or how your stocks performed that day.

* For $160,140, you never have to grow up.

* You get to finger-paint, carve pumpkins, play hide-and-seek, catch bugs, and never stop believing in Santa Claus.

* You have an excuse to keep reading the Adventures of Piglet and Pooh, watching Saturday morning cartoons, going to Disney movies, and wishing on stars.

* You get to frame rainbows, hearts, and flowers under refrigerator magnets and collect spray painted noodle wreaths for Christmas, hand prints set in clay for Mother's Day, and cards with backward letters for Father's Day.

* For $160,140, there is no greater bang for your buck.

* You get to be a hero just for retrieving a Frisbee off the garage roof, taking the training wheels off the bike, removing a splinter, filling the wading pool, coaxing a wad of gum out of bangs, and coaching a baseball team that never wins but always gets treated to ice cream regardless.

* You get a front row seat to history to witness the first step, first word, first bra, first date, and first time behind the wheel.

* You get to be immortal. You get another branch added to your family tree, and if you're lucky, a long list of limbs in your obituary called grandchildren.

* You get education in psychology, nursing, criminal justice, communications, and human sexuality that no college can match.

* In the eyes of a child, you rank right up there with God. You have all the power to heal a boo-boo, scare away the monsters under the bed, patch a broken heart, police a slumber party, ground them forever, and love them without limits, so one day they will, like you, love without counting the cost.