Riddle of the Month!

TRY TO FIGURE IT OUT BEFORE YOU READ BELOW!!!

This is a deceptively tricky riddle! 

If your first thought was that Mr. Smith has eight children, you’re not alone. Lots of people think that each daughter has one brother, making four daughters and four brothers, which equals eight children. 

But nope, that’s not right! 

The riddle seems like a math test on the surface, but it’s actually all about reading comprehension.

The answer to the riddle is … five. 

Mr. Smith has five children. Each of his daughters has a brother, but they all share the same brother. Therefore, four daughters plus one brother equals five children in total. Grammar nerds might have gotten this one right before math lovers!

Of course, it’s called the “Mr. Smith had four daughters” riddle, so you could interpret that past tense “had” in two ways: 

First, that Mr. Smith had four daughters—i.e., that four daughters were born to him. 

Or you could read it to mean that Mr. Smith used to have four daughters, they all died, in which case the answer to how many children he had might be one.

However, the more commonly accepted interpretation is the first one: that Mr. Smith has four daughters and one son, making five children in total.

From Reader's Digest - original HERE

I Gave You My All

By Joanne Boyle

I gave you my eyes, 

so that you can see,

that each piece of you,

is a piece of me.

I gave you my heart,

so that you can know.

I am with you,

wherever you go.

I gave you my voice,

so that you can speak,

and say how you feel

each day of the week.

I gave you all of my pieces,

but you fill each hole.

You are My Child.

My Heart and Soul.

You can find the author

HERE

PAUL HARVEY'S LETTER TO HIS GRANDCHILDREN

We tried so hard to make things better for our kids that we made them worse. For my grandchildren, I'd like better.

I'd really like for them to know about hand me down clothes and homemade ice cream and leftover meat loaf sandwiches. I really would.

I hope you learn humility by being humiliated, and that you learn honesty by being cheated.

I hope you learn to make your own bed and mow the lawn and wash the car.

And I really hope nobody gives you a brand new car when you are sixteen.

It will be good if at least one time you can see puppies born and your old dog put to sleep.

I hope you get a black eye fighting for something you believe in.

I hope you have to share a bedroom with your younger brother/sister. And it's all right if you have to draw a line down the middle of the room, but when he wants to crawl under the covers with you because he's scared, I hope you let him.

When you want to see a movie and your little brother/sister wants to tag along, I hope you'll let him/her.

I hope you have to walk uphill to school with your friends and that you live in a town where you can do it safely.

On rainy days when you have to catch a ride, I hope you don't ask your driver to drop you two blocks away so you won't be seen riding with someone as uncool as your Mom.

If you want a slingshot, I hope your Dad teaches you how to make one instead of buying one.

I hope you learn to dig in the dirt and read books.

When you learn to use computers, I hope you also learn to add and subtract in your head.

I hope you get teased by your friends when you have your first crush on a boy / girl, and when you talk back to your mother that you learn what ivory soap tastes like.

May you skin your knee climbing a mountain, burn your hand on a stove and stick your tongue on a frozen flagpole.

I don't care if you try a beer once, but I hope you don't like it... And if a friend offers you dope or a joint, I hope you realize he/she is not your friend.

I sure hope you make time to sit on a porch with your Grandma/Grandpa and go fishing with your Uncle.

May you feel sorrow at a funeral and joy during the holidays.

I hope your mother punishes you when you throw a baseball through your neighbor's window and that she hugs you and kisses you at Christmas time when you give her a plaster mold of your hand.

These things I wish for you - tough times and disappointment, hard work and happiness. To me, it's the only way to appreciate life.

Are YOU AN ISFJ?

The Visitor

 by Ken Merrell

When I was 18, as I was preparing to serve a mission for my church, my bishop called me to teach the 3 year old class. I had never before learned to love others more than myself until I had served those children in such a simple assignment. With time and patience I learned how to keep those seven children in their seats and listening to a simple lesson.

One day I invited Mike to come to church and sit in my class. Mike was my age but had stopped attending church completely by the time he was 12. We had remained friends over the years as I had served as a helper for the kids my age.  He had been the topic of many fellowshipping discussions and was often part of my prayers as the years had passed. Once in a while Mike would accept my invitations to come to an activity. It always surprised me when he did, so I kept inviting him.

At that time, Mike had long, black hair and a beard. His complexion was dark and pleasant. I don’t remember when I invited him to my Primary class, but one day he showed up.

“Class, I would like to introduce you to my friend Mike,” is how I began my lesson. “He is visiting us today.”

Mike sat next to me in front. The children sat in a semicircle with their eyes fixed on him. They were much quieter than usual. I was about five or six minutes into the lesson when one little boy got up from his chair and walked across the room and stood directly in front of my friend. The boy paused for a moment and then climbed onto his lap. I continued with the lesson as I watched the two of them from the corner of my eye.

The boy sat looking into Mike’s face. Mike was quite uncomfortable but did not interrupt the lesson or turn the boy away. The other children watched the two of them for a few minutes.

Then one of the girls climbed off her seat and approached Mike. I was intently interested in seeing how Mike would react and did not want to instruct the two children to return to their seats. The girl stood with her hand on Mike’s knee looking into his face.

Then it happened. The boy on Mike’s lap reached up with both hands and turned Mike’s face directly to his. I stopped my lesson to see what was about to unfold.

With the innocence of a child, he said to Mike, “Are you Jesus?”

The look on Mike’s face was total surprise. It seemed, as I glanced at the children’s faces, they all had the same question on their minds.

Mike looked at me as if to say, Help, what do I say?

I stepped in. “No, this is not Jesus. This is His brother.”

Mike looked at me as if in shock.

Then without hesitation the boy in Mike’s lap reached up and wrapped his arms around Mike’s neck. “I can tell,” the boy said as he hugged Mike.

The rest of the children smiled and nodded in agreement as their simple question was answered. Mike blinked back the tears in response to the love he felt from this small child. The lesson went on, but that day the teacher who taught the most was a three-year-old child.

Mike spent more than a year getting ready to serve a mission. It thrilled me to learn that he left for the mission field a few months before I returned. I still think of the scripture in Matthew 18:5: 

“And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.”

This story is slightly modified - find original story HERE

May 2000

Incredible Clouds Like You've Never Seen Before!!

 See original website HERE

One More!

"Time Does NOT Change the Way of Loving"

“Your grandfather proposed to me with a piece of candy. We had nothing, he knelt down and told me: I have nothing now, just a piece of candy, but if you want we can build everything together".

And you? I opened the candy, divided it in two and we ate it. From that moment we divided and shared everything. We fell, we got up and we build.

All together. We have experienced difficult moments, tiredness, but we have always been there for each other. Until the last breath.

Other times, Grandma.

Time does not change the way of loving.

What has changed is that you no longer have beautiful examples to follow.

Now they are afraid of everything. They do not marry for fear of not being able to build. As soon as they fight, they leave because then they think they are going to find a better one. They always look for perfection, as if it existed.

They miss the perception of reality. Of happiness in the little things.

They do this big demo, thousand-dollar rings, over-the-top video for marriage proposals, and then they miss the moment. That intimate thing that you keep in two, only in two for a lifetime.

This is what they lack. The courage to live life and love for what they are and not for how they imagine it.

With a candy, love and courage, you have for a life together.”

My Name Is Tomorrow

My name is Tomorrow "not my real name", I own a company, none of my staff knew me as the owner except the Manager and the Secretary. 

(I had told them not to disclose my identity).


I don't usually go for a visit. 

One day, I visited the company and I saw my ex wife, who had thrown me out of my own house. I asked the Manager and he said she is one of their staff. I instructed the Manager to promote her to Personnel Officer, gave her a car, a bungalow, garden boy, security and other emoluments. An undeserved position though, of which he did. 

A month later, I went there as a job seeker. As soon as she saw me with my application and CV, she rejected me outright, threw my application at my face, and immediately retrieved it from the floor and tore it to pieces and threw it into the waste bin. After regaling me with all my past, she informed me I would never get employment nor an opportunity at the company. Also, she swore on heaven and the earth that all this would happen. She boldly declared that the only way I’d get employment at the company was over her cold dead body. 

I came the following day with another application and went on my knees to beg her, but she refused and spat into the waste bin and said even if I was the only bridge to cross to come to work, she would opt for a boat and called the security men to throw me out, so I left. 

One day, I went to the company in my real identity and entered her office with the Manager who introduced me to her, she quickly knelt down crying and begging me, "the proposed rejected bridge.” She informed me that her entire family depended on her for survival. If her employment was terminated, she added, life would be absolutely horrendous not only for her but also her entire family. She even promised to remarry me. We both stood there motionless and speechless which left the Manager befuddled. 

Many things started racing in my head. 

Should I call for the police? Should I strip her of her current position to her former position? Should I cancel the unqualified benefits given to her? Should I accept such a woman back? 

I'm still standing at her office indecisive. 

If you were in my shoes, what would you do? 

THERE IS TOMORROW 

Whenever you are dealing with people, you must always remember that there is tomorrow and you might need them tomorrow. You may end up needing help from the people who are asking for your help today, so help as much as you can. 

Life is like a moving wheel, sometimes you are up and sometimes you are down. Sometimes we destroy the bridges that we might need to help us cross back tomorrow. Sometimes we treat people as though there is never going to be tomorrow. We sometimes act as though we will never need help from anyone. 

Remember there's tomorrow.

Message of the Day - Stay Strong My Friends

 

Do Not Lose Your Good Heart . . .

 A man saw a snake being burned to death and decided to take it out of the fire. When he did, the snake bit him causing excruciating pain. The man dropped the snake, and the reptile fell right back into the fire.

So, the man looked around and found a metal pole and used it to take the snake out of the fire, saving its life.

Someone who was watching approached the man and said: “That snake bit you. Why are you still trying to save it?”

The man replied: “The nature of the snake is to bite, but that's not going to change my nature, which is to help.”

Do not change your nature simply because someone harms you. Do not lose your good heart, but learn to take precautions