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

Things We Say Today, Which We Owe To SHAKESPEAR:

 I hope all this is true?!

Wow!  I had no idea!!

It is truly amazing - I've heard all of these!!

That's a LONG time for words to stay!!

Compiled by adgrayvisions

Old Eddie - "A Funny Old Duck"??

Capt. E.V. “Eddie” Rickenbacker wearing the

Congressional Medal of Honor. 

(U.S. Air Force photo)

It happened every Friday evening, almost without fail, when the sun resembled a giant orange and was starting to dip into the blue ocean.

Old Ed came strolling along the beach to his favorite pier. Clutched in his bony hand was a bucket of shrimp. Ed walks out to the end of the pier, where it seems he almost has the world to himself. The glow of the sun is a golden bronze now.

Everybody's gone, except for a few joggers on the beach. Standing out on the end of the pier, Ed is alone with his thoughts...and his bucket of shrimp.

Before long, however, he is no longer alone. Up in the sky a thousand white dots come screeching and squawking, winging their way toward that lanky frame standing there on the end of the pier. Before long, dozens of seagulls enveloped him, their wings fluttering and flapping wildly.

Ed stands there tossing shrimp to the hungry birds. As he does, if you listen closely, you can hear him say with a smile, 'Thank you. Thank you.'

In a few short minutes the bucket is empty. But Ed doesn't leave. He stands there lost in thought, as though transported to another time and place .

When he finally turns around and begins to walk back toward the beach, a few of the birds hop along the pier with him until he gets to the stairs, and then they, too, fly away.

And old Ed quietly makes his way down to the end of the beach and on home.

If you were sitting there on the pier with your fishing line in the water, Ed might seem like 'a funny old duck,' as my dad used to say. Or, to onlookers, he's just another old codger, lost in his own weird world, feeding the seagulls with a bucket full of shrimp. To the onlooker, rituals can look either very strange or very empty. They can seem altogether unimportant .....maybe even a lot of nonsense.

Old folks often do strange things, at least in the eyes of Boomers and Millennials. Most of them would probably write Old Ed off, down there in Florida ... That's too bad. They'd do well to know him better.

His full name: Eddie Rickenbacker. He was a famous hero in World War I, and then he was in WWII.

On one of his flying missions across the Pacific, he and his seven-member crew went down. Miraculously, all of the men survived, crawled out of their plane, and climbed into a life raft.

Captain Rickenbacker and his crew floated for days on the rough waters of the Pacific. They fought the sun. They fought sharks. Most of all, they fought hunger and thirst. By the eighth day their rations ran out. No food. No water. They were hundreds of miles from land and no one knew where they were or even if they were alive.

Every day across America millions wondered and prayed that Eddie Rickenbacker might somehow be found alive. The men adrift needed a miracle. That afternoon they had a simple devotional service and prayed for a miracle.

They tried to nap. Eddie leaned back and pulled his military cap over his nose. Time dragged on. All he could hear was the slap of the waves against the raft...suddenly Eddie felt something land on the top of his cap. It was a seagull!

Old Ed would later describe how he sat perfectly still, planning his next move. With a flash of his hand and a squawk from the gull, he managed to grab it and wring its neck. He tore the feathers off, and he and his starving crew made a meal of it - a very slight meal for eight men.

Then they used the intestines for bait. With it, they caught fish, which gave them food and more bait....and the cycle continued. With that simple survival technique, they were able to endure the rigors of the sea until they were found and rescued after 24 days at sea.

Eddie Rickenbacker lived many years beyond that ordeal, but he never forgot the sacrifice of that first life-saving seagull... And he never stopped saying, 'Thank you.'

That's why almost every Friday night he would walk to the end of the pier with a bucket full of shrimp and a heart full of gratitude.

Reference: (Max Lucado, "In The Eye of the Storm", pp...221, 225-226)

PS: Eddie Rickenbacker was the founder of Eastern Airlines. Before WWI he was race car driver. In WWI he was a pilot and became America's first ace. In WWII he was an instructor and military adviser, and he flew missions with the combat pilots. Eddie Rickenbacker is a true American hero. And now you know another story about the trials and sacrifices that brave men have endured for your freedom.

As you can see, I chose to pass this story along as it was passed to me from my father. It is a great story that many don't know...I think it exemplifies a couple of life's lessons to be remembered. You've got to be careful with old guys, you just never know what they have done during their lifetime. It also speaks to me about how we never know what we adversity we might face, but when we put our talent both mentally and physically together, we can overcome, but we must never forget what we learned and to remember to thank those that helped pull us through even if it was as something seemingly meaningless as a seagull and to pay it forward.

WIKIPEDIA

What Color Are you TODAY??!!

 This was written by a Black Gentleman in Texas and is so funny. What a great sense of humor and creativity!!!

 

When I born, I BLACK,

 When I grow up, I BLACK,

 When I go in sun, I BLACK,

 When I cold, I BLACK,

 When I scared, I BLACK,

 When I sick, I BLACK,

 And when I die, I still BLACK.

 

You white folks....

 When you born, you PINK,

 When you grow up, you WHITE,

 When you go in sun, you RED,

 When you cold, you BLUE,

 When you scared, you YELLOW,

 When you sick, you GREEN,

 When you bruised, you PURPLE ,

 And when you die, you GRAY.

 So who you callin' colored folks?