Tag: people

Posted in Christian, Family and Society, Random Thoughts

Love and Charity

Posted on by Sugar and Spice..... Among Other Things

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 
6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 
7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 
11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 
12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.     13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:4-13 New International Version (NIV)

New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

These verses from 1 Corinthians regarding love has been read across various Sundays, bible learning lessons, fellowship meets, family prayers and even during personal time. Although the teachings revolve around the concept of “love”, the echoes of “charity” are not far behind.

Love and charity independently can endure evil and provocation. Yet love with charity drives away resentment, deters angry passions and gives way to tolerance and preserves patience. Charity suppresses envy and neither is turned away by the welfare of her neighbours, rather charity rejoices in them. In fact, love has many faces but as St. Paul says indirectly in his letters that charity is the face of love which never fails but has a permanent, perpetual and ever-lasting grace. The phrase “Charity begins at home” reflects that we don’t have to look far to find her. Charity starts by doing good at home, in the family and neighbourhood. Charity believes in actions and not in words or monetary gains. The real truth lies in the reality that charity should be ingrained in us knowingly or unknowingly, so that the inner peace and grace would be a part of our persona.

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Posted in Family and Society, Life, Personal Musings, Stories Around the World

Own your Time

Posted on by Sugar and Spice..... Among Other Things

These are two small stories that I got as an email forward (it’s important to read both) that show how the time we spent, lives we lead and the examples we set today, may help shape the characters of tomorrow.

STORY – I
We all know about Al Capone. The notorious gangster, mafia who virtually owned Chicago. He was a crime boss who lorded over the windy city dealing with all sort of crimes prostitution to murder to …you name it…and he escaped the law for many many years. It was because of one man his -lawyer nicknamed “Easy Eddie.” Eddie was very good! In fact, Eddie’s skill at legal maneuvering kept Big Al out of jail for a long time.
To show his appreciation, Capone paid him very well. Not only was the money big, but Eddie got special dividends, as well. For instance, he and his family occupied a fenced-in mansion with live-in help and all of the conveniences of the day.. The estate was so large that it filled an entire Chicago City block. Eddie did have one soft spot, however. He had a son that he loved dearly. And, despite his involvement with organized crime, Eddie tried to teach him right from wrong. Eddie wanted his son to be a better man than he was. Yet, with all his wealth and influence, there were two things he couldn’t give his son- he couldn’t pass on a Good Name or a Good Example. One day, Easy Eddie reached a difficult decision. It’s believed Easy Eddie wanted to rectify wrongs he had done.
So he decided he would go to the authorities and tell the truth about Al “Scarface” Capone, clean up his tarnished name, and offer his son some semblance of integrity. To do this, he would have to testify against The Mob, and he knew that the cost would be great. Nevertheless, he testified.
Within the year, Easy Eddie’s life ended in a blaze of gunfire on a lonely Chicago Street. But in his eyes, he had given his son the greatest gift he had to offer, at the greatest price he could ever pay. Police removed from his pockets a rosary, a religious symbol and medallion, and a poem clipped from a magazine.
The Poem read:
“The clock of life is wound but once, and no man has the power to tell just when the hands will stop, at late or early hour. Now is the only time you own. Live, love, toil with a will. Place no faith in time. For the clock may soon be still.”
———————————
STORY – II
World War II produced many heroes. One such man was Lieutenant Commander Butch O’Hare. He was a fighter pilot assigned to the aircraft carrier Lexington in the South Pacific. One day his entire squadron was sent on a mission. After he was airborne, he looked at his fuel gauge and realized that someone had forgotten to top off his fuel tank.
He would not have enough fuel to complete his mission and get back to his ship.
His flight leader told him to return to the carrier. Reluctantly, he dropped out of formation and headed back to the fleet. As he was returning to the mother ship, he saw something that turned his blood cold; a squadron of Japanese aircraft was speeding its way toward the American fleet.
The American fighters were gone on a sortie, and the fleet was all but defenseless. He couldn’t reach his squadron and bring them back in time to save the fleet. Nor could he warn the fleet of the approaching danger. There was only one thing to do, only thing he’d learned growing up. He must somehow divert them from the fleet. Laying aside all thoughts of personal safety, he dove into the formation of Japanese planes. Wing-mounted 50 caliber’s blazed as he charged in, attacking one surprised enemy plane and then another. Butch wove in and out of the now broken formation and fired at as many planes as possible until all his ammunition was finally spent.
Undaunted, he continued the assault. He dove at the planes, trying to clip a wing or tail in hopes of damaging as many enemy planes as possible, rendering them unfit to fly.
Finally, the exasperated Japanese squadron took off in another direction.
Deeply relieved, Butch O’Hare and his tattered fighter limped back to the carrier.
Upon arrival, he reported in and related the event surrounding his return. The film from the gun-camera mounted on his plane told the tale. It showed the extent of Butch’s daring attempt to protect his fleet. He had, in fact, destroyed five enemy aircraft.
This took place on February 20, 1942 , and for that action Butch became the Navy’s first Ace of W.W.II, and the first Naval Aviator to win the Medal of Honor.
A year later Butch was killed in aerial combat at the age of 29. His home town would not allow the memory of this WW II hero to fade, and today, O’Hare Airport in Chicago is named in tribute to the courage of this great man.
So, the next time you find yourself at O’Hare International, give some thought to visiting Butch’s memorial displaying his statue and his Medal of Honor. It’s located between Terminals 1 and 2.
———————————
What do these two stories have to do with each other? Well, you see, Butch O’Hare was …………. “Easy Eddie’s” son.

There are many more stories that can add to the inspiring pile, but here what I want to stress on is that despite seeing the side of the powerful life of the mob, Butch O’Hare chose instead to serve his country in the true patriotic way.  Easy Eddie had one thing Al Capone couldn’t take from him, and that was the time he owned then. The time he took to teach his son; which were the first lessons that moulded Butch O’Hare’s character Easy Eddie’s life wasn’t the right track to begin but he chose to right the wrongs. That was his second lesson to his son.

In the end, our time is our own. We can chose to spend it the way we want. we will make mistakes, that is human nature; but every thing of the past will shape the future. History usually repeats itself they say, but the outcome can change each time. So do we own our time or do we while away time ?

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Posted in Christian, Reflections, Stories Around the World

Are you like the little boy ?

Posted on by Sugar and Spice..... Among Other Things
Actions speak louder than words or even beliefs. Yes, this old adage goes a long way and it does ring almost all the time. We belong to a conversation savvy world, where words and deeds are at polar opposites. It goes same for those of who often give out advice. Or for those of who often preach. Many of us do read the Bible regularly, some occasionally but the more important fact lies in the fact that how many of us have honest faith in God’s words. During difficult times, and here I don’t mean physical hardships but mental, emotional, social or even financial ones; do we really lift our burdens and hand it over to the Lord or do we fret and worry about tomorrow. We are human, so we do tend to worry but how many of us have the real conviction that just as the Lord brings hardships, He will always provide too. For that we need absolute faith which doesn’t come without absolute trust in His Grace.
This story below is one of a boy’s absolute faith in the Lord, that put an entire congregation to shame. For those of us who have previously come across this story, the food for thought is: who would you be: the little boy or the congregation ? And for those of us who haven’t heard of this story, do read on.
 
This is a story of absolute Faith
It was a dry summer, and farmers, residents of a small village, were worried about what would happen to their harvest. On one Sunday after the Mass, they turned to their pastor for advice. “Father, we must do something, or we will lose a crop!”
“All that is required of you is to pray with absolute faith. Prayer without faith is not prayer. It must come from the heart, “answered the priest.
The next week the farmers gathered twice a day and prayed that God would send them rain. On Sunday they gathered as usual for the mass and someone was the last to arrive. This time it was a little boy who rushed in putting his umbrella in the stand. After the mass, the farmers came to the priest. 
“Nothing happens, Father!” We every day get together and pray, but there is no rain and no.
“Do you really pray with faith?” Asked the priest. They began to assure him that it was so. But the priest replied:”If you pray with faith, then like the little boy, you would have taken your umbrella with you !”
“Finally, brethren (sisters) of mine, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His power” (Ephesians 6: 10).
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Posted in Family and Society, Personal Musings, poetry

To Mend the wall or Not to ?!

Posted on by Sugar and Spice..... Among Other Things

Last night we had a rainstorm and the outcome, an old section of the wall fencing the backside of our fields had come down. Interestingly, it was pointed out to us by the neighbours as their Alsatian had tried to jump over the rubble. 

On seeing the mess left behind, what came forefront to my mind were two things: first the amount of work to repair it and second, do we really need to keep a wall or instead make do with a fence. Oh yes, there are differences between both, primarily that a wall is completely solid and secondly, it is a more tedious task rebuilding one. 

This little incident brought my thoughts to Robert Frost, “Mending Wall” and the following conversation was running in my mind.

“Do we need walls ? Oh yes, especially for the farms and fields,we need them. Not in the suburbs though, too much of a hassle. Trouble can always jump over a wall !!

“And the metaphorical walls ? The walls surrounding our heart and our mind, what about them ? The hearts need walls to protect us from the sorrows but the mind, we miss out on life we are stuck behind the mental walls.

“And the spiritual walls ? There can be no walls in our relationship with the Lord, for He knows all.

This begs the question of whether the walls were built to keep good neighbours or keep us walled in ? And here I am speaking of metaphorical walls. If it was the latter, the purpose is for what. Do we need boundaries for our homes and hearts to protect us or to keep us from experiencing the world ?

Robert Frost had written about “mending walls” and the realities surrounding it. I had read his piece in my high school classes. This time I tried reading it again and a whole lot of different perspectives were brought to light.

The certainty that we do need them in certain facets and the reality of what we may be missing if we lived a life without walls. The hard truth lies in where we erect them: surrounding us or within us and why do we need them: to protect or to hide. 

“Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun;
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there.
I let my neighbour know beyond the hill;
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
“Stay where you are until our backs are turned!”
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of out-door game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, “Good fences make good neighbours.”
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
“Why do they make good neighbours? Isn’t it
Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I’d ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That wants it down.” I could say “Elves” to him,
But it’s not elves exactly, and I’d rather
He said it for himself. I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me,
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father’s saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, “Good fences make good neighbours.”
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Posted in Christian, Personal Musings, poetry, Stories Around the World

God’s Rosebud

Posted on by Sugar and Spice..... Among Other Things

How many times in our life do we try to anticipate every situation, every event and every hour ? Very few of us are willing to entrust our waking minutes in His Hands. What we really need to do is to let go and let God unfold your life. For His shoulders can bear all our burdens. 

This is  a great story that I got through a Whats app forward. I don’t who is the author but I find it worth sharing; for it had made my day brighter and I hope it would make your day too.

A new minister was walking with an older, more seasoned minister in the garden one day. Feeling a bit insecure about what God had for him to do, he was asking the older preacher for some advice. The older preacher walked up to a rosebush and handed the young preacher a rosebud and told him to open it without tearing off any petals. The young preacher looked in disbelief at the older preacher and was trying to figure out what a rosebud could possibly have to do with his wanting to know the will of God for his life and ministry. But, because of his great respect for the older preacher, he proceeded to try to unfold the rose, while keeping every petal intact. It wasn’t long before he realized how impossible this was to do. Noticing the younger preacher’s inability to unfold the rosebud without tearing it, the older preacher began to recite the following poem…

“It is only a tiny rosebud,
A flower of God’s design;
But, I cannot unfold the petals
With these clumsy hands of mine.”

“The secret of unfolding flowers
Is not known to such as I.
GOD opens this flower so easily,
But, in my hands they die.”

“If I cannot unfold a rosebud,
This flower of God’s design,
Then, how can I have the wisdom
To unfold this life of mine?”

“So, I’ll trust in God for leading
Each moment of my day.
I will look to God for guidance
In each step along the way.”

“The path that lies before me,
Only my Lord and Savior knows.
I’ll trust God to unfold the moments,
Just as He unfolds the rose.”

“Do not be anxious about anything, but always in prayer and petition with thanksgiving, open your wishes to God …” (Epistle to Philippians 4: 6)

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Posted in Daily, Life, Personal Musings, Quotes, Reflections

Caught In the Perception

Posted on by Sugar and Spice..... Among Other Things

Here is something I wish to share, came as a forwarded email to me…..have really no clue about the author.. but do read on…

“A marvelous lesson appeared for me just now as I was exiting through the garage, to come to this little play-place they call an office. As I opened the garage door, I startled a large moth, which, upon spreading it’s wings, displayed a bright red “tail” hidden by the motley brown wings, more a “butterfly” than a moth. It flew immediately to its perceived escape, the circle-topped window where it frantically tried to exit through the invisible wall of closed glass.I raised the third-car garage door in hopes of aiding it’s escape. That caused it to fly higher and higher and become entangled in a spider web. Fearful that it would remain entangled in the web, I selected a long-handled broom to assist him escaping the tangled threads. At this, he returned to furiously pumping his wings and banging into the glass, which was, in his perspective, the pathway of escape, but remained his cage. By simply turning his focus to one side, he would have easily exited his prison. Rather, due to his intent on one direction, he remained confined, captive.”

At end of this email, what flashed through my mind alarmingly was that, “Have I ever been like the butterfly?” Honestly, the answer that came to my mind was “yes”.

There have been many circumstances of being caught in the “current chaos” instead of channelizing our efforts into “what can be achieved”. In the end, we get caught in the web, banging our head against the “glass” that we can see, instead  of looking around for the “broom”. But that is the irony of life, we never see what is in front of us, but long for what is on the other side.