John Pape Online Blog

Two friends were walking through the desert.  During some point of the journey, they had an argument; and one friend slapped the other one in the face.

The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything, wrote in the sand.

‘Today my best friend slapped me in the face.’

They kept on walking, until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath.

The one who had been slapped got stuck in the mire and started drowning, but the friend saved him.

After he recovered from the near drowning, he wrote on a stone:

‘Today my best friend saved my life‘

The friend who had slapped and saved his best friend asked him, ‘after I hurt you, you wrote in the sand and now, you write on a stone, why?’

The friend replied ‘when someone hurts us we should write it down in sand, where winds of forgiveness can erase it away.

But, when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it’

Learn to write your hurts in the sand and to carve your benefits in stone.

They say it takes a minute to find a special person,  an hour to appreciate them, a day to love them, but then, an entire life to forget them.

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The other day when I got home I found a note on my front door. Here is that note…

Today

As a service to the residents of this area, new house numbers
are to be painted on the curbs in the front of the homes in
your neighborhood.  These numbers will be painted within
twenty-four to forty-eight hours of receiving this notice.
This is important service, it enables Police, Fire,
Ambulances, and repair/delivery personnel to locate your
home quickly in the case of emergency.Large black numbers
on a white background will be painted with high
quality paint.

We estimate the value of this service to be $10.00, but
there is no fixed charge, all donations large or small are
greatly appreciated.

In order for this service to be effective, we feel that
all numbers should be painted. We will greatly paint
your number at no cost to you to achieve this continuity.
This service is offered on a free will donation basis
to your community to ensure quicker response times of
need.  Thank you for your cooperation and have
a great day.

Now, me and my wife like this done on our curb, so it no problem with getting this done.  As a matter of fact the letter is rather well written.  Here this guy is willing to paint all numbers on all the curb for each house on our street.  And yes, as long as no one parks in front of the numbers, it is helpful for people to find the right address.  And the way it was written gave me a choice to have it done free or pay for the service.  Either way I was going to get new numbers painted on my curb.

Now this type of thing has been done for a long time.  My friend Glenn would do this to earn some extra beer money.  He didn’t use the letter but the concept was the same except there were no freebies.  And once he had enough money he’d quit and go to store.

In many respects I admire this guy who offered this service.  At least he was offering something of value in return for his request for money.  Not like those people who hold up signs at the freeway off ramps.

Lesson One

Well as promised in his letter this guy painted my curb.  He knocked on my door to let me know that my curb was painted.  And her is were experience pays off.  And my advise to everyone out there – before you pay make sure the job is done to your satisfaction.  My excitement was soon turned to disappointment.  Here was my newly painted numbers.  But they were the wrong numbers.   My house number is 445 and now my house number was 465.   (kind of give a new meaning to new numbers. dosen’t it?)

Lesson two

Make it clear in a civil manner that the job was not done correctly.   To the credit of this gentleman, he promptly fixed the problem.  And I have my numbers back once again.

Lesson Three

When you make a mistake, admit it, suck it up and fix it promptly.

Once the job was done, I did pay him and he was on his way.

I’ve added several new resources to the John Pape Online Blog.

• Bible Trivia – Test your knowledge of the Bible
• Daily Bible Story – A new story every day from the Bible
• Christian News – News items with an emphasis on Christianity.
• eBooks – There are many resources available to help you to grow and learn in your Christian faith.
• Shopping – A shopping section has been added to help you easily find items such as books, software, musical instruments

Here is a great story about how God works in people’s lives.

Isn’t it amazing how God works in our lives! One night, this pastor was working late, and decided to call his wife before he left for home. It was about 10:00 PM, but his wife didn’t answer the phone. The pastor let it ring many times.

He thought it was odd that she didn’t answer, but decided to wrap up a few things and try again in a few minutes. When he tried again she answered right away.

He asked her why she hadn’t answered before, and she said that it hadn’t rung at their house. They brush it off as a fluke and went on their merry ways.

The following Monday, the pastor received a call at the church office, which was the phone that he’d used that Saturday night. The man that he spoke with wanted to know why he’d called on Saturday night. The pastor couldn’t figure out what the man was talking about.

Then the man said, “It rang and rang, but I didn’t answer.” The pastor remembered the mishap and apologized for disturbing him, explaining that he’d intended to call his wife.

The man said, “That’s OK. Let me tell you my story.

You see, I was planning to commit suicide on Saturday night, but before I did, I prayed, ‘God if you’re there, and you don’t want me to do this, give me a sign now.’

At that point my phone started to ring. I looked at the caller ID, and it said, ‘Almighty God’.

I was afraid to answer!”

The reason why it showed on the man’s caller ID that the call came from “Almighty God” is because the church that the pastor attends is called Almighty God Tabernacle!!

God answers prayers!