Blog Archives - Grace Drops

Acknowledgements

8/30/2013

© Patty Fitts. All Rights Reserved.

A newly arrived soul in Heaven was met by St. Peter. The saint toured the soul around Heaven. Both of them walked side by side inside a large workroom filled with angels. St. Peter stopped in front of the first section and said, "This is the Receiving Section. Here, all the petitions to God said in prayer are received. The soul looked at the section, and it was terribly busy with so many angels sorting out petitions written on voluminous paper sheets from all over the world.

They walked again until they reached the second section. "This is the Packaging and Delivery Section. Here, the graces and blessings asked for are packed and delivered to those who asked for them down on earth." Oh, how busy it was! There were many angels working in that room, since so many blessings were being packed and delivered to earth.

Finally at the farthest corner of the room, the soul stopped at the last section. To the surprise of the soul, only one angel was there, hardly doing anything. "This is the Acknowledging Section," St. Peter told the soul.

"How is it that there is no work here?"

St. Peter answered, "That's the sad thing. After people receive the blessings they asked for, very few send their acknowledgments."

Reprinted from Grace Drops, Volume 4 (2006).

Thank God, Anyway

8/29/2013

© Patty Fitts. All Rights Reserved.

There's this guy who had been lost and walking in the desert for about two weeks. One hot day, he sees the home of a missionary. Tired and weak, he crawls up to the house and collapses on the doorstep. The missionary finds him and nurses him back to health.

Feeling better, the man asks the missionary for directions to the nearest town. On his way out the backdoor, he sees this horse. He goes back into the house and asks the missionary, "Could I borrow your horse and give it back when I reach the town?"

The missionary says, "Sure but there is a special thing about this horse. You have to say 'Thank God' to make it go and 'Amen' to make it stop."

Not paying much attention, the man says, "Sure, ok." So he gets on the horse and says, "Thank God" and the horse starts walking. Then he says, "Thank God, thank God," and the horse starts trotting. Feeling really brave, the man say, "Thank God, thank God, thank God, thank God, thank God" and the horse just takes off.

Pretty soon he sees this cliff coming up and he's doing everything he can to make the horse stop. "Whoa, stop, hold on!!!!" Finally he remembers, "Amen!!"

The horse stops four inches from the cliff. The man leans back in the saddle and says, "Thank God."

Don’t let this stop you from being “Thankful.”

Reprinted from Grace Drops, Volume 4 (2006).

The Rules for Being Human

8/26/2013

© Patty Fitts. All Rights Reserved.

1. You will receive a body.

    You may like it or hate it but it will be yours for the entire period this time around.

2. You will learn lessons.

    You’re enrolled in a full-time informal school called life. Each day in this school you will have the opportunity to learn lessons. You may like the lessons or think them irrelevant or stupid.

3. There are no mistakes, only lessons.

    Growth is a process of trial and error: experimentation. The “failed” experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiment that ultimately “works.”

4. A lesson is repeated until learned.

    A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can then go on to the next lesson.

5. Learning lessons does not end.

    There is no part of life that does not contain its lessons. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned.

6. “There” is no better than “here.”

    When your “there” has become a “here” you will simply obtain anther “there” that will, again, look better than “here.”

7. Others are merely mirrors of you.

    You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects to you something you love or hate in yourself.

8. What you make of your life is up to you.

    You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours.

9. Your answers lie inside you.

    The answers to life’s questions lie inside you. All you need to do is look, listen, and trust.

10. You will forget all this!!

Reprinted from Grace Drops, Volume 4 (2006).

Good Only if Used

8/22/2013

© Patty Fitts. All Rights Reserved.

A familiar sight along the highway that I drive to work is a restaurant that has gone out of business. Some locations seemed to be doomed to failure. It isn’t long before the building begins to look seedy and “run down.” I find it curious because it isn’t as if they would have painted the building, or remodeled during that time. It seems that the absence of customers, of life, has caused the building to deteriorate.

It reminds me of a little story about Nicollo Pagannini, the great violinist that I referred to in a previous story, “Beautiful Music.” He willed his marvelous violin to Genoa, Italy, the city of his birth, only on the condition that it not be played. It is a peculiar wood in that as long as the violin is used and handled, it shows little wear. As soon as it is discarded, the wood begins to decay.

The exquisite mellow-toned violin has become worm-eaten in its beautiful case, valueless except as a relic. The moldering instrument is a reminder that life, withdrawn from all service to others, loses its meaning.

If you want your life to have joy and meaning, if you want to retain your value and your worth and not disintegrate into a worthless relic, you must serve and remain active.

© 2006, John C. Fitts, III. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted from Grace Drops, Volume 4 (2006).

Honey or Vinegar?

8/19/2013

© Patty Fitts. All Rights Reserved.

The preacher placed two identical jars on the table next to the pulpit. He quoted 1 Samuel 16:7, “The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

"These jars came from the same factory, were made of the same materials, and can hold the same amount. But they are different," he explained.

Then he upset one and it oozed out honey. He turned over the other, and vinegar spilled out. "When a jar is upset, whatever is in it comes out. Until the jars were upset, they looked alike. The difference was within and could not be seen. When they were upset, their contents were revealed.”

“Until we are upset, we put on a good front. But when we are upset, we reveal our innermost thoughts and attitudes.”

What if someone tipped you over today? What would flow out?

Would you reveal the "honey" of grace and patience, or the "vinegar" of anger and criticism?

Reprinted from Grace Drops, Volume 4 (2006).

For Such a Time as This

8/17/2013

© Patty Fitts. All Rights Reserved.

A 92-year-old, petite, well-poised and proud man, who is fully dressed each morning by eight o'clock, with his hair fashionably coifed and shaved perfectly applied, even though he is legally blind, moved to a nursing home today. His wife of 70 years recently passed away, making the move necessary.

After many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home, he smiled sweetly when told his room was ready.

As he maneuvered his walker to the elevator, I provided a visual description of his tiny room, including the eyelet sheets that had been hung on his window.

"I love it," he stated with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old having just been presented with a new puppy.

"Mr. Jones, you haven't seen the room; just wait."

"That doesn't have anything to do with it," he replied. "Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn't depend on how the furniture is arranged ... it's how I arrange my mind. I already decided to love it. It's a decision I make every morning when I wake up. I have a choice; I can spend the day in bed recounting the difficulty I have with the parts of my body that no longer work, or get out of bed and be thankful for the ones that do."

"Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open I'll focus on the new day and all the happy memories I've stored away, just for this time in my life. Old age is like a bank account. You withdraw from what you've put in."

"So, my advice to you would be to deposit a lot of happiness in the bank account of memories. Thank you for your part in filling my memory bank. I am still depositing."

Remember the five simple
rules to be happy:
1. Free your heart from hatred.
2. Free your mind from worries.
3. Live simply.
4. Give more.
5. Expect less.

Reprinted from Grace Drops, Volume 4 (2006).

1000 Marbles

8/15/2013

© Patty Fitts. All Rights Reserved.

One Saturday morning, a fellow was listening to a talk show. He heard an older sounding chap with a golden voice telling the story of "a thousand marbles" to someone named "Tom." He was intrigued and sat down to listen to what he had to say.

"Well, Tom, it sure sounds like you're busy with your job. I'm sure they pay you well, but it's a shame you have to be away from home and your family so much. Hard to believe a young fellow should have to work sixty or seventy hours a week to make ends meet. Too bad you missed your daughter's dance recital."

He continued, "Let me tell you something Tom, something that has helped me keep a good perspective on my own priorities. You see, I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic. The average person lives about seventy-five years, some more, some less, but on average, folks live about seventy-five years."

"Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3900 which is the number of Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime. Now stick with me Tom, I'm getting to the important part. It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about all this in any detail," he went on, "and by that time I had lived through over twenty-eight hundred Saturdays. I got to thinking that if I lived to be seventy-five, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy."

"So I went to a toy store and bought every single marble they had. I ended up having to visit three toy stores to round up 1000 marbles. I took them home and put them inside of a large, clear plastic container right here in my workshop next to the radio. Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out. I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused more on the really important things in life. There is nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to help get your priorities straight."

"Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign off with you and take my lovely wife out for breakfast. This morning, I took the very last marble out of the container. I figure if I make it until next Saturday then God has blessed me with a little extra time to be with my loved ones. It was nice to talk to you Tom. I hope you spend more time with your loved ones, and I hope to meet you again someday. Have a good morning!"

Reprinted from Grace Drops, Volume 4 (2006).

To Realize

8/12/2013

© Patty Fitts. All Rights Reserved.

To realize
The value of a sister
Ask someone who doesn't have one.

To realize
The value of ten years:
Ask a newly divorced couple.

To realize
The value of four years:
Ask a graduate.

To realize
The value of one year:
Ask a student who has failed a final exam.

To realize
The value of nine months:
Ask a mother who gave birth to a stillborn.

To realize
The value of one month:
Ask a mother who has given birth to a premature baby.

To realize
The value of one week:
Ask an editor of a weekly newspaper.

To realize
The value of one hour:
Ask the lovers who are waiting to meet.

To realize
The value of one minute:
Ask a person who missed the train, bus or plane.

To realize
The value of one second:
Ask a person who has survived an accident.

To realize
The value of one millisecond:
Ask the person who has won a silver medal in the Olympics.

To realize
The value of a friend:
Lose one.

Time waits for no one.
Treasure every moment you have.

Reprinted from Grace Drops, Volume 4 (2006).

For the Birds

8/10/2013

© Patty Fitts. All Rights Reserved.

Few people have been more creative than Charles Kettering, the brilliant engineer who invented all kinds of things connected with the automobile and ended up being head of research for General Motors.

Kettering once made a wager with a friend that if the friend would hang up a bird cage in his house, that the friend would eventually have to buy a bird to put in it. The skeptical friend took the bet.

"I bought him an attractive bird cage made in Switzerland," Kettering recalled, "and my friend hung it near his dining room table. And, of course you know what happened. People would come in and say, "When did your bird die?"

"I never had a bird," Kettering's friend would answer, only to be asked, "Then why do you have a bird cage?"

Finally, despite himself, Kettering's friend decided it was simpler to buy a bird than to keep explaining why he had an empty bird cage in his dining room.

At this point in his story, Kettering would tell his listeners, "If you hang bird cages in your mind, eventually you go out and get something to put into them.

From The Howe Herald.

Two Horses

8/7/2013

© Patty Fitts. All Rights Reserved.

Just up the road from my home is a field with two horses in it. From a distance, each looks like every other horse. However, if one stops the car - or is walking by - one will notice something quite amazing.

Looking into the eyes of one horse will disclose that he is blind. His owner has chosen not to have him put down, but has made a good home for him. This alone is amazing, but close observation will reveal something even more amazing.

Listening closely, one will hear the sound of a bell. Looking around for the source of the sound, one will see that it comes from the smaller horse in the field. Attached to her bridle is a small bell. It lets her blind friend know where she is, so he can follow her.

As one stands and watches these two friends, one sees how she is always checking on him and that he will listen for her bell and then slowly walk to where she is, trusting that she will not lead him astray.

Like the owners of these two horses, God does not throw us away just because we are not perfect or because we have problems or challenges. He watches over us and even brings others into our lives to help us when we are in need.

Sometimes we are like the blind horse, being guided by God and those whom He places in our lives. Other times, we are the guide horse, helping others see God.

Author: Ingrid Khan.