REDBABY said:

How can you love that insincere, insipid shite?!

JDInteractive said:

What if those words are sung by one who IS sincere?

Personally, I love the song and sing it to my kids (and others' kids) whenever I get the chance.

A successful Christian business man was growing old and knew it was time to choose a successor to take over the business.


Instead of choosing one of his directors or his children, he decided to do something different. He called all the young executives in his company together.


He said, "It is time for me to step down and choose the next CEO. I have decided to choose one of you. "The young executives were shocked, but the boss continued. "I am going to give each one of you a SEED today - one very special SEED. I want you to plant the seed, water it, and come back here one year from today with what you have grown from the seed I have given you. I will then judge the plants that you bring, and the one I choose will be the next CEO"


One man, named Jim, was there that day and he, like the others, received a seed. He went home and excitedly, told his wife the story.


She helped him get a pot, soil and compost and he planted the seed.
Everyday, he would water it and watch to see if it had grown. After about three weeks, some of the other executives began to talk about their seeds and the plants that were beginning to grow. Jim kept checking his seed, but nothing ever grew. Three weeks, four weeks, five weeks went by, still nothing. By now, others were talking about their plants, but Jim didn't have a plant and he felt like a failure. Six months went by--still nothing in Jim's pot. He just knew he had killed his seed. Everyone else had trees and tall plants, but he had nothing. Jim didn't say anything to his colleagues, however. He just kept watering and fertilizing the soil - he so wanted the seed to grow.


A year finally went by and all the young executives of the company brought their plants to the CEO for inspection. Jim told his wife that he wasn't going to take an empty pot. But she asked him to be honest about what happened. Jim felt sick at his stomach, it was going to be the most embarrassing moment of his life, but he knew his wife was right. He took his empty pot to the board room. When Jim arrived, he was amazed at the variety of plants grown by the other executives. They were beautiful--in all shapes and sizes. Jim put his empty pot on the floor and many of his colleagues laughed, a few felt sorry for him!


When the CEO arrived, he surveyed the room and greeted his young executives. Jim just tried to hide in the back. "My, what great plants, trees, and flowers you have grown," said the CEO. "Today one of you will be appointed the next CEO!" All of a sudden, the CEO spotted Jim at the back of the room with his empty pot. He ordered the financial director to bring him to the front. Jim was terrified. He thought, "The CEO knows I'm a failure! Maybe he will have me fired!"


When Jim got to the front, the CEO asked him what had happened to his seed - Jim told him the story.


The CEO asked everyone to sit down except Jim. He looked at Jim, and then announced to the young executives, "Behold your next Chief Executive!


His name is Jim!" Jim couldn't believe it. Jim couldn't even grow his seed. How could he be the new CEO the others said?


Then the CEO said, "One year ago today, I gave everyone in this room a seed. I told you to take the seed, plant it, water it, and bring it back to me today.


But I gave you all boiled seeds; they were dead - it was not possible for them to grow. All of you, except Jim, have brought me trees and plants and flowers.


When you found that the seed would not grow, you substituted another seed for the one I gave you. Jim was the only one with the courage and honesty to bring me a pot with my seed in it. Therefore, he is the one who will be the new Chief Executive!"


If you plant honesty, you will reap trust

If you plant goodness, you will reap friends

If you plant humility, you will reap greatness

If you plant perseverance, you will reap contentment

If you plant consideration, you will reap perspective

If you plant hard work, you will reap success

If you plant forgiveness, you will reap reconciliation

If you plant faith in Christ, you will reap a harvest

So, be careful what you plant now; it will determine what you will reap later.

Two thousand years ago Paul wrote to the church at Galatia the same story but with fewer words, "What you sow, so shall you reap". (Gal. 6:7)

We are grass that will wither and die but the incorruptible seed of God's Word will live forever - sow it daily into the life of your family! (1 Peter 1: 23 - 25)

Tomorrow is Friday!

GONE FROM MY SIGHT


I am standing upon the seashore.
A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean.

She is an object of beauty and strength.
I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.

Then someone at my side says: "There, she is gone!"

"Gone where?"

Gone from my sight. That is all.
She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side and she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port.

Her diminished size is in me, not in her.
And just at the moment when someone at my side says:

"There, she is gone!" there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices ready to take up the glad shout:

"Here she comes!"

And that is dying.

Author unknown




My grandmother died from colon cancer and we took care of her at home. Hospice came in to help with the caregiving. They gave us a book about death, dying, and the different steps of the grieving process.

This poem really made me feel comforted about losing her. It made me feel sort of happy even.

When I read it I tear up and it hurts my heart a little, but it also makes me smile.

Thank you all

Your welcome.

JDInteractive said:

.
[Edited 8/23/07 18:27pm]

"You think dogs will not be in heaven? I tell you, they will be there long before any of us."
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)

Mach said:

how did it go?

emm said:

more later ... or tomorrow

Mach said:

...Believe me, I can relate.

Lord, make me a channel of thy peace,

that where there is hatred, I may bring love;

that where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness;

that where there is discord, I may bring harmony;

that where there is error, I may bring truth;

that where there is doubt, I may bring faith;

that where there is despair, I may bring hope;

that where there are shadows, I may bring light;

that where there is sadness, I may bring joy.

Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted;

to understand, than to be understood;

to love, than to be loved.

For it is by self-forgetting that one finds.

It is by forgiving that one is forgiven.

It is by dying that one awakens to Eternal Life.

RodeoSchro said:

shanti0608 said:

The Peace Prayer of St Francis... I love that so much.

Tomorrow always comes, just like that song in Annie.

hokie1 said:

the hurting never stops, but just as well the love is never ending

Sweeny79 said:

Me too. I found the coolest bracelets- got one for me and my mom.
http://www.prettygoodgood.../show/4346


Of coarse I bought the cheaper ones....lol

hokie1 said:

aww.. I am glad it brought you comfort. It is a beautiful poem.

JDInteractive said:

You are SOOO grumpy!!!

my balls itch

IAintTheOne said:

shanti0608 said:

Very nice