Community Presbyterian Church 

Based on the September 11, 2001 Tragedy:

"We're bringing our children into a world...

• where they are turning volunteers away at the downtown hospitals because so many have turned out to help
• where they are asking employees at my medical center to withhold giving blood for 2 weeks because the current response to the need in our community is so great
• where nurses & doctors are coming in without being called and staying longer than they need to to bring care to those who need it
• where total strangers helped others find the way out of the consuming clouds of smoke and rubble
• where the bravest of the brave gave their lives for the sake of saving a stranger
• where so many of those bravest are still going above and beyond their duty to recover survivors
• where construction companies have donated their time and equipment to help with clearing away the debris
• where large, usually cold-seeming pharmaceuticals and medical supply companies have come forward offering whatever is needed to accommodate the number of patients
• where some people, for whatever reason, didn't go into work that day - each of  them a miracle
• where some were in the buildings that were hit, and somehow made it out in time - all living miracles
• where I've never felt so united with the stranger next to me, who isn't just a stranger anymore, but a fellow-American...

To a beautiful person

 If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it.
 If He had a wallet, your photo would be in it.
 He sends you flowers every spring.
 He sends you a sunrise every morning.
 Whenever you want to talk, He listens.
 He can live anywhere in the universe, but He chose ... your heart.
 Face it, friend -- He is crazy about you!

God didn't promise days without pain, laughter without sorrow, sun  without rain, but He did promise strength for the day,
comfort for the tears, and light for the way.

"Interview with God"

I dreamed I had an interview with God.
"Come in," God said. "So, you would like to interview Me?"
"If you have the time," I said.
God smiled and said: "My time is eternity and is enough to do everything; what questions do you have in mind to ask me?"
"What surprises you most about human kind?"
God answered: "That they get bored of being children, are in a rush to grow up, and then long to be children again.
That they lose their health to make money and then lose their money to restore their health.
That by thinking anxiously about the future, they forget the present, such that they live neither for the present nor the future.
That they live as if they will never die, and they die as if they had never lived..."
God's hands took mine and we were silent for while and then I asked... "As a parent, what are some of life's lessons you want your children to learn?"
God replied with a smile:

"To learn that they cannot make anyone love them. What they can do is to let themselves be loved.
To learn that what is most valuable is not what they have in their lives, but who they have in their lives.

To learn that it is not good to compare themselves to others. All will be judged individually on their own merits, not as a group on a comparison basis!
To learn that a rich person is not the one who has the most, but is one who needs the least.
To learn that it only takes a few seconds to open profound wounds in persons we love, and that it takes many years to heal them.

To learn to forgive by practicing forgiveness.
To learn that there are persons that love them dearly, but simply do not know how to express or show their feelings.
To learn that money can buy everything but happiness.

To learn that two people can look at the same thing and see it totally differently.
To learn that a true friend is someone who knows everything about them and likes them anyway.
To learn that it is not always enough that they be forgiven by others, but that they have to forgive themselves."

- Author Unknown

Letter from God

From: GOD
To: All those who believe in me
Subject: Life's problems

Good morning. I am GOD. Today I will be handling all your problems. Please remember that I don't need your help. If the devil delivers a situation you cannot handle, DO NOT attempt to resolve it. Kindly put it in the SFJTD (something for Jesus to do) box. It will be addressed in MY time, not yours. Once the matter is placed in the Box, do not hold onto it or remove it. Holding on will delay the resolution to your problem. If it is a situation that you think you are capable of handling, please consult me in prayer to be sure it is the proper solution. Because I do not sleep or slumber, there is no reason for you to lose any sleep. Rest my child. If you need to contact me, I am only a prayer away.

- Signed GOD

Slow me down, Lord!

Slow me down, Lord!
Ease the pounding of my heart
By the quieting of my mind
Steady my harried pace
With a vision of the eternal reach of time

Give me,
Amidst the confusions of my day,
The calmness of the everlasting hills
Break the tensions of my nerves
With the soothing music of the singing streams
That live in my memory
Help me to know
The magical restoring power of sleep

Teach me the art
Of taking minute vacations of slowing down
to look at a flower
to chat with an old friend or make a new one
to pet a stray dog
to watch a spider build a web
to smile at a child
or to read a few lines from a good book

Remind me each day
That the race is not always to the swift
That there is more to life than increasing its speed
Let me look upward
Into the branches of the towering oak
And know that it grew straight and strong
Because it grew slowly and well

Slow me down, Lord,
And inspire me to send my roots deep
Into the soil of life's enduring values
That I may grow toward the stars
Of my greater destiny