Enlightening Stories

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Graduation Day

Today, 
you may not know all that 
the world has to offer... 
but we know that the world 
will be a better place 
because of what you have 
to offer it. 

Today, 
you may not know which path 
you should follow... 
but we know that you will 
listen to your own heart, 
for it will never lie. 

Today, 
you may question what you 
have already accomplished... 
but we know you will
never doubt what you can do. 

As all of your tomorrows 
open themselves to you, 
never forget how proud we are 
of you 
and how much we love you... 

yesterday, today, and always. 

-- Michael Coffey Tarbert 
Sent by fangfang@bdg.centrin.net.id

A Scoutmaster Saves the Day 

    For weeks the troop has been engaged in expectant preparation for its Parents' Night
    program. Everything was in order. The walls were filled with displays, the scouts
    with enthusiasm and the tables with good things to eat. 

    The toastmaster was well under way. The crowd sang with that respectably restrained
    enthusiasm that typified a Parents' Night program. 

    Then Jimmie Davis arose to give his oration. This was the moment he had looked
    forward to for many weeks. As he arose, he caught a glimpse of his mother's beaming
    face and his father's stolid assured countenance. He started with a great burst of
    enthusiasm. He waxed more eloquent, conscious that his listeners were paying a high
    tribute to him by their careful attention.

    Then something happened. The world seemed to swim before him. He slowed down -
    faltered - stopped. His face flushed, his hands sought each other frantically and in
    desperation he looked helplessly toward his scoutmaster. 

    And ever prepared, having heard that boyish masterpiece rehearsed again and again,
    the boy's leader supplied the missing words and the lad went on. But somehow it was
    different now. The masterpiece had been marred. 

    Jimmie paused again - and the scoutmaster prompted him again. For the remaining two
    minutes, the oration seemed more the scoutmaster's than the boy's. 

    But Jimmie finished it. In the heart of the lad who sat down, knowing that he had
    failed, there was a heavy load. Chagrin was plainly written on the face of the boy's
    mother, and a twitch of the father's face indicated a pained consciousness of shame. 

    The audience applauded in a perfunctory way, sorry for and pitying the boy who they
    thought had failed. 

    But the scoutmaster was on his feet. His quiet eyes twinkled. All listened tensely, for
    he did not talk loudly. What was he saying? 

    "I am more happy than any of you can possibly understand because of what has just
    happened. You have seen a boy make a glorious victory out of what might have been a
    miserable failure. 

    "Jimmie had his chance to quit. To have quit would have been easy. But to finish the
    job even in the face of 200 people required the highest kind of bravery and courage I
    know. 

    "You may someday hear a better oratorical effect, but I am confident that you will
    never see a finer demonstration of the spirit of our troop than Jimmie has just given
    you - to play the game even under difficulties!" 

    The people thundered their applause now. Jimmie's mother sat straight and proud. The
    old look of assurance was back on the face of the boy's father. The entire group was
    enthusiastic again and Jimmie, with a lump in his throat, said something to the friend
    beside him that sounded like, "Gee, if I can be that kind of scoutmaster someday." 

By Walter MacPeek 
Submitted by Martin Louw 
from A 2nd Helping of Chicken Soup for the Soul 
Copyright 1995 by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen 
A Gift
From Charles Dickens 

My favorite Christmas story is A
Christmas Carol, by Charles
Dickens. I love it because every
year it renews my faith in the
ability of human beings to make the
most profound changes in their
lives. Dickens teaches us that it's
never too late to become the kind
of human beings we were meant to
be.

As we watch Scrooge change from
the most ruthless of misers, to the
most generous of men, we know
that at some level, the same
magnitude of change is possible for
us. Sure, Scrooge had help from
some ghosts, but they didn't change
him, he did. And we can do the
same for ourselves.

Granted, most of us don't have as
far to go as Scrooge had at the
beginning of the story, but most of
us do crave change. We want to
improve our relationships, or
obtain better jobs, or lose weight,
or make a greater contribution to
society. We want to change our
lives and ourselves for the better.
But sometimes we just don't know
how. 

That's where A Christmas Carol
can help. It shows us how we can
change ourselves simply by
looking at where we've come from,
where we are, and where we're
headed if we don't change.
Sometimes that 's all you need to
knock some sense into yourself. I
learned that the hard way.

The gift of hindsight
When I was a senior in college, I
decided that I was going to become
a writer. But for the next dozen
years I barely wrote a thing. One
afternoon while I was sitting at my
desk daydreaming, I had one of
those life-changing revelations that
comes out of nowhere and takes a
baseball bat to the side of your
head:

If you had decided to
write a couple of
sentences a day twelve
years ago, by now you
would have completed
half-a-dozen books.

I was stunned. In a single pathetic
moment I realized just how much
time I had wasted, and how easily I
could have prevented it. It was as
if twelve years of my life had just
floated by without me, while I
stood on the shore and watched.
All because I didn't have the brains
to write a couple of sentences a
day. What kind of an idiot was I?

Before I could answer that, a new
thought presented itself, shining
like a sunbeam punching it's way
through a thundercloud:

You're missing the
point. This is a wake-up
call, not Judgment Day. 

Suddenly, I got it. I finally
understood what the world was
trying to beat into my head. The
purpose of being alive is not to
grieve over a wasted past, but to
make certain you don't waste the
future. I had been shown failure so
that I could learn from it and turn it
into success. All I had to do was to
write a couple of sentences a day
from that point on, and my dreams
of being a writer would come true.

Hallelujah! I had been handed one
of the secrets of the universe. I was
delighted, elated, and overjoyed. I
was also terrified.

What if I couldn't change? What if I
couldn't muster even the minimal
effort necessary to write a sentence
or two a day? I'd never been able
to do it before; what made me I
think I could do it now?

As if on cue, my thoughts leaped
twelve years into the future. There
I could see myself wringing my
hands in frustration because I still
hadn't written a thing. I was
miserable, a wretched failure,
accused and tormented by regret. I
knew I would remain a failure until
my dying day. I knew I would live
without joy, without reward,
without happiness, without...

That did it. I'd had enough. I was a
changed man. As surely as I knew
my own name, I knew I would
never let that kind of future take
place. Like Scrooge on Christmas
morning, I had seen the Ghost of
Things Yet To Come, and he had
cared the daylights out of me. I
had been given a second chance,
and I would make the most of it. I
knew that the next twelve years
would see a very different me from
the twelve years just passed.

And they did. I became a writer,
just as I had hoped. More
importantly, I learned one of the
most important lessons of my life:
We are all wise in hindsight; the
secret to making our dreams come
true is to turn hindsight into
foresight.

So use your past to empower your
future. Begin today what you regret
not having done yesterday, and you
will avoid that regret tomorrow.

Copyright © 1995-1998 by Keith Ellis
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 
No part of this column may be reproduced or 
transmitted in any form or by any 
means, electronic or mechanical, 
including photocopying, recording, 
scanning, telecommunicating, or by 
any information storage and retrieval system, 
without written permission 
from the author, except for the 
inclusion of brief quotations in a 
review or research project. 
Keith Ellis, a nationally known motivational 
speaker and writer, is the author of a popular new book 
called THE MAGIC LAMP: 
The first goal setting guide for people who hate setting  goals.
 http://www.selfhelp.com

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Food For Thought
 
Sun Tzu The Art Of War
Encouraging Quotes And Excerpts
Encouraging Stories
Jokes
 A Page to Rest - 
Breathing Space
Main Page
 Free Downloads