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ENTERTAINING ANGELS

It was fifty years ago, on a hot summer day, in the deep south.
We lived on a dirt road, on a sand lot.
We were, what was known as "dirt poor".
I had been playing outside all morning in the sand.

Suddenly, I heard a sharp clanking sound behind me and looking over my
shoulder, my eyes were drawn to a strange sight!
Across the dirt road were two rows of men,
dressed in black and white, striped, baggy uniforms.
Their faces were covered with dust and sweat.
They looked so weary, and they were chained together with huge, black, iron chains.
Hanging from the end of each chained row was a big, black, iron ball.

They were, as polite people said in those days, a "Chain Gang",
guarded by two, heavily armed, white guards.
I stared at the prisoners as they settled uncomfortably down in the dirt,
under the shade of some straggly trees.
One of the guards walked towards me.
Nodding as he passed, he went up to our front door and knocked.
My mother appeared at the door,
and I heard the guard ask if he could have permission to get water from
the pump, in the backyard, so that "his men" could "have a drink".
My mother agreed, but I saw a look of concern on her face,
as she called me inside.

I stared through the window
as each prisoner was unchained from the line,
to hobble over to the pump and drink his fill from a small tin cup,
while a guard watched vigilantly.
It wasn't long before they were all chained back up again,
with prisoners and guards retreating into the shade,
away from an unrelenting sun.
I heard my mother call me into the kitchen,
and I entered, to see her bustling around with tins of tuna fish,
mayonnaise, our last loaf of bread, and two, big, pitchers of lemonade.
In what seemed "a blink of an eye",
she had made a tray of sandwiches using all the tuna
we were to have had for that night's supper.

My mother was smiling as she handed me one of the pitchers of lemonade,
cautioning me to carry it "carefully" and to "not spill a drop."
Then, lifting the tray in one hand and holding a pitcher in her other hand,
she marched me to the door, deftly opening it with her foot,
and trotted me across the street.
She approached the guards, flashing them with a brilliant smile.
"We had some leftovers from lunch," she said, "and I
was wondering if we could share with you and your men."
She smiled at each of the men,
searching their dark eyes with her own blue eyes.
Everyone started to their feet. "Oh no!" she said.
"Stay where you are! I'll just serve you!"
Calling me to her side, she went from guard to guard,
then from prisoner to prisoner, filling each tin
cup with lemonade, and giving each man a sandwich.

It was very quiet, except for a "thank you, ma'am,"
and the clanking of the chains.
Very soon we were at the end of the line,
my mother's eyes softly scanning each face.
The last prisoner was a big man,
his dark skin pouring with sweat, and streaked with dust.
Suddenly, his face broke into a wonderful smile,
as he looked up into my mother's eyes, and
he said, "Ma'am, I've wondered all my life if I'd ever see an angel,
and now I have! Thank you!"
Again, my mother's smile took in the whole group.
"You're all welcome!" she said. "God bless you."
Then we walked across to the house,
with empty tray and pitchers, and back inside.

Soon, the men moved on, and I never saw them again.
The only explanation my mother ever gave me
for that strange and wonderful day,
was that I "remember, always, to entertain strangers, for by doing so,
you may entertain angels, without knowing."

Then, with a mysterious smile, she went about the rest of the day.
I don't remember what we ate for supper, that night.
I just know it was served by an angel.

Author Unknown

Just because no one has been fortunate enough to realize what a goldmine you are, doesn't mean you shine any less.

Just because no one has been smart enough to figure out that you can't be outshone, doesn't stop you from being the best.

Just because no one has come along to share your life, doesn't mean that day isn't coming.

Just because no one has made this race worthwhile, doesn't give you permission to stop running.

Just because no one has realized what an awesome woman you are, doesn't mean they can affect your femininity.

Just because no one has come to take the loneliness away, doesn't mean you have to settle for a lower quality.

Just because no one has shown up who can love you on your level, doesn't mean you have to sink to theirs.

Just because you deserve the very best there is, doesn't mean that life is always fair.

Just because God is still preparing your king, doesn't mean that you're not already a queen.

Just because your situation doesn't seem to be progressing right now, doesn't mean you need to change a thing.

Keep shining,
Keep running,
Share this with your friends who could use these words.

Keep hoping,
Keep praying,
Keep being exactly what you are already ... COMPLETE!

Send this on to five female friends who need to keep on doing what they do best - BEING A WOMAN OF GOD.

(Author unknown)


<

THINK OF JESUS

Think of JESUS
there beside you,
like a friend
who is glad to know you-
Feel the comfort
of HIS presence
and the kindness.

Think of JESUS
warmly smiling,
telling stories,
sharing laughter,
Bringing joy
that lights the moment,
peacefulness
that lingers after...

Think of JESUS
speaking gently
with a glow
of love about HIM,
And you will feel
the calm assurance
that you will never
be without HIM.

- Author Unknown

Restful holidays

by Branda Polk
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)

During the holidays, sleep and rest seem to be rare treats. The extra holiday activities and commitments added to the everyday schedule of life eat into the hours that most of us allot for sleep.

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke researches the impact of sleep on every area of life. According to their studies, sleep is a vital activity necessary for good health. A healthy amount of sleep for the average adult is seven to eight hours a night.

If you choose to deprive your body of this necessary sleep, the loss will catch up to you with drowsiness, decreased resistance to illness, lack of concentration and mood swings. You may find that your relationships are negatively impacted, you are less able to make decisions and your emotions are erratic and often unpredictable. The lack of sleep takes a toll on every area of your life.

Consider these tips to help you get the most rest out of your sleep time:

1) Release the worries that occupy your mind. Worrying about your circumstances will rob you of the sleep and rest that you need to function. Believe God to sustain you and meet your needs. 1 Peter 5:7 promises, "Cast your anxiety on Him because He cares for you."

2) Keep a notebook with you to make a list of things that need to be accomplished. If you remember an item you need from the grocery store, add it to the list. Keep a family calendar of all activities so you can plan and prepare for these events. How will this help your sleep? As you write items on your list you are confident these things are not forgotten and you will rest more soundly. Keep the notebook beside your bed so when you think of something in the middle of the night you can put it on the list and continue your rest.

3) Prepare your mind to rest. Instead of staying up late to watch the news or an intense drama on TV, turn the TV off and calm your mind with a more relaxing task. Read passages from the Psalms or other types of poetry that will calm your soul and mind. Listen to worship music. Sit in silence and pray.

4) Take a warm bath or shower. The heat of the water will relax you and prepare you for sleep.

5) Limit or avoid caffeine in the evening. Caffeine is a stimulant that will keep you awake. Caffeine is found in colas, coffee and chocolate.

6) Re-think your thoughts. Instead of counting sheep to get to sleep, try counting your blessings. Begin to think of the many ways that God has blessed you and thank him in your thoughts.

7) Establish nightly routines before you go to bed. This will consciously signal your body to slow down and begin to relax. Your routine can involve any of the suggestions above.

When you get enough rest, you are better prepared to handle the tasks of the next day without fatigue. Enough rest will benefit you and those around you because your attitude will be better.

Even Jesus understood the value of sleep and rest. Several times the Scriptures record Jesus sleeping (Mark 4:38) or just waking up (Mark 1:35). Jesus knew the demands of ministry required him to be at his very best, and that required rest.

Give yourself the gift of enough rest this holiday season. This free gift is beneficial to your health and to those around you.

* * * *

Are you too Busy?

The story goes something like this.

It was a super busy day. Besides the usual - getting a teenage daughter off to school, helping her husband manage a motel complex and trying to get things done around the house (you know, the stuff that normally takes 28 hours a day) - it was Dianne's turn as a parent helper to make a pot of soup to take to the school tuck shop at the local high school. While the soup simmered, she quickly showered and changed. On her way out, she stuffed her T-shirt and jeans into a grocery bag, and grabbed a bag of dirty kitty litter to throw in the rubbish bin downstairs. After dropping off the soup at the school, she headed for her daughter Emma's house to help her get caught up on some gardening. When Diane wanted to change into her work clothes, she opened the grocery bag and discovered a ponging bag of used Kitty Litter. Her jeans and T-shirt, no doubt, lay in the rubbish bin on the other side of town.

My friend's experience, reminded me of the day I had similar trouble and ironically, it also centred around a plastic bag. This is what happened.

During my lunch hour, I ran over to the mall to mail letters, pick up dry cleaning, drop off library books, buy a gift, and hunt down some newspapers and magazines for a research project at work. I was nearing the end of my lunch hour (except for the lunch part) when I grabbed the day's paper. I patted my shoulder for my purse. It wasn't there! Instantly I took off running to the post office, the last place I'd been. Half way there, I felt something under my arm... the newspaper I hadn't paid for! Almost instantly I decided that recovering my purse was more important. But what if I'm arrested for shoplifting? I stood paralysed for a moment, then sprinted off, on the watch for security guards with handcuffs. Then for some reason, I peaked inside the plastic bag in my other hand. Inside was the gift I had bought. And my purse!

Somehow I don't think plastic bag manufacturers could be held responsible for either of these mishaps. Both my friend and I readily agreed that these things happened simply because we were too busy. We tried to cram too much into too little time.

Ever done that? Very few women I know today lead simple lives. Most of us are juggling multiple roles with home, work, family, friends, and volunteer activities. When I catch up with the women I know and ask how they're doing, the most common response isn't "Fine, thanks," but, "Busy, busy, busy."

What's Wrong With Being Busy?

There's nothing wrong with living full, productive lives, and taking on new challenges. Like pioneer stress researcher Hans Selye has said, "Stress is the spice of life."

But sometimes things can get too hot! I believe there are three different kinds of busyness: daily do-able busyness; seasonal busyness; and perpetual busyness.

The first kind is the spice of life. Daily do-able busyness is invigorating, but manageable. This kind of busyness is healthy. Days that are filled with joy and meaning are days that are filled with activity, rest and play.

Seasonal busyness is the kind that comes in spurts: major projects, crises, and the demands that come with various times of life--the rigours of being a student, launching a career, or parenting pre-schoolers. This is the kind of busyness we often just have to cope with, like when we find ourselves caring for an ailing loved one. We know that if we get through the season we're in right now, things will slow down.

Perpetual busyness, however, is the kind that can really burn you. Psychologist Bryan Robinson says,"When you discover that you're not living your life, that your lifestyle is controlling you rather than you controlling it, then you know you have a problem." More of us probably experience this kind of perpetual busyness than we care to admit.

The Fall Out

Too much doing, going, helping and giving can take a toll on us, physically, emotionally and spiritually. Most medical books attribute anywhere from 50 to 80 per cent of all diseases to stress-related origins (Stress Among Women in Modern Society, Charles C. Thomas Publisher, 1992). When I get really busy, I'm quick to cut corners on the Big Three: sleep, exercise and healthy eating.

Too much busyness also chafes at the soul. Irritability, frustration, anger, bitterness, burnout and even depression can result. In seeking to serve others, we often neglect our own needs and run out of inner resources from which to draw strength. Spiritually, we become starved. We get so busy doing that we don't stop to reflect on whether what we're doing is really worth the effort. And we set ourselves up for failure by taking on too much, finding ourselves unable to follow through, then wallowing in guilt.

Busyness inevitably affects our relationships. We often don't have energy or time to invest with friends and family. Activity can become a substitute for intimacy, and we can find ourselves feeling more like human doers than human beings.

There's a simple way to sum up the fall out of excessive busyness. The things that are important -- our health, our souls, our relationships -- are put aside for what is immediate and urgent. The things that demand our attention NOW receive more attention than the things that matter most to us. Demanding people, last minute requests, intrusive phone calls, guilt-laden responses to others' appeals keep us constantly reacting and concentrating on surviving rather than truly living.

What's Behind Our Busyness?

Busyness is a virtue in our culture. We admire people who are able to handle gargantuan work loads. Efficiency -- the ability to get more done in less time -- is one of today's most esteemed values. Tim Himmel, author of Little House on the Freeway, paints an accurate picture of where society is at today: "We have a love affair with haste. We call it convenience, and there is no doubt that many modern conveniences have made some of the mundane duties of life more tolerable. But there is a subtle programming that goes on at the same time. It's not long before we drive our lives the way we drive our cars -- too fast."

Modern technology is another cause of our busyness. While technology has promised us more leisure time, it has actually made it harder for us to relax. Cellular phones, fax machines and lap-top computers enable us to do something every minute of the day.

But blaming society and technology for our perpetual busyness doesn't cut to the real root of the problem: ourselves. Often we find ourselves out of breath because of the unrealistic expectations we have of ourselves, the desire to feel important and needed, and the need for security.

Sometimes we take on too much because of our drive for perfection. We think that saying no to a request is a sign of weakness; of course we can find the time for one more thing! Often, we are motivated by low self-esteem, thinking that the more we do, the better we will feel about ourselves.

Feeling like we're the only ones who can make something happen is very validating. We may choose to be involved in activities because they sound good and they look great on our résumé. Other times we may choose to do tasks for others because we want to feel needed, like when we know full well that our kids can make their own lunches, and they even want to do it, but we do it anyway. Too often, we take it upon ourselves to make sure that everyone in our life is happy. We cave in to feelings of guilt: "What kind of awful person am I not to offer my help? I really have no choice but to do this."

One of the first ways we can control the busyness in our lives is by realizing that we do have choices, and that if our days our too full, it's because we've filled them that way.

Keeping Busyness at Bay

Organize your life! That's the solution most often offered to help us get a handle on the busyness. I believe that time and stress management principles are helpful, but they often leave us treating the symptoms rather than the real problem.

If we're too busy, our real need isn't to learn how to squeeze more into our lives -- to live more efficiently -- but to refocus our lives on what matters most -- to live more effectively. Author Patricia H. Sprinkle offers wise words in her book Women Who Do Too Much: "Our goal should not be to become hyper-organized, highly efficient superwomen; our goal should be to spend most of our time on what we value most."

What do you value most? Take some time to think about it. Ask yourself what you want to do and be in life. Consider the different roles you play: What would the very best "you" look like in each of these areas? Write everything down, and circle common themes. Then, summarize the qualities you want your life to reflect, and the contributions you want to make, into a few sentences. This is your life purpose statement. Post it where you'll see it often. It's a powerful tool, a measuring stick you can use to evaluate where to commit your time and energy.

Besides an over-arching purpose statement, you should have goals. If you're really busy, you can't afford not to. Living without goals is like shooting lots of arrows into the air without having assurance that any of them is hitting the target. Use your life purpose statement to develop annual goals - concrete and measurable things you can do to move toward becoming the kind of person you want to be. Then break your annual goals into do-able monthly ones. Keep your goals in a prominent place and as you plan your daily activities, evaluate whether or not your arrows are on target.

If you know what you want to be and do, it's a lot easier to know what you don't. And that makes it a lot easier to say no when you need to. If you've declared in your life purpose statement that the cause closest to your heart is helping troubled teens, and you know that you're talented in administration, it'll be easier to say no to a request to visit the local hospital's geriatric ward -- and you'll be freer to say yes to serving as the coordinator of a youth drop-in centre. Saying no is often a matter of passing by the good for the sake of the best. It's also a matter of admitting that we're not indispensable and that others can do things for themselves.

When you think about it, saying no really isn't that big of a deal. Think about the last time someone said no to your request. Did you jump off a cliff? No, you just took it in stride, and considered your other options. You might have even thought, "Tsst, I wish I could say no like that." You can! It starts with putting no in perspective and using it positively to guard the things closest to your heart.

Keeping our natural bent towards busyness in line isn't something that we do once and for all and "Voilà!" we've arrived. Seasons in our life change; circumstances change. Our values change.

But we always have a choice. We can run frantically all day, every day, and end up with a bag of used kitty litter or a parcel of unmerited panic. Or we can enjoy our life's journey, realizing there's a place on the path to run, to walk, to play…and to stand still with God.

~ This story has been adapted for New Zealand readers. It originally appeared in Christian Women Today magazine and the original script was prepared and written by Stacy Wiebe.