Laughter and Conversations October09

Laughter

Shirley & Mercy

A mom was concerned about her kindergarten son walking to school. He didn’t want his mother to walk with him. She wanted to give him the feeling that he had some independence but yet know that he was safe.  So she had an idea of how to handle it. She asked a neighbor if she would please follow him to school in the mornings, staying at a distance, so he probably wouldn’t notice her.  She said that since she was up early with her toddler anyway, it would be a good way for them to get some exercise as well, so she agreed.  The next school day, the neighbor and her little girl set out following behind Timmy as he walked to school with another neighbor girl he  knew.  She did this for the whole week.  As the two walked and chatted, kicking stones and twigs, Timmy’s little friend noticed the same lady was following them as she seemed to do every day all week.  Finally she said to Timmy, ‘Have you noticed that lady following us to school all week? Do you know her?’  Timmy nonchalantly replied, ‘Yeah, I know who she is.’  The little girl said, ‘Well, who is she?’  ‘That’s just Shirley Goodnest,’ Timmy replied, ‘and her daughter Mercy.’  ‘Shirley Goodnest? Who the heck is she and why is she following us?’

‘Well,’ Timmy explained, ‘Every night my Mom makes me say the 23rd Psalm with my prayers, ‘cuz she worries about me so much.   And in the Psalm, it says, ‘Shirley Goodnest and Mercy shall follow me all the days of my life’, so I guess I’ll just have to get used to it!’

May Shirley Goodnest and Mercy be with you today and always.

 Submitted by Lillie Rainey, Decatur, IL, Author Unknown

♥

 Conversations

WET PANTS

Come with me to a third grade classroom… There is a nine-year-old kid sitting at his desk and all of a sudden, there is a puddle between his feet and the front of his pants are wet. He thinks his heart is going to stop because he cannot possibly imagine how this has happened.  It’s never happened before, and he knows that when the boys find out he will never hear the end of it. When the girls find out, they’ll never speak to him again as long as he lives…The boy believes his heart is going to stop; he puts his head down and prays this prayer, ‘Dear God, this is an emergency! I need help now! Five minutes from now I’m dead meat.’

 He looks up from his prayer and here comes the teacher with a look in her eyes that says he has been discovered. As the teacher is walking toward him, a classmate named Susie is carrying a goldfish bowl that is filled with water… Susie trips in front of the teacher and inexplicably dumps the bowl of water in the boy’s lap.
 

The boy pretends to be angry, but all the while is saying to himself, ‘Thank you, Lord! Thank you, Lord!’ Now all of a sudden, instead of being the object of ridicule, the boy is the object of sympathy. The teacher rushes him downstairs and gives him gym shorts to put on while his pants dry out. All the other children are on their hands and knees cleaning up around his desk. The sympathy is wonderful. But as life would have it, the ridicule that should have been his has been transferred to someone else - Susie. She tries to help, but they tell her to get out. You’ve done enough, you klutz!’ Finally, at the end of the day, as they are waiting for the bus, the boy walks over to Susie and whispers, ‘You did that on purpose, didn’t you?’ Susie whispers back, ‘I wet my pants once too…’
   

May God help us see the opportunities that are always around us to do good…Remember…….Just going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than standing in your garage makes you a car…

 Submitted by Nija Harvey, Decatur, IL, Author Unknown