Daddy's empty chair.

A man's daughter had asked the local
minister to come and pray with her
father. When the minister arrived, he found the
man lying in bed with his head propped
up on two pillows. An empty chair sat
beside his bed. The minister assumed that the old fellow
had been informed of his visit. "I guess
you were expecting me," he said. 'No, who are you?" said the father. The minister told him his name and then
remarked, "I saw the empty chair and I
figured you knew I was going to show
up," "Oh yeah, the chair," said the bedridden
man. "Would you mind closing the door?" Puzzled, the minister shut the door. "I have never told anyone this, not even
my daughter," said the man. "But all of my life I have never known
how to pray. At church I used to hear
the pastor talk about prayer, but it went
right over my head. I abandoned any attempt at prayer," the
old man continued, "until one day four
years ago, my best friend said to me,
"Johnny, prayer is just a simple matter of
having a conversation with Jesus. Here is what I suggest: Sit down in a
chair; place an empty chair in front of
you, and in faith see Jesus on the chair.
It's not spooky because he promised, 'I
will be with you always'. Then just
speak to him in the same way you're doing with me right now." "So, I tried it and I've liked it so much
that I do it a couple of hours every day.
I'm careful though. If my daughter saw
me talking to an empty chair, she'd
either have a nervous breakdown or
send me off to the funny farm." The minister was deeply moved by the
story and encouraged the old man to
continue on the journey. Then he prayed
with him, anointed him with oil, and
returned to the church. Two nights later the daughter called to
tell the minister that her daddy had died
that afternoon. Did he die in peace?" he asked. "Yes, when I left the house about two
o'clock, he called me over to his bedside,
told me he loved me and kissed me on
the cheek. When I got back from the
store an hour later, I found him dead. But
there was something strange about his death. Apparently, just before Daddy died, he
leaned over and rested his head on the
chair beside the bed. What do you make
of that?" The minister wiped a tear from his eye
and said, "I wish we could all go like
that."

The Seeds..

A successful businessman 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 Tom, 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. Tom 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 Tom didn't have a plant and he felt like a failure. Six months went by -- still nothing in
Tom's pot. He just knew he had killed his
seed. Everyone else had trees and tall
plants, but he had nothing. Tom 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.
Tom told his wife that he wasn't going to
take an empty pot.
But she asked him to be honest about what happened. Tom felt sick to 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 Tom arrived, he was
amazed at the variety of plants grown
by the other executives. They were
beautiful -- in all shapes and sizes. Tom 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. Tom 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 Tom at
the back of the room with his empty pot.
He ordered the Financial Director to
bring him to the front. Tom was terrified. He thought, "The CEO
knows I'm a
failure! Maybe he will have me fired!" When Tom got to the front, the CEO
asked him what had happened to his
seed - Tom told him the story. The CEO asked everyone to sit down
except Tom. He looked at Tom, and then
announced to the young executives,
"Behold your next Chief Executive
Officer! His name is Tom!" Tom couldn't believe it. Tom 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 Tom, 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. Tom 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 Officer!" * 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 God , you will reap
a harvest So, be careful what you plant now;
it will determine what you will reap
later.. "Whatever You Give To Life, Life Gives
You Back"

a glass of milk

One day, a poor boy who was selling
goods
from door to door to pay his way
through school, found he had only one
thin dime
left, and he was hungry. He decided he would ask for a meal at
the next
house However, he lost his
nerve when a lovely young woman
opened the
door. Instead of a meal he asked for a drink of
water.
She thought he looked
hungry so brought him a large glass of
milk. He
drank it slowly, and then asked, How much do I owe you?"
You don't owe me anything," she replied.
"Mother has taught us never to
accept pay for a kindness."
He said..... "Then I thank you from my
heart." As Howard Kelly left that house, he not
only felt
stronger physically, but
his faith in God and man was strong also.
He had
been ready to give up and quit.
Many year's later that same young
woman
became critically ill. The local
doctors were baffled. They finally sent
her to the big city, where they
called in specialists to study her rare
disease.
Dr. Howard Kelly was called in for the
consultation. When he heard the name
of the town she came from, a strange light filled
his eyes. Immediately he
rose and went down the hall of the
hospital to her
room.
Dressed in his doctor's gown he went in to see
her. He recognized her at
once.
He went back to the consultation room
determined to do his best to save her
life. From that day he gave special attention to her
case.
After a long struggle, the battle was won.
Dr. Kelly requested the business office to
pass the
final bill to him for approval. He looked at it, then wrote
something
on the edge and the bill was
sent to her room. She feared to open it,
for she
was sure it would take the rest of her life to pay for it all. Finally she
looked,
and something caught
her attention on the side of the bill. She
read these
words..... "Paid in full with one glass of milk"
(Signed) Dr. Howard Kelly.
Tears of joy flooded her eyes as her
happy heart
prayed: "Thank You, God,
that Your love has spread broad through human
hearts and hands."
There's a saying which goes something
like this:
Bread cast on the waters
comes back to you. The good deed you do today
may benefit you or someone you
love at the least expected time. If you
never see
the deed again at least
you will have made the world a better place -
And, after all, isn't that
what life is all about?

a goodbye kiss

The Board Meeting had come to an end.
Bob
started to stand up and jostled the table,
spilling
his coffee over his notes. "How
embarrassing. I am getting so clumsy in my old age."
Everyone had a good laugh, and soon we
were
all telling stories of our most
embarrassing
moments. It came around to Frank who sat
quietly listening to the others. Someone
said,
"Come on, Frank. Tell us your most
embarrassing moment."
Frank laughed and began to tell us of his childhood. "I grew up in San Pedro. My
Dad was
a fisherman, and he loved the sea. He had
his
own boat, but it was hard making a living
on the sea. He worked hard and would stay out
until he
caught enough to feed the family. Not just
enough for our family, but also for his
Mom and
Dad and the other kids that were still at home."
He looked at us and said, "I wish you
could have
met my Dad. He was a big man, and he
was
strong from pulling the nets and fighting the seas
for his catch. When you got close to him,
he
smelled like the ocean. He would wear
his old
canvas, foul-weather coat and his bibbed overalls. His rain hat would be pulled
down over
his brow. No matter how much my
Mother
washed them, they would still smell of
the sea and of fish."
Frank's voice dropped a bit. "When the
weather
was bad he would drive me to school. He
had
this old truck that he used in his fishing business.
That truck was older than he was. It
would
wheeze and rattle down the road. You
could hear
it coming for blocks. As he would drive toward
the school,I would shrink down into the
seat
hoping to disappear. Half the time, he
would slam
to a stop and the old truck would belch a cloud of
smoke. He would pull right up in front,
and it
seemed like everybody would be
standing
around and watching. Then he would lean over
and give me a big kiss on the cheek and
tell me to
be a good boy. It was so embarrassing
for me.
Here, I was twelve years old, and my Dad would
lean over and kiss me goodbye!"
He paused and then went on, "I
remember the
day I decided I was too old for a goodbye
kiss. When we got to the school and came to a
stop,
he had his usual big smile. He started to
lean
toward me, but I put my hand up and
said, 'No, Dad.'
It was the first time I had ever talked to
him that
way, and he had this surprised look on
his face.
I said, 'Dad, I'm too old for a goodbye kiss. I'm
too old for any kind of kiss.'
My Dad looked at me for the longest time,
and his
eyes started to tear up. I had never seen
him cry. He turned and looked out the windshield.
'You're
right,' he said. 'You are a big boy....a man.
I
won't kiss you anymore.'"
Frank got a funny look on his face, and the tears
began to well up in his eyes, as he spoke.
"It
wasn't long after that when my Dad went
to sea
and never came back. It was a day when most of
the fleet stayed in, but not Dad. He had a
big
family to feed. They found his boat adrift
with its
nets half in and half out. He must have gotten into
a gale and was trying to save the nets
and the
floats."
I looked at Frank and saw that tears
were running down his cheeks. Frank spoke again.
"Guys, you
don't know what I would give to have my
Dad
give me just one more kiss on the
cheek....to feel his rough old face....to smell the ocean on
him....to feel his arm around my neck. I
wish I
had been a man then. If I had been a
man, I
would never have told my Dad I was too old for
a goodbye kiss."

The Basurero's

this Sunday is a special Sunday to me.
While I was on my way to the mountains
of Busay (cebu) hoping to strengthened
my heart by this exercise, instead,
I personally encountered a heart-
breaking scene that changed me. I already passed the Marco Polo Plaza
(formerly Cebu Plaza Hotel) when I
decided
to stop to buy bananas at a small
carenderia located along the road. I
haven't takenany solid food that morning so I need fruits to have the
needed energy to get to mydestination -
the mountain top. I am almost done
eating with the second
banana when I noticed two children
across the street busily searching the garbage area. "Basureros" I said to
myself
and quickly turn my attention away
from them to sip a small amount of
water.
I cared less for these kind of children actually; to make it straight, I do not like
them,and I do not trust them even more.
You see, several times I have been a
victim to these kind of children who are
pretending to be basureros looking for
empty bottles and cans when in fact the 'plangganas', 'kalderos', and
'sinampays' are their favorites. I
remember one afternoon while I was
watching a Mike Tyson fight when I
noticed
that the TV screen suddenly became blurred. I checked outside and saw two
young basureros running away with my
newly installed antenna. Hatred may be
a little bit stronger word
to describe my feeling towards these
basureros, but I do not like them honestly not till I met these three
children. I was about to embark on my
bike again
when I heard one of the two children,
a girl of about 7 or 8 of age saying aloud
to the other, a 12-yr old boy, "kuya si dodong kunin mo kasi tumitingin sa mga
kumain, nakakahiya ”, only then that I noticed a small boy standing near to me
biting slightly his finger. He's a few
inches shorter if compared to my 5
years old son (but I knew later that he's
also 5 yrs. Old). Though he did not asked
for food to anyone in the carenderia, the way he
looked at the customers who were
eating , enough to convinced me that he
intensely craving for it. The older boy
then quickly crossed the street and
gently pulled out the little one who politely obeyed. As I watched the two
crossing back the street to the garbage
area, I heard the tindera saying
"kawawa naman yung mga batang yun
mababait pa naman”. I learned further from the carenderia owner that the
children are from a good family , both
parents were working before, and that
their father got a stroke 3 years ago and
became partially paralized and
their mother died of heart attack while their father was still confined at the
hospital. The parents were still in their
early forties when the catastrophe
happened, and the children became
basureros since then to meet their daily
needs and for their father's medication. Deeply moved by what I heard, I went to
a nearby bakery and bought 20 pesos
worth of bread and gave it to the
children who initially refused including
the little boy. "Sige lang po, salamat na
lang, bibili na lang po kami mamaya kung makabenta na kami, ” the young girl said to me. I explained that they
need to go home
because it started to rain. "Nasanay na
po kami ”, the girl answered again. Again, I explained that the rain can
make them sick and if they'll become
sick there's no one to take care of their
father. Upon mentioning their father,
they nodded and accept the bread but I
noticed that the older boy did not eat. When I asked him if he does not like the
kind of bread I bought for them he
smiled but as he's about to explain, the
little girl, who is the more talker of them
interrupted, "Linggo po kasi ngayon,pag
sabado at linggo hapon lang po sya kumakain, kami lang po ang kumakain
ng agahan pero di na po kami kakain
pagdating ng hapon si kuya lang po.
Pero pag lunes hanggang biyernes, kasi
may pasok, si kuya lang po nag-
aagahan, kami hapunan lang pero kung marami kaming benta, kami pong lahat
(kumakain) she continued. "bakit kung
kumain
kayong lahat, hati-hatiin nyo na lang
kahit kunti lang ang pagkain? I
countered. The young girl reasoned out that their
father wanted that her older brother to
come to school with full stomachs so he
can easily catch up the teacher's
lessons. "Pag nagkatrabaho si kuya,
hihinto kami sa pamamasura, first honor kasi sya ”, the little boy added proudly. Maybe I was caught by surprise or I am
just overly emotional that my tears
started to fall. I then quickly turned my
back from them to hide my tears and
pretended to pick up my bike from the
carenderia where I left it. I don't know how many seconds or
minutes I spent just to compose myself;
pretending again this time that I was
mending by bike. Finally I get on to my
bike and
approached the three children to bid goodbye to them who in turn cast their
grateful smiles at me. I then took a good
look at all of them specially to the small
boy and pat his head with a pinch in my
heart. Though I believe that their
positive look at life can easily change their present situation, there is one thing
that they can never change; that is , their
being motherless. That little boy can no
longer taste the sweet embrace, care,
and most of all , the love of his mother
forever. Nobody can refill the empty gap created by that sudden and untimely
death of their mother. Every big events
that will happen to their lives will only
remind them and make them wish of
their mother's presence. I reached to my
pocket and handed to them my last 100 peso bill which I
reserved for our department's bowling
tournament. This time they refused
strongly but I jokingly said to the girl,
"suntukin kita pag hindi mo tinanggap
yan ”. She smiled as she extended her hand to take the money. "Salamat po,
makakabili na kami ng gamot ni papa
”, she uttered. I then turned to the small
boy and though he's a few feet away
from me, I still noticed that while his
right hand was holding the half - filled
sack , his left hand was holding a toy ?
a worn out toy car. I waved my hands and said bye bye to him as I drove
towards
the mountains again. Did he just found
the toy in the garbage area or the toy
was
originally his - when the misfortune did not took place yet? - I did not bother to
ask. But one thing is crystal clear to me,
that inspite of the boy's abnormal life, he
did not given up his childhood
completely. I can sense it that way he
hold and stare at his toy. My meeting with that young basureros
made me poorer by 100 pesos. But they
changed me and made me more richer
as to lessons of life are concerned. In
them, I learned that life can changed
suddenly and may caught me flat footed. In them, I've learned that even the
darkest side of life, cannot change the
beauty of
one's heart. Those three children, who
sometimes cannot eat three times a day,
still able to hold on to what they believe was right. And what a contrast to most
of us who are quick to point out to our
misfortunes when caught with our
mistakes. In them, I've learned to hope
for things when things seem to go the
other way. Lastly, I know that God cares for them
far more than I do. That though He
allowed them to experience such a
terrible life which our finite minds
cannot comprehend, His unquestionable
love will surely follow them through. And in God's own time they will win.
Credit to: joeydhums of p.