I was walking down life’s highway a long time ago.
One day I saw a sign that read, “Heaven’s Grocery Store”.
As I got a little closer the door came open wide,
And when I came to myself I was standing inside.
I saw a host of Angels, they were standing everywhere.
One handed me a basket and said “My Child shop with care.”
Everything a Christian needs is in that grocery store,
And all you can’t carry, come back the next day for more.

First, I got some Patience, Love was in the same row.
Further down was Understanding, needed everywhere you go.
I got a box or two of Wisdom, a bag or two of Faith,
I just couldn’t miss the Holy Ghost, it was all over the place.
I stopped to get some Strength and Courage to help me run this race,
But then my blanket was getting full, and I remembered I needed Grace.

I didn’t forget Salvation, which like the others was free,
So I tried to get enough of that to save both you and me.
Then I started to the counter to pay my grocery bill,
For I thought I had everything to do my Master’s will.
As I went up the aisle, I saw Prayer and had to put it in,
For I knew when I stepped outside, I would run right into sin.
Peace and Joy were plentiful, they were on the last shelf.
Song and Praises were hanging near, so I just helped myself.

Then I said to the Angel, “How much do I owe”?
The Angel smiled and said, “Just take them everywhere you go.”
Again, I politely asked “How much do I really owe?”
The Angel smiled again and said,
“My Child, Jesus Paid Your Bill A Long Time Ago.”

— 1990 Ron DeMarco & Friend

Laguna has been hit by 3 typhoons in the past month (the last being just a few days ago) and many of the villages have been under water for a month. The flood is not expected to recede till after February next year.

Read about the plight of the children at Goducate.org

There was a couple who used to go to England to shop in the beautiful stores. They both liked antiques and pottery and especially teacups. This was their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. One day in this beautiful shop they saw a beautiful teacup.They said, “May we see that? We’ve never seen one quite so beautiful.”
As the lady handed it to them, suddenly the teacup spoke.

“You don’t understand,” it said. “I haven’t always been a teacup. There was a time when I was red and I was clay. My master took me and rolled me and patted me over and over and I yelled out, ‘let me alone, but he only smiled, ‘Not yet.’

“Then I was placed on a spinning wheel,” the teacup said, “and suddenly I was spun around and around and around. Stop it! I’m getting dizzy! I screamed. But the master only nodded and said, ‘Not yet.’
Then he put me in the oven. I never felt such heat. I wondered why he wanted to burn me, and I yelled and knocked at the door. I could see him through the opening and I could read his lips as He shook His head, ‘Not yet.’

Finally the door opened, he put me on the shelf, and I began to cool. ‘There, that’s better,’ I said. And he brushed and painted me all over. The fumes were horrible. I thought I would gag. ‘Stop it, stop it!’ I cried. He only nodded, ‘Not yet.’

Then suddenly he put me back into the oven, not like the first one. This was twice as hot and I knew I would suffocate. I begged. I pleaded. I screamed. I cried. All the time I could see him through the opening nodding his head saying, ‘Not yet.’

Then I knew there wasn’t any hope. I would never make it. I was ready to give up. But the door opened and he took me out and placed me on the shelf. One hour later he handed me a mirror and said, ‘Look at yourself.

And I did. I said, ‘That’s not me; that couldn’t be me. It’s beautiful. I’m beautiful.’ ‘I want you to remember, then,’ he said, ‘I know it hurts to be rolled and patted, but if I had left you alone, you’d have dried up. I know it made you dizzy to spin around on the wheel, but if I had stopped, you would have crumbled. I knew it hurt and was hot an disagreeable in the oven, but if I hadn’t put you there, you would have cracked. I know the fumes were bad when I brushed and painted you all over, but if I hadn’t done that, you never would have hardened; you would not have had any color in your life. And if I hadn’t put you back in that second oven, you wouldn’t survive for very long because the hardness would not have held. Now you are a finished product. You are what I had in mind when I first began with you.

Goducate helps Asians help themselves

1. A mature person does not take himself too seriously — his job, yes.
2. A mature person keeps himself alert in mind.
3. A mature person does not always “view with alarm” every adverse situation that arises.
4. A mature person is too big to be little.
5. A mature person has faith in himself which becomes stonger as it is fortified by his faith in God.
6. A mature person never feels too great to do little things and never too proud to do the humble things.
7. A mature person never accepts either success or failure in themselves as permanent.
8. A mature person never accepts any one of his moods as permanent.
9. A mature person is one who is able to control his impulses.
10. A mature person is not afraid to make mistakes.