I had offered to watch my 3-year-old daughter,
Ramanda, so that my wife could go out with a friend. I was
getting some work done while Ramanda appeared to be having a
good time in the other room. No problem, I figured. But then
it got a little too quiet and I yelled out, "What are you
doing, Ramanda?" No response. I repeated my question and heard
her say, "Oh...nothing." Nothing?
What does "nothing" mean? I got up from my desk and ran out
into the living room, whereupon I saw her take off down the
hall. I chased her up the stairs and watched her as her little
behind made a hard left into the bedroom. I was gaining on
her! She took off for the bathroom. Bad move. I had her
cornered. I told her to turn around.
She refused. I pulled out my big, mean, authoritative Daddy
voice,"Young lady, I said turn around!"
Slowly, she turned toward me. In her hand was what
was left of my wife's new lipstick. And every square inch of
her face was covered with bright red (except her lips of
course)!
As she looked up at me with fearful eyes, lips trembling, I
heard every voice that had been shouted to me as a child.
"How could you...You should know better than that...How many
times have you been told...What a bad thing to do..." It was
just a matter of my picking out which old message I was going
to use on her so that she would know what a bad girl she had
been. But before I could let loose, I looked down at the
sweatshirt my wife had put on her only an hour before. In big
letters it said, "I'M A PERFECT LITTLE ANGEL!" I looked back
up into her tearful eyes and instead of seeing a bad girl who
didn't listen, I saw a child of God...a perfect little angel
full of worth, value and a wonderful spontaneity that I had
come dangerously close to shaming out of her.
"Sweetheart, you look beautiful! Let's take a
picture so Mommy can see how special you look." I took the
picture and thanked God that I didn't miss the opportunity to
reaffirm what a perfect little angel He had given me.
By Nick Lazaris
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Is an Hour too Much?
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The man came home from work late again, tired and irritated,
to find his 5 year old son waiting for him at the door.
"Daddy, may I ask you a question?"
"Yeah, sure, what is it?" replied the man.
"Daddy, how much money do you make an hour?"
"That's none of your business! What makes you ask such a
thing?" the man said angrily.
"I just want to know. Please tell me, how much do you make an
hour?" pleaded the little boy.
"If you must know, I make $20.00 an hour."
"Oh," the little boy replied, head bowed. Looking up, he said,
"Daddy, may I borrow $10.00 please?"
The father was furious. "If the only reason you wanted to know
how much money I make is just so you can borrow some to buy a
silly toy or some other nonsense, then you march yourself
straight to your room and go to bed. Think about why you're
being so selfish. I work long, hard hours everyday and don't
have time for such childish games."
The little boy quietly went to his room and shut the door. The
man sat down and started to get even madder about the little
boy's questioning. How dare him ask such questions only to get some money.
After an hour or so, the man had calmed down, and started to
think he may have been a little hard on his son. Maybe there
was something he really needed to buy with that $10.00, and he
really didn't ask for money very often. The man went to the
door of the little boy's room and opened the door.
"Are you asleep, son?" he asked.
"No daddy, I'm awake," replied the boy. "I've been thinking,
maybe I was too hard on you earlier," said the man. "It's been
a long day and I took my aggravation out on you. Here's that
$10.00 you asked for."
The little boy sat straight up, beaming. "Oh, thank you
daddy!" he yelled.
Then, reaching under his pillow, he pulled out some more
crumpled up bills.
The man, seeing that the boy already had money, started to get
angry again.
The little boy slowly counted out his money, then looked up at the man.
"Why did you want more money if you already had some?" the father grumbled.
"Because I didn't have enough, but now I do," the little boy
replied. "Daddy,
I have $20.00 now. Can I buy an hour of your time?"
Share some time with someone special.
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A mother was teaching her three year old daughter
The Lord's Prayer. For several evenings at bedtime, she
repeated it after her mother. One night she said she was ready
to solo. The mother listened with pride, as she carefully
enunciated each word right up to the end..."And lead us not
into temptation", she prayed, "but deliver us some e-mail,
Amen."
Two Little Boys
Author Unknown
A couple had two little boys, ages 8 and 10,
who were excessivelymischievous. The two were always getting
into trouble and their parentscould be assured that
if any mischief occurred in their town, that theirtwo young
sons were involved in some way. The parents were at theirwits
end as to what to do about their sons' behavior. One day, the
mother heard that a clergyman in town had been successful
in disciplining children in the past, so she askedher husband
if he thought whether or not they should send the boys to
speak with the clergyman. The husband said, "We might as
well.
We need to do something before I really lose my temper!"
The clergyman agreed to speak with the boys, but asked to see
them individually.
The 8 year old went to meet with him first.
The clergyman sat the boy down and asked him sternly, "Where
is God?" The boy made no response, so the clergyman repeated
the question in an even sterner tone, "Where is God?" Again
the boymade no attempt to answer. This time, the clergyman
raised his voice even more and shook his finger in the boy's
face, "WHERE IS GOD?"
At that, suddenly the boy bolted from the room and ran
directly home,slamming himself in the closet. His older
brother followed him into the closet and said, "What
happened?" The younger brother replied, "We are in BIG
trouble this time ... God is missing and they think we did it."
A father was approached by his small son who said, "I know the Bible!"
The father replied, "What do you mean you know the Bible?"
The son replied, "I know what the Bible stands for.
The father said, "So, what does the Bible stand for?"
The son replied, "It stands for Basic Information Before Leaving Earth."
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