Character

Author Unknown

Tess was a precocious eight year old when she heard her Mom and Dad talking about her little brother, Andrew. All she knew was that he was very sick and they were completely out of money. They were moving to an apartment complex next month because Daddy didn't have the money for the doctor bills and their house.

Only a very costly surgery could save Andrew now and it was looking like there was no one to loan them the money. She heard Daddy say to her tearful Mother with whispered desperation, "Only a miracle can save him now."

A True Story by Michael T. Powers

Each year I am hired to go to Washington, DC, with the eighth grade class from Clinton, WI, where I grew up, to videotape their trip. I greatly enjoy visiting our nation's capitol, and each year I take some special memories back with me. This Fall's trip was especially memorable.

This is an TRUE e-mail from a young ensign aboard USS Winston Churchill (DDG-81) to his parents. Churchill is an Arleigh Burke class AEGIS guided missile destroyer, commissioned March 10, 2001, and is the only active US Navy warship named after a foreign national.

"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world."
Anne Frank

"Look up and not down. Look forward and not back. Look out and not in, and lend a hand."
Edward Everett Hale

"When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die."
Eleanor Roosevelt

"If you haven't any charity in your heart, you have the worst kind of heart trouble."
Bob Hope

-- Author Unknown

My son came home from school one day, with a smirk upon his face.
He decided he was smart enough, to put me in my place.

"Guess what I learned in Civics Two, what's taught by Mr. Wright?
It's all about the laws today, The "Children's Bill of Rights."

It says I need not clean my room, don't have to cut my hair.
No one can tell me what to think, or speak, or what to wear.

I have freedom from religion, and regardless what you say,

Author Unknown

During the waning years of the depression in a small Idaho community, I used to stop by Mr. Miller's roadside stand for farm fresh produce as the season made it available. Food and money were still extremely scarce and bartering was used extensively.

One day Mr. Miller was bagging some early potatoes for me. I noticed a small boy, delicate of bone and feature, ragged but clean, hungrily appraising a basket of freshly picked green peas.

By Robert Peterson

She was six years old when I first met her on the beach near where I live. I drive to this beach, a distance of three or four miles, whenever the world begins to close in on me. She was building a sand castle or something and looked up, her eyes as blue as the sea. "Hello," she said.

I answered with a nod, not really in the mood to bother with a small child. "I'm building," she said.

"I see that. What is it?" I asked, not really caring.

by Karl MecklenburgÔÇ¿ÔÇ¿

There is no easy or typical path to NFL stardom. Each individual must find their own strength and motivation as they overcome the odds and the obstacles that stand in their way. Along the way I learned the universal unchanging keys to success that allowed me to thrive in the competitive world of professional football and in my present profession as a motivational speaker and author.

Author Unknown

GOOD FOR THE SOUL...

The man's name was Fleming and he was a poor Scottish farmer. One day, while trying to make a living for his family, he heard a cry for help coming from a nearby bog. He dropped his tools and ran to the bog.

There, mired to his waist in black muck, was a terrified boy, screaming and struggling to free himself.

Farmer Fleming saved the lad from what could have been a slow and terrifying death.

By Sister Helen P. Mrosla He was in the first third grade class I taught at St. Mary’s School in Morris, Minn. All 34 of my students were dear to me, but Mark Eklund was one in a million. Very neat in appearance, but he had that happy-to-be-alive attitude that …