Inspirational Articles
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"Used with permission from Regenesis.net"

The Pickle Jar
As far back as I can remember, the pickle jar sat on the floor beside the dresser in my parents' bedroom. When he got ready for bed, Dad would empty his pockets and toss his coins into the jar.
I was always fascinated at the sounds the coins made as they were dropped into the jar and I used to admire the coins that glinted like a pirate's treasure.

When the jar was filled, Dad would sit at the kitchen table and roll the coins before taking them to the bank. Taking the coins to the bank was always a big production. Stacked neatly in a small cardboard box, the coins were placed between Dad and me on the seat of his old truck. Each and every time, as we drove to the bank, Dad would look at me hopefully. "Those coins are going to keep you out of the textile mill, son. You're going to do better than me." Each time he slid the box of rolled coins across the bank counter, he would grin proudly.

We would always celebrate each deposit by stopping for an ice cream cone. When the clerk at the ice cream parlor handed Dad his change, he would show me the few coins nestled in his palm. "When we get home, we'll start filling the jar again."

He always let me drop the first coins into the empty jar. As they rattled around with a brief, happy jingle, we grinned at each other. "You'll get to college on pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters," he said. "But you'll get there. I'll see to that."

The years passed, and I finished college and took a job in another town. Once, while visiting my parents, I used the phone in their bedroom, and noticed that the pickle jar was gone. It had served its purpose and had been removed. My dad never lectured me on the values of determination, perseverance and faith. The pickle jar had taught me all these virtues far more eloquently than the most flowery of words could have done.

When I married, I told my wife about the part the pickle jar had played in my life. In my mind, it defined how much my dad had loved me. No matter how rough things got at home, Dad continued to doggedly drop his coins into the jar. Even the summer when Dad got laid off from the mill, not a single dime was taken from the jar.

The first Christmas after our daughter was born, we spent the holiday with my parents. After dinner, Mom and Dad sat next to each other on the sofa, taking turns cuddling their first grandchild. She began to whimper softly, and my wife took her from Dad's arms. "She probably needs to be changed," she said, carrying the baby into my parents' bedroom. When she came back, there was a strange mist in her eyes. She handed the baby back to Dad before taking my hand and leading me into the room.

"Look," she said softly, her eyes directing me to a spot on the floor beside the dresser. There, as if it had never been removed, stood the old pickle jar, the bottom already covered with coins. I walked over to the pickle jar, dug down into my pocket, and pulled out a fistful of coins. I dropped the coins into the jar. I looked up and saw that Dad had slipped quietly into the room. Our eyes locked and neither one of us could speak.   BACK

Bitter Winter Better Thanksgiving
"Then the sicknes begane to fall sore amongst them, and the weather so bad .... the Gov/r and cheefe of them, seeing so many dye, and fall downe sick dayly, thought it no wisdom to send away the ship...."

Capt. Miles Standish had been much at his wife Rose's bedside. As much time, that is, as he could spare from stalking game, guarding against savages, and felling trees to construct crude homes on shore.

A bitter wind whistled through chinks and cracks in the Mayflower, anchored in Plymouth harbor that winter of 1620-21. Rose's chills would turn to uncontrollable shaking. Then just as suddenly, her body would be ablaze with fever. Herbs from the surgeon's chest did little to relieve her. By spring only five wives remained out of the eighteen who had sailed to Plymouth. Rose was not among them.

Thanksgiving? What was that? The golden dreams of a New World that Miles and Rose had cherished together had evaporated into hollow hopes. And yet that fall Capt. Standish joined other bereaved Pilgrims in the first Thanksgiving celebration.

The real test of thankfulness is whether we can give thanks from the heart for what we do have, despite the wounds and pains of yesterday's struggles. Ours is not some fair-weather faith, but a resilient trust in in the midst of pain. The Pilgrims lived close to the edge of survival. Perhaps that is why they were so thankful.

How about you? Does your material bounty cause you to neglect thanks? When your clan gathers this Thanksgiving will a prayer of thankfulness be forgotten between moist turkey and pumpkin pie? Will your children see you bow your head to give thanks, or merely ask for another helping of dressing and cranberry sauce?

Children will be watching, you know. And their little faith is being formed by what they see. Your family's Thanksgiving celebration will instruct them about thankfulness, for good or ill.

Will they see you too wealthy to be thankful? Too independent to need God any more? Too bitter, perhaps? Or will they watch you truly give thanks for God's blessings on this special day? And maybe as they watch, they'll catch a hint that mom and dad and grandmother, in spite of painful seasons they have faced, have seen these bitter winters bear fruit in better thanksgiving.

By Dr. Ralph F. Wilson   BACK

Peace of Pi
The world has spun out of control. Mayhem in the financial markets. The stock market is bouncing up and down like a yo-yo. Giant corporations are begging for taxpayer subsidies to stay afloat. It makes you wonder: where am I going and why am I in this handbasket?

The Greeks invented a mathematical formula we know as Pi to describe the ratio of the circumference and diameter of a circle. This ratio results in a number with infinite digits, a number without end. In a world bent on defining the indefinable, like the nature of life, the scope of the universe and truth itself, Pi stands laughing defiantly. "I am what I am" Pi asserts. "I’m without end and there is nothing you can do to contain me."

There’s something serendipitous (Serendipity is discovering something that one was not looking for.) about Pi. It can be described but not quantified. Pi is a mathematical constant yet no one knows exactly what it is since it has no boundaries. Yet we believe it’s true because it works.

The fact is that much of what we claim to "know" is unknowable. The universe and all it contains is controlled by forces we can’t possibly understand. Some try to wrap it in mathematical equations but most don’t try because trying to understand their own personal "universe" is beyond their comprehension. Why go looking for more trouble? And as if the universe wasn’t intimidating enough, the reality that each of us is comprised of trillions of atoms, each a universe unto itself, provides no peace. Whether we look outwardly or inwardly, the mystery only grows.

When a pervasive sense of confusion or despair creeps into your life, know that all this mystery is no mystery to The One that created it all. He not only has unraveled it, He controls it all the time from the dawn of time until the end without end. Learn the peace of Pi. Be still and know Him that knows all.    BACK

Humble Beginnings
How did the kindly Bishop Nicholas, become a roly-poly red-suited American symbol for merry holiday festivity and commercial activity? History tells the tale.

The first Europeans to arrive in the New World brought St. Nicholas. Vikings dedicated their cathedral to him in Greenland. On his first voyage, Columbus named a Haitian port for St.

Nicholas on December 6, 1492. In Florida, Spaniards named an early settlement St. Nicholas Ferry (now known as Jacksonville). However, St. Nicholas had a difficult time during the 16th century during the Protestant Reformation which took a dim view of saints. Even though both reformers and counter-reformers tried to stamp out St. Nicholas-related customs, they had very little long-term success. Only in England were the religious folk traditions of Christmas permanently altered. Because the common people so loved St. Nicholas, he survived on the European continent as people continued to place nuts, apples, and sweets in shoes left beside beds, on windowsills, or before the hearth.

It is almost universally reported that the Dutch brought St. Nicholas to New Amsterdam (New York). Colonial Germans in Pennsylvania kept the feast of St. Nicholas and several later accounts have St. Nicholas visiting New York Dutch on New Years' Eve. In 1773, patriots formed the Sons of St. Nicholas, primarily to counter the British St. George societies rather than to honor St. Nicholas. This society was similar to the Sons of St. Tammany in Philadelphia. Not exactly St. Nicholas, the children's gift-giver.

After the American Revolution, New Yorkers remembered with pride the colony's nearly-forgotten Dutch roots. John Pintard, an influential patriot, founded the New York Historical Society in 1804 and promoted St. Nicholas as patron saint of both the society and the city. In January 1809, Washington Irving joined the society and on St. Nicholas Day that year he published the satirical fiction, Knickerbocker's History of New York, with numerous references to a jolly St. Nicholas character. This was not a saintly bishop, rather an elfin Dutch burgher with a clay pipe. Irving's work was regarded as the first notable work of imagination in the New World.

The New York Historical Society held its first St. Nicholas anniversary dinner on December 6, 1810. John Pintard commissioned artist Alexander Anderson to create the first American image of Nicholas for the occasion. Nicholas was shown in a gift-giving role with children's treats in stockings hanging at a fireplace.

The jolly elf image received a big boost in 1823, from a poem destined to become immensely popular, "A Visit from St. Nicholas," now better known as "The Night Before Christmas."

Washington Irving's St. Nicholas strongly influenced the poem's portrayal of a round, pipe-smoking, elf-like St. Nicholas. The poem generally has been attributed to Clement Clark Moore, a professor of biblical languages at New York's Episcopal General Theological Seminary. However, a case has been made by Don Foster in Author Unknown, that Henry Livingston actually penned it in 1807 or 1808. Livingston was a farmer/patriot who wrote humorous verse for children. In any case, "A Visit from St. Nicholas" became a defining American holiday classic. No matter who wrote it, the poem has had enormous influence on the Americanization of St. Nicholas.

Other artists and writers continued the change to an elf-like St. Nicholas. Between 1863-86, political cartoonist Thomas Nast did a series of drawings in Harper's Weekly based on the descriptions found in the poem and Washington Irving's work which portrayed a rotund St. Nicholas with flowing beard, fur garments, and clay pipe. Nast’s work had considerable influence in forming the American Santa Claus. Along with appearance changes, the saint's name shifted to Santa Claus, a natural phonetic alteration from the German Sankt Niklaus and Dutch Sinterklaas.

Santa was then portrayed by dozens of artists in a wide variety of styles, sizes, and colors. However by the end of the 1920s, a standard American Santa—life-sized in a red, fur-trimmed suit—had emerged from the work of N. C. Wyeth, Norman Rockwell and other popular illustrators. In 1931 Haddon Sundblom began thirty-five years of Coca-Cola Santa advertisements that popularized and firmly established this Santa as an icon of contemporary commercial culture.

This Santa was life-sized, jolly, and wore the now familiar red suit. By the 1950s, Santa was turning up everywhere, endorsing an amazing range of consumer products. This commercial success led to the North American Santa Claus being exported around the world where he threatens to overcome the European St. Nicholas, who has retained his identity as a Christian bishop and saint.

It's been a long journey for the 4^th Century Bishop of Myra Turkey, St. Nicholas, who showed his devotion to God in extraordinary kindness and generosity, to America's jolly Santa Claus. However, if you peel back the accretions he is still Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, whose caring surprises continue to model true giving and faithfulness.

There is growing interest in reclaiming the original saint in the United States to help restore the spiritual dimension of this festive time. For indeed, St. Nicholas, lover of the poor and patron saint of children, is a model of how Christians are meant to live. Nicholas put Jesus Christ at the center of his life and ministry. Families, churches, and schools are embracing true St. Nicholas traditions as one way to claim the true center of Christmas, the birth of Jesus. Such a focus helps restore balance to increasingly materialistic and stress-filled Christmas seasons.

From www.stnicholascenter.org    BACK

Five More Minutes
While at the park one day, a woman sat down next to a man on a bench. "That’s my son over there," she said, pointing to a little boy in a red sweater who was gliding down the slide.

"He’s a fine looking boy" the man said. "That’s my daughter on the bike." Then, looking at his watch, he called to his daughter. "What do you say we go, Melissa?"

She pleaded, "Just five more minutes, Dad. Please? Just five more minutes."

The man nodded and she continued to ride her bike gleefully. Minutes passed and the father stood and called again to his daughter. "Time to go now?"

Again Melissa pleaded, "Five more minutes, Dad. Just five more minutes."

The man smiled and said, "OK."

"My, you certainly are a patient father," the woman responded.

The man smiled pensively and then said, "Her older brother was killed by a drunk driver last year while he was riding his bike near here. I never spent much time with him and now I’d give anything for just five more minutes with him. I’ve vowed not to make the same mistake with his sister. She thinks she gets five more minutes to ride her bike. The truth is, I get five more minutes to watch her play."

Do you have five minutes to spare for someone you care for?   BACK

It's Your Reaction
Anyone who has hit a speed bump knows there's a right way and a wrong way to take this obstacle. An economic recession is a speed bump, a big one, but just a speed bump. If it is taken the right way, it will not be a barrier to a satisfying future, but a springboard, your choice.

If you use the recession as an excuse for anything, you'll lose. If you decide to let down times help you get ahead of those who seemed miles in front of you during the boom, you've got your mind in the right gear. It's not the recession, it's your reaction that matters. Ask yourself, "How are things different for me now?" Understand what happened to you personally, if anything.

Reinventing your lifestyle or business may require a new way of thinking at some level and in the way you make decisions. For example, New Year's resolutions are self-defeating illusions that can reinforce one's sense of powerlessness over change. When resolutions crumble, they can leave a sense of failure. The dire predictions of an economic recession rob many from even the illusion of a clean slate as the year begins.

Our culture emphasizes beginnings as essential for change—start of the year, first of the month, beginning of the week. These are artificial markers. Why not start today, the 14th, a Friday or the end of something? Does waiting improve success? Those who succeed with their goals do so because of the way they approach the task, not when they begin.

How can you be sure to stick with the improvement you've decided on? Most try to think themselves into change, but the best way to maintain a new behavior is to act as if the improvement has been made and you're just continuing on. Make a positive statement that embodies the goal, and keep repeating it. Believe you've made the change, and act accordingly.

I can hear, "Yeah, but what if I can't resist racking up credit card debt, borrowing to make the minimum payment, etc.?" Sliding back into well-worn ruts does not cancel out success. The conscious effort to correct yourself makes success all the sweeter. Just stop the old habit and put things right. Return that indulgent purchase. Thomas Edison failed his way to success along with countless others, so why can't you? Where are you headed this year? Stop reacting and start acting!

Excerpts from an article by PJ Wade    BACK

Choose Hope
I’m tired of hearing all the gloom and doom coming from the media about the economy and unemployment—I bet you are, too! Let’s take a minute to look at the true reality of the situation and what we can do about it.

Yes, some people have lost their jobs and houses. You may be one of them. But guess what? People have lost their jobs and houses even in a bull market. And the vast majority of those that want to work are still employed. That is pretty good! I’m not making light of the fact that some people are struggling; I’m just putting the situation in the proper perspective.

Even though you may be currently unemployed, that doesn’t mean you have to participate in the recession. People like me who have chosen to not participate acknowledge the reality of a slow economy and suffering people. However, we have decided that we’re not going to form our lives around the negativity coming out of the media and government. We’re intensifying our efforts and going to have the best year of our lives in spite of things slowing down.

Some people who find themselves unemployed will go into new careers or start their own businesses where they have the best year of their lives—professionally, financially and emotionally. Their current job losses are actually blessings in disguise. They believe this and are formulating game plans based on it. I guarantee there are men in their garages right now starting their own mechanic shops. The next Mary Kay Ash is writing up a business plan for new products she’s just created. College students are developing "the next best thing" in their dorm rooms as you are reading this. This is reality!

So think about your skills and interests. How can you leverage those passions into something you enjoy doing every day while earning money for it? If you haven’t lost your job but dread going to work, maybe it’s time to fire your employer and go in a new direction. When you have a game plan for your money and career, you will have a sense of empowerment because you aren’t a slave to the lender (or employer).

When employers start hiring because they believe their businesses will grow, recessions end. Many who have stopped hiring have been paralyzed by fear. They’ve lost hope. People who continue going about their lives in normal ways (without being irresponsible and buying stuff they can't afford) believe in the future. It’s called hope. You can have fear or hope. It's your choice. I choose hope. Dave Ramsey     BACK

Keeping Perspective
When I hear somebody sigh that life is hard, I am tempted to ask, "Compared to what?" Sydney J. Harris

We like to compare our lives to those of people we think are richer, smarter, happier, better looking, more famous. Why don’t I have a house like the couple’s down the street? Why am I not doing better at work? Why can’t I find the love of my life?

We forget that there are plenty of people who look on us with envy. They would really like to have our job, live on our block or enjoy our personal freedom. When we hear them talk about the things we take for granted, we remember that we have it pretty good after all.

It might sound corny, but it does help to "count your blessings" so you can pay attention to all the good things in your life.

Daily Book of Positive Quotations     BACK