One spring, day on an apple farm in. Michigan, some men who had been pruning an, orchard made. a great pile of branches about 100 yards from the farmer’s barn. One morning the farmer saw a bird carrying to that pile of prunings materials for a nest. So he marked the spot with a stick. At sundown, with the bird flying about and chirping wildly, the man reached into the pile and tore the nest apart. If the bird were thinking, she was saying to herself, “How cruel this man is!” Next day the man saw the bird again trying to build at another place in the same pile. Again he marked it with a stick, and at night he destroyed all the work that the bird had done. No doubt the bird’s wild flutterings and chirpings were bird language for “This evil man! How terrible he is to destroy my nest!” On the third day he noticed that the bird was building in a rose bush near the house. He smiled and let the bird alone. The farmer had intended to burn the branch pile, and he knew if the bird were allowed to build among the branches, the nest and its little fledglings would have been destroyed. So in great kindness he had torn the two earlier nest apart. On the cross of Calvary we see that there are no accidents! As Jesus hung there, “the just for the unjust,” it looked as though there had been an accident; that God had made a mistake. But on the third day after, when “God raised him for our justification,” all believers knew that “the cross was for our good” and so the previous Friday was called “Good.” Out of that seeming tragedy, Christ paid the eternal price demanded by God for our sins. “The Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

Dennis A Kastens, Once You Were Darkness, CSS, 1980, p. 80.

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A friend shared with me a beautiful legend about a king who decided to set aside a special day to honor his greatest subject. When the big day arrived, there was a large gathering in the palace courtyard. Four finalists were brought forward, and from these four, the king would select the winner.

The first person presented was a wealthy philanthropist. The king was told that this man was highly deserving of the honor because of his humanitarian efforts. He had given much of his wealth to the poor.

The second person was a celebrated physician. The king was told that this doctor was highly deserving of the honor because he had rendered faithful and dedicated service to the sick for many years.

The third person was a distinguished judge. The king was told that the judge was worthy because he was noted for his wisdom, his fairness, and his brilliant decisions.

The fourth person presented was an elderly woman. Everyone was quite surprised to see her there, because her manner was quite humble, as was her dress. She hardly looked the part of someone who would be honored as the greatest subject in the kingdom. What chance could she possibly have, when compared to the other three, who had accomplished so much? Even so, there was something about her— the look of love in her face, the understanding in her eyes, her quiet confidence.

The king was intrigued, to say the least, and some-what puzzled by her presence. He asked who she was. The answer came: “You see the philanthropist, the doctor, and the judge? Well, she was their teacher!”

That woman had no wealth, no fortune, and no title, but she had unselfishly given her life to produce great people. There is nothing more powerful or more Christlike than sacrificial love

James W. Moore, Some Things Are Too Good Not To Be True,
Dimensions, 1994, 129.

200 page e-book that explains everything you need to know when planning your very own object lessons. It contains 90 fully developed object lesson ideas and another 200 object lesson starter ideas based on Biblical idioms and Names / Descriptions of God.

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John Milton lost one eye, and then the second one too, but he didn’t lose heart. Instead he produced some of the world’s greatest poetry. His blindness was an opportunity to stimulate his verbal richness.

Helen Keller was deaf, dumb and blind since childhood. But she never thought of herself as handicapped. Her positive attitude in her world of darkness brought light to others and transformed every difficulty into an opportunity to overcome.

Socrates was ugly and uneducated. But his thoughts were always lofty, his attitude always positive. His wife would always find faults with him but he never let a sense of defeat overpower him. Once finding his wife extremely angry, he sat on a stone slab near his gate and started basking in the sun. When the angry woman rushed out and emptied a pitcher of cold water over his head, he praised his wife instead of retaliating: “I was wondering dear, why after thundering it hadn’t rained yet!” Such a peaceful bent of mind gave him the opportunity to be the number one philosopher in the world.

Abraham Lincoln was the son of a poor farmer who could never afford to buy books and clothes for him. But Lincoln had a positive attitude about life. He would wash his only suit at night so that it would dry by the morning. Covering himself with a rough towel he would study the books borrowed from his friends under the street lamp as there was no light in his own house. One day an envious neighbor made a taunting remark to Lincoln: “Why study in the mosquito-ridden street at night! After all you are not going to become the President of America?” Lincoln took it as a positive challenge and one day occupied the White House as President.

Difficulties and discouragements are often merely a rung on the ladder of life. Where you stand on the ladder of life is not as important as how many rungs you have persistently climbed and the character you have developed in the journey!

Have you allowed difficulties and discouragements to prevent you from reaching God’s purpose for your life?

200 page e-book that explains everything you need to know when planning your very own object lessons. It contains 90 fully developed object lesson ideas and another 200 object lesson starter ideas based on Biblical idioms and Names / Descriptions of God.

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Imagine a family of mice who lived all their lives in a large piano. In their piano world the music of the instrument filled all the dark spaces with sound and harmony. At first the mice were impressed by it. They drew comfort and wonder from the thought that there was Someone who made the music – though invisible to them – above, yet close to them. They loved to think of the Great Player whom they could not see. Then one day a daring mouse climbed up part of the piano and returned very thoughtful. He had found out how the music was made. Wires were the secret; tightly stretched wires of graduated lengths which tremble and vibrate. The mice must revise all their old beliefs. Some, however, still held on to the faith in the Unseen Player.

Later, another explorer carried the explanation further. Hammers were now the secret, many hammers dancing and leaping on the wires. This was a more complicated theory, but it all went to show that they lived in a purely mechanical and mathematical world. Now mothers told their little ones about the myth of the Unseen Player.

But the pianist continued to play.

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