Topical Issue...

Can analytical thinking destroy your faith in God (even if you're devout)?

Readers, your view on this is highly appreciated! 

Show that you care...

Collie

Ms Fox and her dog - Collie

"...Extend to each person, no matter how trivial the contact, all the care and kindness and understanding and love that you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again.” 


Roosevelt the collie dog, from Portland, Maine, is a disable animal adopted  by Ms Stephanie Fox from a rescue shelter three years ago when he was a puppy. He was bought a $900 custom-built wheelchair to stand in for his two front legs while on walks with his owner.  But at home, he hops around on his two back legs, much like a kangaroo.  


'If you had a child with a disability you'd try to enrich them, give them opportunities,' Fox said. 'So why not do the same with a dog?'


This is good to emulate... Show that you care and be kind to people to meet on your ways because you never can tell!

One of the world first motorbikes

The motorbike, which is more than one hundred years old, consists of an engine simply attached to a bicycle's back wheel with a fuel tank hanging under the cross bars.

He is aged twenty but has a body of 120years old man!

Dean Andrews

Dean Andrews, like Hayley Okines, suffers from an extremely rare condition which makes his body aged eight times faster than normal due to Hutchinson-Gilford progeria, of which he is one of only four sufferers in the UK. Amazingly, he has lived life to the full, putting the problem behind and he wants others like him to know they can do the same.

It is good to be good!

I was reading through a friend's notes on facebook and came across this story which I believe worths sharing... Do read along.

One day, a poor boy who was begging from door to door to feed his hungry stomach decided he would ask for a meal at the next house. 

However, he lost his nerve when a lovely young woman opened the door. Instead of a meal, he asked for a drink of water. The woman thought he looked hungry, so she brought him a large glass of milk. He drank it slowly, and then asked, "how much do I owe you?". "you don't owe me anything", she replied. "Mother has taught us never to accept pay for kindness".

"he said... Then I thank you from my heart". Years later, that young woman became critically ill. The local doctors are baffled because they couldn't cure her. They finally sent her to the big city, where they call specialists to study her rare illness. Dr. Howard Kelly was called in for the consultation. When he heard the name of the town where she came from, a strange light filled his eyes. Immediately, he rose and went down the hall of the hospital to her room. He recognised her at once. he went back 2 d consultation room determined to do his best to save her life. From that day, he gave special attention to that case. After long struggle, the battle was won!!! Dr. Kelly requested the business office to pass the final bill to him for approval. He looked at it, then wrote something on the bill. It was sent to her room. The woman feared opening it, for she was sure it will take the rest of her life to pay for it all. 

Finally she looked, and noticed something was written at the edge of the note. "paid for in full for a glass of milk". Tears filled her eyes as she immediately remembered...

Every form of kindness you sow doesn't bounce, it reproduces itself. Not necessarily before your eyes, but it always does. . It is good to be good!

Six-legged baby battling for his life...

A baby is battling for his life at a Pakistan hospital after being born with a rare genetic condition that left him with six legs, hospital officials said.

According to AFP, the infant was born to the wife of an X-ray technician a week ago and is believed to be one of parasitic twins.

"It is not one baby actually. They are two, one of them is premature," Jamal Raza, the director of National Institute of the Child Health in Karachi, told reporters.

Doctors at the institute are fighting to save the newborn, who remains in an intensive care unit ward.

Raza said the doctors were planning to operate on the boy and were considering asking for help from foreign experts.

The rare disease is believed to afflict just one in a million babies.

"The doctors are examining the infant to plan for necessary treatment to save the baby's life and ensure he lives a normal life," a statement from the provincial health department said.

The baby's father Imran Shaikh who lives around 450 kilometres from the city of Karachi said he was grateful his son was being treated and that he was too poor to afford the treatment.

source

A word for the week: Build bonds with those you love

Building bonds with loved ones

A merchant in a small town had an identical twin son. The boys worked for their father in his department store and when he died, they took over the store. Everything went well until the day a twenty-dollar bill disappeared. One of the brothers had left the bill on the cash register to attend to a customer but when he returned, the money was gone. He asked his brother probing with a subtle accusation in his voice. Temper rose and before long, a bitter chasm separated the young men. They refused to speak, decided they could no longer work together and erected a dividing wall from the centre of the store. For twenty years the hostility grew, spreading to their families and the community. Then one day, a man from another state stopped by, walked in and asked the clerk, "How long have you been here?" The clerk replied 'all my life'. The man then said, "I must share something with you. Twenty years ago I rode into this town in a boxcar. I hadn't eaten for three days. I came into this store from the back door and saw a twenty-dollar bill on the cash register, put it in my pocket and walked out. All these years I haven't been able to forget that. I know it wasn't much money, but I had to come back to ask your forgiveness." The man was amazed to see tears well up in the eyes of this middle-aged man. "Would you please go next door and tell that same story to the man in the store?" he said. Then the customer was amazed to see two middle-aged men, who looked very much alike, embracing each other and weeping together in the front of the store. After twenty years, their brokenness was mended and the wall of resentment that divided them came down.

This classic is straight up for us this week. Life is too short for experiment that can blow up the laboratories of our relationships. Insignificant disagreements if not handled with care can lead us into resentments, bitterness, depression and breakdown of communication in relationships. People have been fired from work, partnerships broken in business because of relationship management. There is no offence grievous that shouldn't be forgiven anyone. It is often the little foxes that spoil the vine. The solution which may not be of a popular consensus, but it is simply to let people go when they hurt us. This week, refuse to harbour bitterness and you will be amazed at how much energy you have to build bonds with those you love.

Culled from The Lighthouse

100 years remembrance of Titanic

Titanic

Today April 15, 2012 marks the 100years the ill-fated Titanic ship hit an iceberg and sank. More than 1,500 people who died in the accident were from Southampton and as  a result, over 650 descendants of those on board gathered for a ceremony at the same berth on the city's docks where the Titanic set sail on April 10, 1912.

various activities greeted the event ranges from throwing of flowers and wreaths into the water where the White Star liner left port, to a moment of silence for the victim and a dockside service which was ended with the hymn "Nearer My God To Thee," said to have been played by the ship's musicians as Titanic sank.

Party dismisses the reports that Mugabe is ill.

President Robert Mugabe

The news circulating around that the Zimbabwe leader, President Robert Mugabe is critically ill and has undergone an intensive medical treatment in Singapore has been debunked. 

Contrary to the rumour, Mr. Mugabe is on a 10-day “private visit” that he used, in part, to help his daughter Bona prepare for post-graduate studies. ZANU-PF officials add the president will return to the country this week.

Who does the cap fit?

Whitney Houston and daughter, Bobbi Kristina

Whitney's daughter, Bobbi Kristina is keen to represent her mother in a film being currently discussed by a number of studios. 

This comes on the heel of a decision to make the life of the tragic singer into a film biopic. Rihanna and Jennifer Hudson are also apparently considering the role...

Despite his look like that of a woman, his walk betrayed him!

Ronaldo Silva, a suspect who had been awaiting trial for drug trafficking in Brazil, popped on his wife's bra, threw on a wig and poured his curves into her pretty blue dress for the daring escape... but had not mastered how to walk in heels. Half an hour into his daring bid for freedom, he was noticed by one eagle-eyed guard who followed him. The policeman approached him and managed to arrest him and bring him back, still dressed as a woman. 


But where are we going?  #justasking

Malawi President is dead!

Bingu wa Mutharika

Medical and Government sources in Malawi had announced the death of the country's President, Bingu wa Mutharika. The 78-year-old collapsed and was rushed to hospital in Lilongwe on Thursday but he could not survive the attack, he was dead on arrival!

Transgender beauty queen is fit to contest!

Jenna Talackova

Even though she was born a he, Jenna Talackova, the Canadian beauty queen has no cause to fight the Trump organization as the decision to throw 'her' out of the competition has been reversed.

Talackova, 23, was first selected as one of 65 finalists for the Donald Trump-owned competition and her profile and photos were pulled from the Miss Universe Canada website. 'She' was soon booted out when it became suspicious that she was not naturally born a female, according to CTV. 

"The Miss Universe Organization will allow Jenna Talackova to compete in the 2012 Miss Universe Canada pageant, of which its crown will be awarded May 19 in Toronto, provided she meets the legal gender recognition requirements of Canada, and the standards established by other international competitions," Michael D. Cohen, executive vice president and special counsel to Donald Trump, said in an email.

Keep your brain running at peak function...

Medical science noted that the human brain takes a downward slide very early at age 25 in every human being but however we can keep ours running at peak function if we choose to know how at whatever age. 

If we need to become better thinkers and be more creative in our lives, then the following are what we can we do: 

Keep learning new skills - playing new instruments, learning new languages, engaging in certain mental exercises like crosswords puzzles, or story writing.

Improve your brain routine by not wasting mental energy. You can choose to remember the "small stuff" - birthdays, anniversaries, outings, what to buy from the store, when to renew your driver's licence by simply using calendars, notebooks, file folders, planers and shopping lists. Don't commit to memory anything that can easily be looked up in a book." Use mental energy for learning important things, life skills. Our brains need challenges on which to concentrate, not unimportant things to remember!

Whatever works for the heart will work for the brain." This simply means: Eat well and healthy especially large quantities of fruits and vegetables. You can also choose to eat the so-called brain food: blueberries, wild salmon, lemons and cinnamon, green tea, saffron.

Exercise, rest well, laugh and stay away from avoidable self imposed stress.

Above all, embrace God's thoughts in your life. Read His Word to receive His wisdom. For the Lord God is wisdom and from His mouth comes knowledge and understanding