A Compliment?

This past Monday was Compliment Day.

There are several tools at that site I found to be encouraging. In fact, I felt a little better about myself just reading them!

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A guest preacher was called upon to fill in for the regular minister, who had gone away on vacation.

The substitute preacher began his message by explaining a little more about what "substitute" meant.

"If you break a window," he explained, "and then place cardboard there instead, that is a substitute. Not as good as a real replacement, but one that'll do in a pinch." He then went on to give a rousing good sermon.

After the service, one woman shook hands with him vigorously and exclaimed, "Wonderful! Let me give you a compliment, young man ... you were no substitute, you were a real pane!"

[Net 153s Smile A Day; retold by Mark Raymond]

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WORD for YOUR WEEK: In the realm of polite Christianity, when something isn't very good yet the occasion calls for us to pay a compliment to the thing's creator or performer, we tend to fall back on saying something like, "Well, that was certainly unique." The word, as so many do, has its basis in Latin - it originates in the word "unus," which means "one." (Think union, unite, unanimous, even "E Pluribus Unum," which is on American currency. It means "Out of Many, One.") When you use the word unique, you are saying something is one of a kind.

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Mark's Musings is available via an RSS Feed, a Facebook Note, the Amazon Kindle and via e-mail each weekday (usually). Subscriptions are free. ISSN 2154-9761.

It Made My Day (Again)

Let's revisit that "feel good" website, It Made My Day.

And, on a personal note, my daughter is having her gallbladder removed tomorrow morning. She's only 15 and already has gallstones, which are suspected to be the culprit behind her stomach pains for the past 18 months. It's a fairly quick surgery - we expect to have her home in bed by noonish tomorrow - and recovery is usually pretty swift, but we'd still sincerely appreciate your prayers and good thoughts tomorrow, about 7:30 a.m. EST.

That would make our day.

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IT MADE MY DAY

The other day my math teacher called a kid up to the front of the class to write out a problem and answer it on the chalkboard. He went up, answered it, then said, "Now I have a question for YOU." He wrote out the question on the board and my teacher, playing along, cheerfully yelled out the answer. Then the kid goes, "Hah! That was the first question on the homework you just handed out!" It made my day.

At the bus stop this morning, I opened my wallet to discover my two-year-old son had exchanged all of my money with Monopoly money. The bus driver laughed, and then charged me $5 in Monopoly money for the ride. It made my day!

I was telling my mom about how I got a "turkey" (three strikes in a row) while I was bowling the other night. She responded with, "Are you going to be able to fit it into your freezer?" It made my day.

We'd been painting our new house and accidentally left the lid off one of the paint cans, resulting in the paint drying up and becoming worthless. We left it out in the yard while we worked and one afternoon it disappeared. That evening there was a knock on our door and the neighbor's kid - five or six years old - said she had taken it but, "we didn't know it was all dried up so you can have it back and we'll find some different paint for the dog...." It made my day.

I am in the Army and currently stationed in South Korea. One Monday it was particularly rainy and dreary, so while walking to work I decided to have some fun and splashed through some puddles like I used to do when I was a little kid. A Captain stopped me and asked me what I was doing. "Letting my inner child out for a walk, SIR!" I replied. He laughed and said, "Carry on, soldier" then splashed through a few puddles himself as he laughed again and walked out of sight. It made my day!

Today my wife and I were singing along to the radio when our Great Dane, for some reason, barked loudly at her. My wife looked him in the eye and with a straight face, said, "You're a little off-key." It made my day.

I woke up this morning to my cat sleeping next to my head. I reached out to pet him and he started purring so I laid my head back down again to sleep some more. Suddenly he reached out his paw, still purring, and started petting my face. I had never had my cat pet me back before! It made my day!

[selected from the "It Made My Day" website; not all entries are family-friendly if you decide to visit]

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WEBSITE of the WEEK: At http://devotionalchristian.com/, you can find a whole bunch of different devotional material. The website collects them and, if you like, you can receive a weekly e-mail newsletter, as well. Their description reads, "Devotional Christian makes it easy to read your daily Bible devotional online by listing all the best free Christian devotionals on one page."

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Mark's Musings is available via an RSS Feed, a Facebook Note, the Amazon Kindle and via e-mail each weekday (usually). Subscriptions are free. ISSN 2154-9761.

Seat Sacrifice

G. Armour Van Horn in his "Quotes of the Day" post reminds us that it is National Volunteer Week.

And that brings me to The Giraffe Heroes Project.

The website features people who are "sticking their neck out" (get it?) to improve their community and the world.

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[Okay, it's not really a story about volunteerism in a "Giraffe Hero" kind of way, and it's slightly dated, but it does speak about volunteering of a different sort. -- MR]

My flight, and many others, due to the LAX airport closing, was canceled and I wound up spending the night in Baltimore. When I went to check in at the United counter the next morning, I saw a lot of soldiers home on leave from Iraq. Most were very young and all had their camouflage uniforms on.

Many people were stopping the troops to talk to them, asking them questions while they were waiting in the Starbucks line, or just saying, "Welcome home." In addition to all the other flights that had been canceled, the weather in Baltimore that morning was terrible and many more flights were getting backed up. So there were a lot of unhappy people in the terminal that day, but no one I saw gave the soldiers a hard time.

By the afternoon, our plane to Denver had been delayed for hours. United personnel kept asking for volunteers to give up their seat and grab a later flight. They weren't getting many takers. Finally, a United spokesperson got on the intercom and said, "Folks, as you can see, there are a lot of soldiers in the waiting area. They only have 14 days of leave and we are trying to get them where they need to go without spending any more time in an airport than they have to. We sold them all tickets, knowing we would oversell the flight, but if we can, we want to get them all on this flight. We want all the soldiers here to know that we respect what you are doing, we are here for you, and we love you."

At that, the entire gate area filled with cranky, tired, travel-weary people and all those nearby - a cross section of America - broke into sustained and heartfelt applause. The soldiers looked surprised and very modest. Most of them just looked at their boots. Many of us were wiping away tears.

And yes, people lined up to give up their seat and all the soldiers went to Denver on that flight.

[testimony from Will Ross, Administrative Law Judge via Wit and Wisdom; abridged by Mark Raymond. Story verified by Department of Defense here.]

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WISDOM for YOUR WEEK: "And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased." (Hebrews 13:16)

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Sacrificial Sportsmanship

Well, this is just about the sweetest story I've heard in weeks.

Sara Tucholsky is a senior at Western Oregon University. She was in the batter's box for her team in their conference playoffs against Central Washington University. WOU was down by a score of 2-1, but two runners were on base. With one strike against her, the pitch comes in and Sara takes her best swing. The ball goes backbackbackback - way back - and gone! A home run that actually cleared the centerfield fence.

It was Sara's first home run. Ever. In her whole life. And it put her team ahead, 4-2.

In her excitement as she began rounding the bases, she missed tagging first base, but as she turned to go back, her knee buckled under her, tearing a ligament. She cried out in pain, and could barely crawl back to first base.

Now the coach has a dilemma. If any teammate touches her to help her make it around the bases, she's declared out. If the coach puts a pinch runner in for her, the home run is officially changed to a single.

That's when Mallory Holtman - the first baseman (basewoman?) - for Central Washington asked the umpire if her team could help Sara. The umpire couldn't find any rules against it, so Mallory and shortstop Liz Wallace linked arms and carried Sara around the rest of the bases, pausing at each one so she could step on the base with her good leg.

There wasn't a dry eye in the park when she reached home plate.

They didn't know it was the only home run that Sara had ever hit, or ever will hit (she's a graduating senior), but they did know losing the game would knock them out of the playoffs.

They did it, anyway.

Just goes to prove it's what we do for others that makes the really good memories.