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*Poinsettia Parenting* 5/10/02 ________________________________ If you enjoy this free daily email service, I encourage you to spread the word to family and friends that we may bring inspiration into the lives of many! If you are not on the list and this has been passed along to you, join the thousands of HeartTouchers.com readers around the world by sending an e-mail with the word "Subscribe" in the subject line to: HeartTouchers@aol.com Visit our inspirational web site and read all the past stories in our archives at: http://www.HeartTouchers.com ____________________________________________ Are you looking for the perfect gift to give for Mother's Day, Father's Day, or Graduation? Then check out Michael's Video Production business: Video Imagery! You can transfer your photos over to videotape, or even DVD, all set to music that will make your images come alive! The cost is only $1 per photo, which means no matter what your budget is, you can give the most meaningful gift you have ever given because you determine how many photos you transfer, and therefore, how much you spend! Want to make Mom, Dad, or your favorite graduating senior cry happy tears? Then check out all Michael has to offer at the following web site: http://www.hearttouchers.com/video_imagery/ AOL Users click here: Video Imagery "My whole family wants to thank you for the wonderful job you did on the video. Time went by so fast we never got a chance to call and let you know how happy we were. We had wrapped one and put the other in the VCR. We started it and they were so surprised. My dad was speechless, which is a rare thing, and it brought tears to my mom's eyes. They loved it!! We know it was really time consuming, and we wanted to thank you and your wife also. She was always so nice whenever we called with any questions. Thanks again and have a wonderful holiday season." The Creighton Family..........Janesville, WI _________________________________________ The Poinsettia Plant in All of Us! By D. Anne Jones, © 2002 As anyone who knows me can testify, I am the typical mother who frets and worries about my children. I look at them in horror some days, tattoos and piercings looking me in the face, and wonder where I went wrong! I am dealing with that right now in my own life, but God is working with me to encourage me to have hope. I have five kids, ranging from seven to twenty-one, so I am looking at the older ones and marveling -- what happened to all that good stuff that I put inside them all those years? (like common sense and a love for God) Where IS it? God recently shared a little nugget with me, and I will share it now with you. Hopefully, it will help someone else who is struggling with the same problems. I was visiting a church that I do not belong to, and the pastor was teaching on the concept of planting seed into good, fertile soil, then watering and sunning and fertilizing the plant so that it can bear good fruit. (Luke 8:5-8) The Lord reminded me of something I learned about the poinsettia plant. If you take a poinsettia and put it into a dark closet, it becomes dormant. Then, two months before Christmas take the plant out and put it in the light. It will begin to rejuvenate, and leaves will grow, then flowers will bloom! Our children can be like that sometimes. We have planted the seed, watered, sunned and fertilized those tender shoots, and yet they somehow remain in the darkness and do not bear fruit! All it takes is that special person or incident to bring them back into the light, and they will again begin to grow and be nourished, eventually flowering into a wonderful blossom that brings joy to the Lord and others. As a matter of fact, my own mother pointed out to me recently that not all of her children went the route she had hoped they would! She and my father wanted all five girls to graduate from college and have careers before marrying and having children. Not a ONE of us went that route! Yet now that we are all over forty, she can see that we are happy and productive individuals who have wonderful families and each one of us has a spiritual life that brings us contentment. What more could a mother want? Mom laughed when I said that, but admitted that when all is said and done, that is truly what matters. So, maybe I WAS dormant for a few years there, and didn't even realize it! Maybe God had to send people and situations into my life to shed some light, and if He was good enough to do that for me, I suppose I can trust Him with my own children! I hang on to that hope, and realize that I may not be the one who gets to reintroduce the light, but I get to witness the rejuvenation someday! "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it!" Pr. 22:6 D. Anne Jones DAJSB@aol.com Write D. Anne and let her know your thoughts on her story! ____________________________________ D. Anne Jones is a 41 year old mother of five and wife of one who lives in NW Indiana and is a portrait artist, marketing coordinator, art teacher and domestic engineer. In her spare time, she writes little stories dealing with things she can't quit thinking about! **** The copyrights to the stories that appear in HeartTouchers.com are owned by the authors and are used with their permission. We refuse to run stories without the author's permission and contact info listed after the story. We also refuse to publish stories listed as "author unknown." (All of which violates Copyright Law and the rights of the authors.) This e-mail may be forwarded in its entirety, but it is expressly prohibited to cut and paste the stories from here to be used elsewhere unless you have contacted and been given permission by the individual writer. Thank you so much for honoring the rights of those writers who graciously share their stories with us! _________________________________________ Can't get enough inspirational stories in your life? Would you like to send a unique gift to your friends and family? Then order a personalized autographed copy of the inspirational book: Straight From the Heart "A Celebration of Life" by Michael T. Powers for only $13.95. And best of all, we'll pay the shipping! Michael is an award winning writer whose stories have appeared in numerous newspapers and magazines around the world and in the following books: Chicken Soup for the Sports Fan's Soul, Chicken Soup for the Grandparent's Soul, Stories For the Extreme Teen's Heart, Stories For the Extreme Teen's Heart 2, Stories for the Teen's Heart 2, Heartwarmers, God Allows U-Turns Volumes 1 and 4, Creating Emotionally Safe Schools, and in the upcoming books: Don't Sweat the Small Stuff Story Collection, Chicken Soup for the Romantic Soul, Chicken Soup for the Grieving Soul, and The Miracle of Boys. He has signed several contracts for future Chicken Soup and other inspirational books. Still not convinced? You can preview his book by visiting: http://www.HeartTouchers.com/michael_powers AOL Users click here! To order your autographed copy have a check or money order for $13.95 for each book made out to Michael T. Powers, and then send it to: Michael T. Powers 1918 Liberty Lane Janesville, WI 53545 (Please allow about 2 weeks for delivery.) ____________________________________________ Reader Feedback! _________________________________________ Thought For The Day: "Live so that you wouldn't be ashamed to sell the family parrot to the town gossip." --Will Rogers Verse for the Day: "What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs." Luke 12:3 Kid's Thought For The Day: "Don't dive deeper than you have breath for." Parent's Thought For The Day "In spite of the seven thousands books of expert advice, the right way to discipline a child is still a mystery to most fathers and mothers. Only your grandmother and Ghengis Khan know how to do it." --Bill Cosby Coach's Thought For The Day "A person can't brood over one mistake, or waste time feeling sorry for himself, or take on any sort of persecution complex. Today I realize that once you have made a mistake, you must accept it, profit by it, and then totally dismiss it from your mind." (Bart Starr, former quarterback of some team in Wisconsin) Writer's Thought For the Day: "Long before I wrote stories, I listened for stories. Listening for them is something more acute than listening to them...just waiting and hoping for one to come out like a mouse from its hole." --Eudora Welty Deep Thought For The Day: The word listen contains the same letters as the word silent. ___________________________________________ _ /_/\/\ MICHAEL T. POWERS \_\ / HeartTouchers@aol.com /_/ \ "For I have been crucified with Christ and I no \_\/\ \ longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I \_\/ live in the body I live for the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." Galatians 2:20 ___________________________________________ The copyrights to the stories that appear in HeartTouchers.com are owned by the authors and are used with their permission. We refuse to run stories without the author's permission and contact info listed after the story. We also refuse to publish stories listed as "author unknown." (All of which violates Copyright Law and the rights of the authors.) This e-mail may be forwarded in its entirety, but please do not cut and paste the stories to be used elsewhere unless you have contacted and been given permission by the individual writer. Thank you so much for honoring the rights of those writers who graciously share their stories with us! ___________________________________________ Would you like to see your story in HeartTouchers.com? Writer's guidelines can be found on our Web site here: http://www.HeartTouchers.com/guidelines/ AOL Users click here: Writer's Guidelines ___________________________________________ SUBSCRIBE: "I need a daily source of inspiration and encouragement in my life!" To become a HeartTouchers.com Member send an e-mail with "Subscribe" in the subject line to: HeartTouchers@AOL.COM Then get ready to laugh, cry, and be deeply touched by some of the best stories on the Internet! __________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: All you have to do is send an e-mail with the word "Unsubscribe" in the subject line to: HeartTouchers@aol.com Give it a day or two to be processed... __________________________________________ Do you feel as if life has no meaning for you? http://www.greatcom.org/english/four.htm AOL Users click here: The Four Spiritual Laws __________________________________________ |
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Touching Lives - One E-mail at a Time! Author Michael T. Powers - HeartTouchers @ aol.com
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