Being a Light

In one corner of the world squatted a sullen, sulking, friendless darkness. Suddenly a tiny light appeared. It was very small but it was a light. Someone had put it there. It just stood there and sent out its rays. A passerby remarked to the light: "Don't you think you would be of more use somewhere else and not in this God-forsaken corner?" "Not really," said the little light. "I shine because I am a light. And because I shine, I am a light. I don't shine in order to be seen, but so that others could seen in the dark." When the gloomy darkness heard this, it gritted its teeth and full of furry, tried to put out the light. But the gigantic darkness was powerless againstthis tiny light that wanted to shine.

An old saying goes: "It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness." 

 

Seeing Dirt

One of the British noblemen had left behind a big castle which contained priceless paintings. The public could come and see them from time to time. One day a group of people were moving through the large rooms and admiring the paintings as they went. One elderly woman never spoke a word but would repeatedly go close to each picture and examine it very carefully. After the visit, someone asked her what she thought of it all. "It was perfect," she said with enthusiasm. "I could not find a speck of dust anywhere." How often we miss the beauties of life because we are so intent on looking for faults.

Someone puts it this way: "There is so much bad in the best of us, and so much good in the worst of us, that it is not fair for any of us to speak against the rest of us." 

Sincerity

 

They tell a story about the wise King Solomon of the old Testament. One day his friend the Queen of Sheba sent him two vases of roses. One vase had real roses in it; the other had hand-made roses, which were so perfect that she challenged King Solomon to tell her which roses were the real ones without smelling them. That was no problem to the wise Solomon. He just opened the window and let in a swarm of bees. They flew right over to the real roses. Many people may look alike from the outside, but God can easily tell the difference.

Saint Paul in Galatians 6:3 puts it this way, "if someone thinks he is somebody when really he is nobody, he is only deceiving himself."