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*The Wren Still Sings* ______________________________________ If you enjoy this free 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 a blank e-mail to: HeartTouchers-subscribe@myinjesus.com Visit our inspirational web site and read all the past stories in our archives at: http://www.HeartTouchers.com/Archives Be sure to check out our brand new inspirational list just for teenagers! Heart4Teens.com To subscribe, send a blank e-mail to: Heart4Teens-subscribe@myinjesus.com or visit: http://www.Heart4Teens.com _________________________________________ Good morning HeartTouchers.com subscribers! Our family just returned from a wonderful vacation in sunny Florida where we visited with Grandma and Grandpa which is why there wasn't a hearttouchers story sent out last week. Caleb and Connor just love it there. They have a house in the country with five acres of woods and trails to explore. The boys spent half their time catching frogs and lizards and the rest of their time swimming in Grandma and Grandpa's pool. During our vacation we were able to get up close and personal with not only the frogs and lizards, but also with large snakes like the Coach Whip and the Black Racer. We also became aquainted with many gopher tortoises, Armadillos (Caleb used to call them "Dillar Dollars" when he was younger), 10 foot long alligators in the river we walked along, and dolphins frolicking in the surf while taking a boat to a remote island beach in one of Florida's State Parks. As a family we love the outdoors and spend most of our vacations camping in Northern Wisconsin, so we had a great time! But we also spent a great deal of time just relaxing, talking, and reading. I was also able to catch up on a lot of reading I wanted to do, especially a book by Max Lucado called "Next Door Savior." If you haven't read it yet, be sure to pick up a copy. I am continually grateful for how God has blessed me and my family and wanted to thank Grandma and Grandpa for always opening up their home to friends and family. We love you Grandma and Grandpa! Make sure you and your family are taking time to get away and relax, whether it is a full blown vacation or a day or so away from the hustle and bustle of life. Everyone needs time to unwind, take it easy, and meditate on what God is doing, or wants to do, in your life. From my family to yours, Michael _________________________________________ The Wren Still Sings by Pamela R. Blaine It was one of those rainy and dreary spring days. Although it wasn't extremely cold, it seemed that the wind caused a chill to come over me. It was the kind of weather that after a few days of it, my mood began to match the gloomy climate. I had finished my chores and was hurrying as fast as I could to get back into the warm house and out of the continuous drizzle when I heard something. I ran on inside the back door to get out of the rain but I turned and peeked back out the screen door. I wanted to see if I could discover the origin of the lovely sound that I was hearing. As I listened, I heard the sound again. I looked over toward the lilac bush and there sat a little wren that had made her nest in the tomato juice can that Mom had hung in the bushes years ago. The wind was causing her house to sway and the rain was coming down harder than ever. Yet, she seemed to look upward as she held on tightly with her tiny bird feet to a small branch and continued her sweet musical solo. Although her world was shaken, the wren still sang. Perhaps we could take a lesson from the birds and learn to make our nests, feed our young, and sing to God. The birds don't ask for better nests or even better material for nests. They don't complain about their lot in life, but they take what God has given them and then they do their best to create something beautiful with it. I have always enjoyed watching birds. I delight in the brilliant red of the cardinal, the beauty of the bluebird, and the unique touch of red on the red winged blackbird. The birds each have a special song of their own to sing. Some have a very brief series of chirps while others have a whole chorus to perform. The Whippoorwill seems to sing her name while the quail simply calls his "bob white". I have a tiny hummingbird's nest that is a work of art. It is so small and beautifully made that I wonder at the perfection of this wee bird's creation. It is completely round and about the size of silver dollar. The outside is foundational with the rougher pieces of sticks and materials at the bottom of the nest. Gradually, the materials become softer until the finishing touch on the very top of the inside of the nest is covered with a soft layer of hair and fur. The birds around us are all different yet they don't seem unhappy with their plumages nor do they try to look like other birds. The sparrow doesn't rush right out to get his feathers dyed red to look like the cardinal nor does the robin try to peck away on a tree like the woodpecker. The birds seem to be very content as they sing, fly, and work at their job of being a bird. It doesn't seem to me that birds have much trouble with being happy. It must be because they trust their heavenly Father. They don't worry about life. they just live it. The birds neither sow nor reap yet God feeds and takes care of them and we are told that we are of so much greater value than the birds. The wind, rain, and the storms of life happen to people as well as to birds, but let's try to look up when our world is shaken too, and remember that the wren still sings! "Do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens; They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds!" (Luke 12:24) By Pamela R. Blaine, © April 2004 pamyblaine@blaines.us Write Pamela and let her know your thoughts on her story! About Pamela: Pam and her husband live in Missouri. She writes, "Pam's Corner" for her local newspaper, The Edina Sentinel, that carries many of her stories. Pam is a contributing author to the book The Miracle of Sons and has many stories in the HeartTouchers archives. She also plays piano and is an avid reader. She and her husband, who is a minister of music, have a gospel CD out of songs written by Pam. The CD is entitled "I'll Walk You Home". If you would like one, they are available by freewill donation. More information as well as a clip from the CD is on her Webpage: http://blaines.us/PamyPlace.htm _________________________________________ Thought For The Day: "No plan is worth the paper it is printed on unless it starts you doing something." Verse for the Day: "But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves." James 1:22 Kid's Thought for the Day: "Open your eyes up underwater." Parent's Thought For The Day "Our children give us the opportunity to become the parents we always wish we had." --Nancy Samalin Coach's Thought For The Day "We must have longe range goals to keep us from being frustrated with short-range failures." Writer's Thought For The Day: "The plot is the line on which I hang the wash, and the wash is what I care about." --Robert B. Parker Deep Thought For The Day: I went into a McDonald's yesterday and said, "I'd like some fries." The girl at the counter said, "Would you like fries with that?" -- Jay Leno _________________________________________ Have you been to the HeartTouchers.com website lately? If you like what you see and would like to have your own professional looking website, visit the link below. Bizstudio has been a wonderful service for HeartTouchers.com and with 400,000 visitors in the past three years, the website has been a tremendous tool in helping us to "Touch Lives, One Email at a Time." Although I had no prior experience building a website, I was able to create and build the HeartTouchers.com site easily utilizing Bizstudio's online editor. It includes an Online Site Editor, Unlimited Updates, Unlimited Pages, Professional Themes, Pre-Programmed Features, E-mail Accounts, and free Search Engine Submission. If I could do it with no prior experience you can too! Check it out at this link: http://www.bizstudio.com/main/home.htm?bpn=A16435 _________________________________________ MICHAEL T. POWERS www.HeartTouchers.com "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 by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." Galatians 2:20 __________________________________________ Video Imagery --Michael's Video Production Business Dear Michael, I just wanted to take a minute to thank you for the beautiful video you made for me! It was so special to see both of my parents in tears as they watched their children grow up in pictures before their eyes! I loved the way you made Estania's part set aside from the rest--that was the part that really got them! The music was beautiful. My mom kept blubbering, "What song is that?" I don't know how you did such a beautiful job with the video in such a short time. I really appreciate your doing it so quickly. You have a wonderful gift, and I thank God that you are using it to create such sentimental memories. I hope that I can find my niche like that in an area that I love. Your video gave us one of our most lasting Christmas memories! I hope yours was filled with moments to be treasured forever! Love, Trisha Silverhill, AL Let me make you a video from your photos! Check out my video production business by visiting: http://www.hearttouchers.com/video_imagery ___________________________________________ 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/ __________________________________________ Do you feel as if life has no meaning for you? http://www.greatcom.org/english/four.htm _________________________________________ 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! ___________________________________________ Reading Books, Changing Lives! For those of you who would like to purchase the books from the HeartTouchers.com bookstore via your credit card, you can now do so! You can now order a number of different autographed best-selling inspirational books for the same price you would get them in the store, the shipping to you is paid for, and you are helping change the lives of teenagers and those they come in contact with! And best of all, every penny from the book sales are going to youth ministry! http://www.HeartTouchers.com/books _________________________________________________ A number of people have written to us asking what an EBook is, since our book is being offered in both print and EBook versions. An EBook is a book that can be downloaded and read right on your computer. The advantage of ordering the EBook is that is costs less, $6.95 (No other charges), as compared to $13.95 + shipping and handling for the print book. Plus you can download the EBook and begin reading the stories in a few minutes! EBooks are read via Acrobat Reader, which is software that most of you already have on your computer. And if for some reason you don't, it can be downloaded free of charge at the web site. So for those of you who don't want to wait for the print book to be delivered, check out this web site to order the EBook version of Heart Touchers. http://www.booklocker.com/bookpages/michaeltpowers01.html |
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Touching Lives - One E-mail at a Time! Author Michael T. Powers - HeartTouchers @ aol.com
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