The Three Trees

Once there were three trees on a hill in a woods. They were discussing their hopes and dreams when the first tree said "Someday I hope to be a treasure chest. I could be filled with gold, silver and precious gems. I could be decorated with intricate carving and everyone would see the beauty."
Then the second tree said "Someday I will be a mighty ship. I will take kings and queens across the waters and sail to the corners of the world. Everyone will feel safe in me because of the strength of my hull."
Finally the third tree said. "I want to grow to be the tallest and straightest tree in the forest. People will see me on top of the hill and look up to my branches, and think of the heavens and God and how close to them I am reaching. I will be the greatest tree of all time and people will always remember me.."
After a few years of praying that their dreams would come true, a group of woodsmen came upon the trees. When one came to the first tree he said, "This looks like a strong tree, I think I should be able to sell the wood to a carpenter." and he began cutting it down. The tree was happy, because he knew that the carpenter would make him into a treasure chest.
At the second tree a woodsman said, "This looks like a strong tree, I should be able to sell it to the shipyard." The second tree was happy because he knew he was on his way to becoming a mighty ship.
When the woodsmen came upon the third tree, the tree was frightened because he knew that if they cut him down his dreams would not come true. One of the woodsman said, "I don't need anything special from my tree so I'll take this one" and he cut it down.
When the first tree arrived at the carpenters, he was made into a feed box for animals. He was then placed in a barn and filled with hay. This was not at all what he had prayed for. The second tree was cut and made into a small fishing boat. His dreams of being a mighty ship and carrying kings had come to an end. The third tree was cut into large pieces and left alone in the dark.
The years went by, and the trees forgot about their dreams. Then one day, a man and women came to the barn. She gave birth and they placed the baby in the hay in the feed box that was made from the first tree. The man wished that he could have made a crib for the baby, but this manger would have to do. The tree could feel the importance of this event and knew that it had held the greatest treasure of all time.
Years later, a group of men got in the fishing boat made from the second tree. One of them was tired and went to sleep. While they were out on the water, a great storm arose and the tree didn't think it was strong enough to keep the men safe. The men woke the sleeping man, and he stood and said "peace" and the storm stopped. At this time, the tree knew that it had carried the king of kings in it's boat.
Finally, someone came and got the third tree. It was carried through the streets as the people mocked the man who was carrying it. When they came to a stop, the man was nailed to the tree and raised in the air to die at the top of a hill. When Sunday came, the tree came to realize that it was strong enough to stand at the top of the hill and be as close to God as was possible, because Jesus had been crucified on it.
The moral of this story is that when things don't seem to be going your way, always know that God has a plan for you. If you place your trust in Him, He will give you great gifts. Each of the trees got what they wanted, just not in the way they had imagined.

SO TRUE gosh

School Phone Menu ..... California School.
"Hello! You have reached the automated answering service of your school. In order to assist you in connecting to the right staff member,
please listen to all the options before making a selection:

- To lie about why your child is absent - Press 1

- To make excuses for why your child did not do his work - Press 2

- To complain about what we do - Press 3

- To swear at staff members - Press 4

- To ask why you didn't get information that was already enclosed in your newsletter and several flyers mailed to you - Press 5

- If you want us to raise your child - Press 6

- If you want to reach out and touch, slap or hit someone - Press 7

- To request another teacher, for the third time this year - Press 8

- To complain about bus transportation - Press 9

- To complain about school lunches - Press 0

- If you realize this is the real world and your child must be accountable and responsible for his/her own behavior,
class work, homework and that it's not all the teachers' fault for your child's lack of effort: Hang up and have a nice day!

More quotes! :)

Just a little note first the stuff in italics are my comments, not part of the quote :)

1. The pain you feel today is the strength you feel tomorrow. For every challenge encountered there is opportunity for growth. ~Unknown
-->Think of challenges/difficulties as opportunities and chances! :) 

2. Being happy doesn't mean that everything is perfect, it means that you have decided to look beyond the imperfections. ~Unknown

3. The best revenge is massive success. ~Frank Sinatra
-->Whenever you hate someone to the extent where you feel like you cannot forgive the person(eg Elizabeth Choy and the Japanese soldiers) remember this quote, there is  really no point wasting time in getting angry/plotting revenge on that person, this is definitely the best payback  for both you and your enemy xD 

Positive outlook on life

Not really a story here just something that I learnt today: We should all have a positive outlook on life when faced with adversity. I know I know, sounds easy actually very hard. However, Elizabeth Choy, Prisoners of War during WWII had hard lives, much harder and torturous than anything we will hopefully ever have to go through. What did they do? Instead of giving up on themselves, they maintained a positive outlook of life! For example, the prisoners used sign language(they were not allowed to communicate) to encourage each other. After the war, Elizabeth Choy herself managed to forgive the Japanese soldiers and continued to help and serve others in her life. On the other hand, people who succumbed to depression, gave up on themselves etc mostly didn't survive the war. It's not just about the harsh conditions sometimes, it's more about your attitude towards the problems.

Hope this inspired you today!

<3 owner of this blog

P.S I wrote this myself okay! :D

Encouragement from blogger :)

Hey readers^^ this is a special post going out to people currently facing exams or their exam results :) no matter what will face u ahead, never back down and don't be afraid:) just do your best and God will do the rest <3 JIAYOU TO EVERYONE you can do it! :D

~owner of this blog hehe^^

Note to viewers

All of the stories that are on this website are NOT written by me...I repeat, they are NOT written by me. Many of them are found from the Internet(they should have the author's name mentioned there and those that do not have are mostly from this website: http://www.rogerknapp.com/knap/inspire.htm

Thank you for viewing my blog! Hope you will/have been blessed by the stories :)

Judge by the Looks

A lady in a faded gingham dress and her husband, dressed in a homespun threadbare suit, stepped off the train in Boston, and walked timidly without an appointment into the president's outer office. The secretary could tell in a moment that such backwoods, country hicks had no business at Harvard and probably didn't even deserve to be in Cambridge. She frowned.
"We want to see the president," the man said softly.
"He'll be busy all day," the secretary snapped.
"We'll wait," the lady replied.
For hours, the secretary ignored them, hoping that the couple would finally become discouraged and go away. They didn't. And the secretary grew frustrated and finally decided to disturb the president, even though it was a chore she always regretted to do. "Maybe if they just see you for a few minutes, they'll leave," she told him. And he sighed in exasperation and nodded. Someone of his importance obviously didn't have the time to spend with them, but he detested gingham dresses and homespun suits cluttering up his outer office. The president, stern-faced with dignity, strutted toward the couple.
The lady told him, "We had a son that attended Harvard for one year. He loved Harvard. He was happy here. But about a year ago, he was accidentally killed. And my husband and I would like to erect a memorial to him, somewhere on campus". The president wasn't touched he was shocked.
"Madam," he said gruffly, "we can't put up a statue for every person who attended Harvard and died. If we did, this place would look like a cemetery."
"Oh, no," the lady explained quickly, "we don't want to erect a statue. We thought we would like to give a building to Harvard.
The president rolled his eyes. He glanced at the gingham dress and
homespun suit, then exclaimed, "A building! Do you have any earthly idea how much a building costs? We have over seven and a half million dollars in the physical plant at Harvard." For a moment the lady was silent.
The president was pleased. He could get rid of them now.
The lady turned to her husband and said quietly, "Is that all it costs to start a University? Why don't we just start our own?" Her husband nodded. The president's face wilted in confusion and bewilderment.
Mr. and Mrs. Leland Stanford walked away, traveling to Palo Alto, California where they established the University that bears their name, a memorial to a son that Harvard no longer cared about!