Photo by Andriyko Podilnyk on Unsplash
Of all days, the day on which one has not laughed is the one most surely wasted. ~Nicholas Chamfort
I used to keep this quote on my desk calendar along with other motivational quotes. It is good to have smiles every day. Good laughs even better. I try to share smiles on Friday on my Facebook page. Sometimes even the corniest jokes or groaners can make a smile sneak out. I’ve been extra busy this weekend after sending out a newsletter on my birthday. I do enjoy answering every e-mail I get and getting to know my reading friends better, but it takes a while to read the messages and respond. I’m working my way through them. I asked readers to share something they would love to do if their birthday wishes could come true. Many of those who responded mention families coming to visit. Others want to take a trip. And some are very happy with the birthday wishes that are coming true each year on their birthdays.
If you responded to my newsletter and haven’t heard back from me, worry not. I’ll get to your message eventually, probably the first of the week. I also offered readers some bookmarks and I’m glad to have so many wishing for those bookmarks or a bookplate for one of my books they have. If that’s you, let me know. I’ve got lots of bookmarks since nearly all my book events were either canceled last year and this year or ended up virtual events. Can’t pass out bookmarks there.
To see if I can gift you with a smile I’m sharing a sweet and funny story that showed up a few years ago in with the bulletin covers I get for our church. The company always sends out a compilation of bulletin aides to help people like me make a church bulletin inspirational and fun. This story was too long for my bulletin, but it made me smile. So here goes.
Br. Jim’s kitten climbed a tree in his backyard and wouldn’t come down. The tree wasn’t sturdy enough for Br. Jim to climb it to rescue the kitten or even to prop a ladder against it to climb up. He didn’t want to bother the fire department. He wasn’t even sure they really came out to rescue kittens and besides, he prided himself on figuring things out himself. The first thing he figured out was that kitten wasn’t coming down on her own.
So he pitched a rope up high in the tree and looped it around the tree. Then he hooked the other end of the rope to his car bumper. He figured he could bend the little tree over until he could reach up and rescue the kitten. Things were going pretty well. He eased the car forward and the tree leaned down. But the kitten, clinging tighter than ever to the branch he was wrapped around, still was a bit too high. So he pulled the car up a bit farther and then disaster struck. The rope broke. The tree went “boing!” and the poor little kitten went sailing through the air out of sight.
Needless to say, Br. Jim felt awful. He searched all through the neighborhood, but nobody had seen a stray kitten. Finally he gave up after praying, “Lord, I just commit the kitten to your keeping,” and went about his business.
A few days later he was in the grocery store and met one of his church members. He was amazed to see cat food in her shopping cart. This woman was very vocal in her dislike of cats, and so he asked her why in the world she was buying cat food since she hated cats so much.
She said, “Br. Jim, you see it’s like this. My little girl has been begging and begging me for a cat and I kept saying no. Finally I told her if the Lord gives you a cat, I’ll let you keep it.” The woman’s face changed, got a look of awe, as she went on. “Well, my little girl went out in the yard, got down on her knees and started praying for the Lord to send her a kitten.” The woman slowly shook her head. “Preacher, you are never going to believe this, but I saw it with my own eyes. A kitten came flying out of the blue sky, with its paws outspread, and landed right in front of my little girl.”
Never under estimate the Power of God as He helps you keep finding reasons to smile. Proverbs says laughter (a merry heart) worketh good like a medicine.
Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed the smile.
Comments 14
What a cute story! Every little girl needs at least one kitten or puppy in her life; as a farm girl, I had plenty of both.
Author
So did I, Jane, along with some pet lambs and chickens. Didn’t ever have a pet pig. I was always afraid of the hogs, so stayed away from them. But I did have my dogs and cats. Loved them.
Thank you for sharing the smile. I needed it. Blessings
Author
We all need smiles, Lucy. Every day. Maybe every hour. Glad the story gave you one.
Cute story, it brought out a smile on my face!
Author
Love smiles, Connie, and then Lavon brought out a bigger smile for me sharing the for sure true story of the little girl she knew who prayed for a dog and then one showed up from who knows where on her birthday. Made me think of Jocie and her dog prayer in Scent of Lilacs.
Ann, that story started my day with a smile and a laugh, I could just picture that kitten flying through the air, and a happy little girl getting it for her very own. Thank you for the smile.
Author
Glad you enjoyed it, Donna Jean. Always good to start a day with a smile. Good thing cats land on their feet. 🙂
I think I remember you sharing this story before. It is cute and did make me smile and laugh as I pictured it all. 🙂 Hope you have a wonderful week!
Author
I did share it at least once before but here it was over ten years ago. Guess I hoped people would have forgotten, Hope. 🙂 But glad it made you smile and laugh again.
Good one, Ann! I love stories like that!
Olivia, one of the children I used to babysit had a similar experience. When she was young she begged for a dog. Her daddy kept saying NO. So she said she’d just pray for one. And lo and behold a stray dog showed up on their farm on her birthday! Needless to say her daddy couldn’t say no to an answered prayer.
Thanks for the laugh this morning. I hope you have a wonderful week.
Author
Love that, Lavon. A true answer to prayer. That sounds a little like Jocie in my Heart of Hollyhill books and her dog prayer. As I read in a devotional piece not long ago, sometimes we don’t have because we don’t ask or pray. I can only imagine how excited Olivia must have surely been when that dog showed up on her birthday.
Thanks – I didn’t realize how much I needed to laugh until I read your post! ;-))) By the way, I hope your birthday was a happy one!
Author
Thank you for your birthday wishes, Patricia. Very appreciated. And I’m so glad you started your week with a good laugh. 🙂