Stories Inspiring

As he was drilling a batch of recruits, the sergeant saw that one of them was marching out of step. Walking up next to the man as they marched, he said sarcastically: “Do you know they are all out of step except you?” “What?” asked the recruit innocently. “I said […]

I stumbled out the door of a mountain cabin where I was spending the weekend working with youth and their families at a rustic resort center. I had a 6:30 AM appointment to keep and squinted from the early autumn sun peeking over pine-blanketed mountaintops. I was started by a

The joke is told about three nurses who died and went to Heaven, where they were met at the Pearly Gates by Peter. To the first, he asked, “What did you used to do back on Earth? Why do you think you should be allowed to come into Heaven?” “I

An office reports that they have an answering machine that instructs callers to leave their name and address, and to spell any difficult words. Early one Monday when an assistant was reviewing weekend messages, she heard an enthusiastic woman recite her name and address and then confidently say, “My difficult

Someone has come up with the following list of words which don’t exist, but should: AQUADEXTROUS (ak wa deks’ trus) adj. Possessing the ability to turn the bathtub faucet on and off with your toes. CARPERPETUATION (kar’ pur pet u a shun) n. The act, when vacuuming, of running over

Did you know that Albert Einstein could not speak until he was four years old and did not read until he was seven? His parents and teachers worried about his mental ability. Or that Beethoven’s music teacher said about him, “As a composer he is hopeless”? What if young Ludwig

In the movie “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” Butch and Sundance, running from the law, run up to a cliff hundreds of feet high overlooking a river. They are outnumbered by lawmen who have taken up their positions and there is no way out. They get ready to shoot

Imagine this. A concert violinist is performing a difficult piece in front of a large audience. Suddenly there is a loud snap that reverberates throughout the auditorium. The audience immediately knows that a string has broken and fully expects the concert to be suspended until another string, or instrument, is

“My husband and I were cleaning the church building one evening and our three-year-old son was ‘helping’ us. We walked up to the baptistry to make sure nothing was in the water that shouldn’t be and our son said, ‘You can’t drink that water.’ I asked him, ‘Why can’t we

I read an article about a Texas woman who sued the producers of the now defunct American reality show “Extreme Makeover” for more than one million dollars. The show depicted ordinary men and women undergoing “extreme makeovers” that involved plastic surgery, exercise regimens, hairdressing and wardrobing. Each episode ended with