Mary knew it was time to teach her daughter a lesson. She instructed: "Throw your doll in the air and see what happens." Now this was a special doll. It had positive magnets on its hands and feet. As the girl threw the doll in the air, her mother lifted up a powerful negative magnet. "Why are they together now, Mommy?" asked the little girl. "Just like these magnets, you will be attracted to all the negative things in this world," she answered. "I want you to remember this lesson. Remember that God will always be there you, guiding and protecting you. There is no thing that will ever separate you from His love."
A bar owner brought "Randy," a sheet of shiny steel, in an alley to protect it from the fight causing thousands of dollars in damage inside. It glowed for many months when the sun hit, causing all to see that it was protected. "I am valued," he boasted that which was around him. But the bottles, cans, plastic bags, and other garbage didn't believe him, and kept telling him that he was trash. "You are no better than us," they said. "They threw you out here to decay, to wither away, until you are nothing." One day, in a raging thunderstorm with a torrential downpour, Randy gave up. He accepted the words of the trash around him. All the protective coating he had been given slowly disappeared, and he was left unguarded to face the elements of the world.  Over time, he became riddled with holes, rusted and decayed beyond recognition.
Skylar, 16, was overwhelmed with the scattered papers she had to clean from the sewing machine table before her beau arrived to court her. Her grandmother handed her a piece of paper at the bottom of the stack and told her: "This is the secret to a long marriage." "But it is just a ripped page from your cookbook," Skylar said. Her grandmother bent down and whispered in her right ear: "Look closer." She did exactly that, and found one topic…Preserves. The two walked to the rose garden and the elderly woman got down on all fours and started to dig a hole – shallow, and long. Skylar watched and soon saw jars and jars of peach preserves.
t was the place where immortality was said to be found – and Jennifer Spies could not wait to get there. It was an Asian tea plantation that grew only one herb, jiaogulan ginseng, an adaptogenic that was reportedly able to extend lives and to fight off cancer and other fatal diseases. The plantation also had a retreat, and she availed herself to the courses taught by the master tea growers. Miss Spies was a fast learner, and she caught onto the art of growing the tea rather quickly.
Bo Airavata, 16, had fallen on the historic Wiconisco Bridge. His body seared with pain. He tried to get up. It wasn't going to happen. He had lost the use of his legs. "So much for making curfew," he thought as he heard the 10 o'clock whistle. The bridge was dotted with streetlamps, each one casting an eerie glow on Bo's situation as he tried to slither out of the way of oncoming traffic. But it was useless. No matter what he tried, his body refused to move. A black Sedan then came out of nowhere. The driver seemingly noticed that there was something in the middle of the road. He put the low beams on and aimed them at Bo who felt relief that someone knew of his condition. A split second later he felt terror as the car reared up and drove straightforward.
A seamstress sat at her sewing machine trying to combine linen and polyester – two diametrically opposed fabrics – and out of the corner of her eye, caught her reflection in the mirror. She lifted up the presser foot, took her foot off the pedal, got up and faced the mirror. A hand reached out, and she heard, "Let Me show you your true reflection." Romans 12:21: "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." The Church tries so hard to overcome all the negative forces in this world with what it is seen as good by natural eyes. But the word "good" in the verse above doesn't necessarily mean positive, it means wholeness – that which is without holes – because it originates from God.
An elderly gentleman went forward during a tent meeting with a lisp that he had suffered with since childhood.

He asked the minister, "Can God heal me?" The answer came quickly: "Only if He wants to, my friend."

Way too often we, as Christians, fall in the trap of only going where we believe God has given us permission to go and doing what God has given us permission to do – almost like ballerinas who are stuck on the ground.
A girl, bound and gagged, was thrown into a deep pit. She was about to give up all hope when a rock climber propelled down to her, untied her ropes, and brought her back to the surface. "It's going to be OK," he said, carrying her to the safety of the waiting helicopter. "You're going to be OK. I've got you." Way too often we feel like the girl in this story. The things of this world have a way of oppressing us to such an extent that we only see the darkness (fear, hatred, loss and violence) instead of the light (love, hope and peace) that God offers. But God is like the rock climber – always ready to extend His saving grace toward us. We are more than conquerors, because we have been given everything needed to overcome all attacks of the enemy…