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My Little Bit of Heaven
  
Most of you are going through the same or similar trials and tribulations as I am though your stories may be a little different we are all still in the same boat. My prayer is that my little bit of heaven will make your little bit of heaven just a little bit better. May the Lord richly bless you all, cheers.
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How to Forgive: Oct 13, 2008 9:17 pm
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One day a while back, a man, his heart heavy with grief, was walking in the woods. As he thought about his life this day, he knew many things were not right. He thought about those who had lied about him back when he had a job. His thoughts turned to those who had stolen his things and cheated him. He remembered family that had passed on. His mind turned to the illness he had that no one could cure. His very soul was filled with anger, resentment and frustration. Standing there this day, searching for answers he could not find, knowing all else had failed him, he knelt at the base of an old oak tree to seek the one he knew would always be there.
And with tears in his eyes, he prayed, "Lord, You have done wonderful things for me in this life. You have told me to do many things for you, and I happily obeyed. Today, you have told me to forgive. I am sad, Lord, because I cannot. I don't know how. It is not fair Lord. I didn't deserve these wrongs that were done against me and I shouldn't have to forgive. As perfect as your way is Lord, this one thing I cannot do, for I don't know how to forgive. My anger is so deep Lord, I fear I may not hear you, but I pray that you teach me to do this one thing I cannot do - Teach me To Forgive."
As he knelt there in the quiet shade of that old oak tree, he felt something fall onto his shoulder. He opened his eyes. Out of the corner of one eye, he saw something red on his shirt. He could not turn to see what it was because where the oak tree had been was a large square piece of wood in the ground. He raised his head and saw two feet held to the wood with a large spike through them. He raised his head more, and tears came to his eyes as he saw Jesus hanging on a cross. He saw spikes in His hands, a gash in His side, a torn and battered body, deep thorns sunk into His head. Finally he saw the suffering and pain on His precious face.
As their eyes met, the man's tears turned to sobbing, and Jesus began to speak. "Have you ever told a lie?" He asked? The man answered, "yes, "Lord."
"Have you ever been given too much change and kept it?" The man answered, “yes. Lord." And the man sobbed more and more.
"Have you ever taken something from work that wasn't yours?" Jesus asked? And the man answered, "yes, Lord."
"Have you ever sworn, using my Father's name in vain?” The man, crying now, answered, "yes, Lord."
As Jesus asked many more times, "Have you ever"? The man's crying became uncontrollable, for he could only answer, "yes, Lord."
Then Jesus turned His head from one side to the other, and the man felt on his other shoulder. He looked and saw that it was the blood of Jesus. When he looked back up, his eyes met those of Jesus, and there was a look of love the man had never seen or known before. Jesus said, "I didn't deserve this either, but I forgive you."
It may be hard to see how you're going to get through something, but when you look back in life, you realize how true this statement is.

Read the following first line slowly and let it sink in.

If God brings you to it He will bring you through it.
Lord I love You, and I need You, come into my heart, today.
For without You I can do nothing.

“And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him.” - Luke 17:4
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I Have Learned Oct 13, 2008 5:16 pm
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"I've learned that life is like a scooter car; not much happens unless you do some pedaling."

"I've learned that deciding who you marry is the most important decision you'll ever make."

"I've learned that you can tell how good a parent you were by observing your children with their children."
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The Wealth That Endures: Oct 13, 2008 4:02 pm
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You may lay up vast riches of silver and gold,
Of precious jewels and treasures untold.
When you come at last to the end of the road,
Your wealth will be what you've given the Lord.

You may own countless acres--a lordly estate,
You may dwell in a mansion costly and great;
But the mansions in glory will only be given
To those whose treasure is laid up in heaven.

Your name may be written on the scroll of the great,
And your fame may extend to heaven's own gate;
But the plaudits of God are reserved as reward
For those whose riches have honored the Lord.

Matthew 6:20 "But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal."
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Things About to Go Extinct in America Oct 13, 2008 5:53 am
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Pit Toilets:

By the 2000 Census, the number of Americans who lacked indoor plumbing was down to 0.6%. Even though that's still an awful lot of Americans using an outhouse or pit toilet 670,000 households or 1.3 million people it's a huge improvement from 1950 when 27% of households (and over half of rural households) didn't have complete indoor plumbing.

Yellow Pages :

This year will be pivotal for the global Yellow Pages
industry. Much like newspapers, print Yellow Pages will
continue to bleed dollars to their various digital counterparts, from Internet Yellow Pages (IYPs), to local search engines and combination search/listing services like ReachLocal and Yodle. Factors like an acceleration of the print "fade rate" and the looming recession will contribute to the onslaught. One
research firm predicts the falloff in usage of newspapers and print Yellow Pages could even reach 10% this year much higher than the 2%-3% fade rate seen in past years.

Classified Ads

The Internet has made so many things obsolete that newspaper classified ads might sound like just another trivial item on a long list. But this is one of those harbingers of the future that could signal the end of civilization as we know it. The argument is that if newspaper classifieds are replaced by
free online listings at sites like Craigslist.org and Google Base, then newspapers are not far behind them.

Movie Rental Stores

While Netflix is looking up at the moment, Blockbuster keeps closing store locations by the hundreds. It still has about 6,000 left across the world, but those keep dwindling and the stock is down considerably in 2008, especially since the company gave up a quest of Circuit City. Movie Gallery, which owned the Hollywood Video brand, closed up shop earlier this year. Countless small video chains and mom-and-pop stores have given up the ghost already.

Dial-up Internet Access

Dial-up connections have fallen from 40% in 2001 to 10%
in 2008. The combination of an infrastructure to
accommodate affordable high speed Internet connections
and the disappearing home phone have all but pounded
the final nail in the coffin of dial-up Internet access.

Phone Landlines

According to a survey from the National Center for Health
Statistics, at the end of 2007, nearly one in six homes
was cell-only and, of those homes that had landlines,
one in eight only received calls on their cells.

Chesapeake Bay Blue Crabs

Maryland's icon, the blue crab, has been fading away in
Chesapeake Bay. Last year Maryland saw the lowest harvest
(22 million pounds) since 1945. Just four decades ago
the bay produced 96 million pounds.The population is
down 70% since 1990, when they first did a formal count.
There are only about 120 million crabs in the bay and they
think they need 200 million for a sustainable population.
Overfishing, pollution, invasive species and global warming
get the blame.

VCRs

For the better part of three decades, the VCR was a
best-seller and staple in every American household until
being completely decimated by the DVD, and now the Digital
Video Recorder (DVR). In fact, the only remnants of the VHS
age at your local Wal-Mart or Radio Shack are blank VHS tapes
these days. Pre-recorded VHS tapes are largely gone and VHS
decks are practically nowhere to be found. They served us
so well.

Ash Trees

In the late 1990s, a pretty, iridescent green species of
beetle, now known as the emerald ash borer, hitched a
ride to North America with ash wood products imported
from eastern Asia. In less than a decade, its larvae have
killed millions of trees in the midwest, and continue to
spread. They've killed more than 30 million ash trees in
southeastern Michigan alone, with tens of millions more
lost in Ohio and Indiana. More than 7.5 billion ash trees
are currently at risk.

Ham Radio

Amateur radio operators enjoy personal (and often worldwide)
wireless communications with each other and are able to
support their communities with emergency and disaster
communications if necessary, while increasing their personal
knowledge of electronics and radio theory. However,
proliferation of the Internet and its popularity among
youth has caused the decline of amateur radio. In the past
five years alone, the number of people holding active ham
radio licenses has dropped by 50,000, even though Morse
Code is no longer a requirement.

The Swimming Hole

Thanks to our litigious society, swimming holes are
becoming a thing of the past. '20/20' reports that
swimming hole owners, like Robert Every in High
Falls, N.Y., are shutting them down out of worry that
if someone gets hurt they'll sue. And that's exactly
what happened in Seattle. The city of Bellingham was
sued by Katie Hofstetter who was paralyzed in a fall
at a popular swimming hole in Whatcom Falls Park. As
injuries occur and lawsuits follow, expect more
swimming holes to post "Keep out!" signs.

Answering Machines

The increasing disappearance of answering machines is
directly tied to No. 20 our list the decline of
landlines. According to USA Today, the number of homes
that only use cell phones jumped 159% between 2004
and 2007. It has been particularly bad in New York;
since 2000, landline usage has dropped 55%. It's
logical that as cell phones rise, many of them replacing
traditional landlines, that there will be fewer
answering machines.

Cameras That Use Film

It doesn't require a statistician to prove the rapid
disappearance of the film camera in America. Just
look to companies like Nikon, the professional's
choice for quality camera equipment. In 2006, it
announced that it would stop making film camer
as, pointing to the shrinking market only 3% of its
sales in 2005, compared to 75% of sales from digital
cameras and equipment.

Incandescent Bulbs

Before a few years ago, the standard 60-watt (or, yikes, 100-watt) bulb was the mainstay of every U.S. home. With the green movement and all-things, sustainable-energy crowd, the Compact Fluorescent Light bulb (CF is largely replacing the older, Edison-era incandescent bulb. The EPA reports that 2007 sales for Energy Star CFLs nearly doubled from 2006, and these sales accounted for approximately 20 percent of the U.S. light bulb market. And according to USA Today, a new energy bill plans to phase out incandescent bulbs in the next four to 12 years.

Stand-Alone Bowling Alleys

BowlingBalls.US claims there are still 60 million
Americans who bowl at least once a year, but many
are not bowling in stand-alone bowling alleys.
Today most new bowling alleys are part of facilities
for all types or recreation including laser tag,
go-karts, bumper cars, video game arcades, climbing
walls and glow miniature golf. Bowling lanes also
have been added to many non-traditional venues
such as adult communities, hotels and
resorts, and gambling casinos.

The Milkman

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in 1950, over half of the milk delivered was to the home in quart bottles, by 1963, it was about a third and by 2001, it represented only 0.4% percent. Nowadays most milk is sold through supermarkets in gallon jugs. The steady decline in home-delivered milk is blamed, of course, on the rise of the supermarket, better home refrigeration and longer-lasting milk. Although some milkmen still make the rounds in pockets of the U.S., they are
certainly a dying breed.

Hand-Written Letters

In 2006, the Radicati Group estimated that, worldwide, 183 billion e-mails were sent each day. Two million each second. By November of 2007, an estimated 3.3 billion Earthlings owned cell phones, and 80% of the world´s population had access to cell phone coverage. In 2004, half-a-trillion text messages were sent, and the number has no doubt increased exponentially since then. So where amongst this gorge of gabble is there room for the elegant, polite hand-written letter?

Wild Horses

It is estimated that 100 years ago, as many as two
million horses were roaming free within the United
States. In 2001, National Geographic News estimated
that the wild horse population had decreased to
about 50,000 head. Currently, the National Wild
Horse and Burro Advisory board states that there
are 32,000 free roaming horses in ten Western states,
with half of them residing in Nevada. The Bureau of
Land Management is seeking to reduce the total
number of free range horses to 27,000, possibly by
selective euthanasia.

Personal Checks

According to an American Bankers Assoc. report, a
net 23% of consumers plan to decrease their use
of checks over the next two years, while a net 14%
plan to increase their use of PIN debit. Bill
payment remains the last stronghold of paper-based
payments for the time being. Checks continue to
be the most commonly used bill payment method, with
71% of consumers paying at least one recurring bill
per month by writing a check. However, on a
bill-by-bill basis, checks account for only 49% of
consumers' recurring bill payments (down from 72% in
2001 and 60% in 2003).

Drive-in Theaters

During the peak in 1958, there were more than 4,000
drive-in theaters in this country, but in 2007 only
405 drive-ins were still operating. Exactly zero new
drive-ins have been built since 2005. Only one
reopened in 2005 and five reopened in 2006, so there
isn't much of a movement toward reviving the closed
ones.

Mumps & Measles

Despite what's been in the news lately, the measles
and mumps actually, truly are disappearing from the
United States. In 1964, 212,000 cases of mumps were
reported in the U.S. By 1983, this figure had dropped
to 3,000, thanks to a vigorous vaccination program. Prior to the
introduction of the measles vaccine, approximately half
a million cases of measles were reported in the U.S.
annually, resulting in 450 deaths. In 2005, only 66
cases were recorded.

Honey Bees

Perhaps nothing on our list of disappearing America is
so dire; plummeting so enormously; and so necessary to
the survival of our food supply as the honey bee. Very
scary. 'Colony Collapse Disorder,' or CCD, has spread
throughout the U.S. and Europe over the past few years,
wiping out 50% to 90% of the colonies of many beekeepers
and along with it, their livelihood.

News Magazines and TV News

While the TV evening newscasts haven't gone anywhere over
the last several decades, their audiences have. In 1984,
in a story about the diminishing returns of the evening
news, the New York Times reported that all three network
evening-news programs combined had only 40.9 million
viewers. Fast forward to 2008, and what they have today
is half that.

Analog TV

According to the Consumer Electronics Association, 85% of
homes in the U.S. get their television programming through
cable or satellite providers. For the remaining 15% or
13 million individuals -- who are using rabbit ears or a large outdoor antenna to get their local stations, change is in the air. If you are one of these people you'll need to get a new TV or a converter box in order to get the new stations which will only be broadcast in digital.

The Family Farm

Since the 1930s, the number of family farms has been
declining rapidly. According to the USDA, 5.3 million
farms dotted the nation in 1950, but this number had
declined to 2.1 million by the 2003 farm census (data
from the 2007 census hasn't yet been published). Ninety-one
percent of the U.S. farms are small family farms.
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