Faith & Life

Challenge

Charles Lindbergh was the first aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. In the last phase of his life, he reminisced about his younger days a lot; he felt like he was losing confidence and going negative as he was getting old. One day, he went to the museum to see his airplane which he rode when he crossed the Atlantic Ocean in his youth. With the museum director’s permission, Lindbergh got on the plane on display and was absorbed in his thoughts for a while. Then he was very surprised, looking at the pilot seat; there was neither an instrument panel nor an altimeter in the plane. Then the museum director said, “You still think it’s surprising, don’t…

Depending on the Mind

An old man was sitting on the hill overlooking the view of a village. A traveler, who was passing by the old man, asked him, “What kind of people are those living in this village?” The old man asked him in return, “What type of people were those living in the villages you passed through?” He answered, “They were dishonest and always angry. They were terrible.” Then the old man said, “You will meet the same kind of people here, too.” After a while, another traveler passed by the old man and asked him, “What kind of people are those living in this village?” The old man asked him in return, “What type of people were those living in the…

Family Changes by Efforts

Whenever I came back home, being exhausted, my wife must have felt sorry for me because she said, “Welcome home! Tired, right?” or “Oh, you’re home. I missed you.” She always welcomed me with a bright look. But I used to say bluntly, “Yes.” That was all. Despite that, she always smiled at me undauntedly, trying to plant a positive mind in me. One evening after two months, when I came in through the front door with a smile, saying, “I’m home.” At this, my wife said that she was very happy and felt rewarded for not giving up on making a happy home. At first, my wife and I had hard times because of different ways of thinking and…

Baek Gwang-wun from Gimpo, Korea

The Place Where I Belong

Dr. Schweitzer was a great humanitarian, who dedicated his life to serving the people of Africa as a medical missionary. This is an episode that occurred when he got on a train for Denmark to receive the Nobel Prize in 1952. A lot of reporters flocked towards the first class section of the train to interview Schweitzer, but they couldn’t find him. So they looked for him in the second class section, but they couldn’t see him there, either. At that time, one of the reporters found him treating some poor rural people at the corner of the third class passenger coach filled with a noisome smell. “Doctor, what are you doing here? Please go to the first class section…

Goal

A man named Anderson became the new president of a railroad company in the United States. When his limousine pulled up, an old railway worker got out of the car. Seeing this, a new employee came up to him and asked. “Why were you in the president’s car?” “Well, the new president turned out to be my friend who dug ditches with me 20 years ago.” “Really? Your friend became the president of the company, so why are you still digging ditches here?” “You know, I’ve just realized the reason. At that time, I worked just to make some money, but Anderson worked in order to fulfill his dream.”

Right Words and Considerate Words

“Honey, isn’t this coffee cup so pretty? I bought a set of cups on sale today.” “How many cups do we already have? I think you’re spending too much.” “We have several cups, but not with this design. Don’t be so stingy with inexpensive things!” “Whether it’s expensive or not, there’s no reason to buy them.” “If others hear you say that, they will think I am a big spender.” “I don’t mean it.” “That’s enough. Stop please!” The wife was making great efforts to save money as much as she could. Usually, she is meticulous in buying things that are even at a discount. So she was happy to buy the coffee cups that she wanted to buy at…

Judgment

There was a six-inch-long ruler. Whatever the ruler met, he first measured its length. “2.6 inches, 4.3 inches, 3.6 inches . . . Oops, you are just an inch long!” One day, the ruler met a scale. Suddenly, the scale approached him and weighed him. “17 grams? Is that all? How ridiculous! Ha, ha, ha!” The ruler was so hurt that he almost burst into tears. Only then did the ruler realize that it was his fault to judge everything only by its length. After that, the ruler regarded things as beautiful, respecting them as they are.

Learning the Hard Work of Farmers and Sharing the Joy of Harvest

#1 Jo Seong-chan from Daejeon, Korea In October, when autumn was in full swing, the young adults in Daejeon made a plan to help some farmers who were having a hard time due to a shortage of labor. Overcoming the temptation to sleep in on the weekend, more than 150 young adults hurried to a sweet potato farm and a ginseng farm in Jinan, North Jeolla Province, as well as a turmeric farm in Gyeryong, South Chungcheong Province. I went to the sweet potato farm to give a helping hand. “Poke the soil with a trident, lift it up a couple of times, and carefully dig up the sweet potatoes with a hoe. Put all the stalks together on one corner of the furrow.…

Daejeon, Korea

“That’s All Right!”

How many times do people suffer a great blow while living their lives? In fact, people are more likely to be worried or concerned about small and trivial matters than big ones. It is the same for the cases of being offended by other people’s behavior. Most cases are just a little displeasing, and there are only a few cases where your whole life gets ruined by someone else. If you make a big deal out of a trivial matter or overreact, it becomes a big problem. Everything depends on your mind. If it is not that big of a deal, why don’t you think, ‘That’s all right,’ and put it aside? Tip Think, ‘That’s all right,’ when you feel…

Traveling Around the World with Dad

A photo of a dad and his daughter posing together with the background of famous tourist destinations such as the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Blue Dragon Ice Cave in Iceland, and the Colosseum in Italy and its story were introduced on the Internet news. The reason these photos caught others’ attention was because the dad in the picture was a life size photo of the dad. The daughter is a second generation Korean-American living in Manhattan, New York. Her dad was a protector of the family, but suddenly he died of a stomach cancer. She was in despair and lost any motivation. Even though she lived in a luxury apartment and had a good job and she was able…

A Heavenly Family Member Whom We Never Gave Up Looking for

Many souls were led to Zion through the preaching festival in Brazil. Among them, I would like to share the stories of some brothers and sisters found in the 2nd São Paulo Church. A few days after the preaching festival started, I heard from a sister that she met Sister Simone, who had stopped coming to church a long time ago. Sister Simone received the truth when she was young, but as she got married, we lost contact with her. At that time, the members made every effort to meet her, but they couldn’t get a hold of her. However, Heavenly Father and Mother never gave up on her. The members ran into her on the street. She gave them…

Lee Kang-mi from São Paulo, Brazil

The Most Beautiful Performance

A talent show was held at the end of the year in a kindergarten in Florida, U.S. The children sat side by side on the stage and showed their parents the songs and dances that they had practiced, but a blonde girl was doing something totally different. She rolled her fingers in a circle and held them around her eyes, or waved her arms while moving her body left and right. From the beginning of the song to the end, she did not stop moving and did not follow how other children did, so the rest of the children looked at her and gave her a puzzled look. The child who diligently did her own movements, looking at one place,…

Being Clothed With Christ

There is an old saying that goes, “Fine clothes make the man.” This is not entirely wrong. There was an interesting experiment demonstrating that what one wears influences his behavior. Adam Galinsky, a social psychologist, divided university students into two groups, and let one group of students wear white lab coats and the other group, street clothes; then he showed a screen which randomly displayed green and red colors with the words “green” and “red” at the bottom. He examined how well they could notice incongruities when the color and the word were incongruent. As a result, the students in the doctor’s coats did twice as well as those who wore street clothes in noticing that the color and the…

A Picture Book for a Friend

Jonah (8), who lives in Los Angeles, is a glycemic patient with a rare liver disease that affects about 500 people around the world. No cure has been developed yet, and because of the severe hypoglycemic symptoms, he should take cornstarch, which slowly supplies blood sugar to the blood, once every three hours. Dylan, who is his best friend, wondered what he could do for his friend. Then, he decided to do the fundraising for the treatment research for his friend’s disease. He made and sold mini picture books. The title of the book is “Chocolate Bar,” which was published after he had persistently asked his parents to publish. A chocolate bar is a slang word that means awesome. For…

You Are More Beautiful Than You Think You Are

A British company launched a unique campaign by using the FBI’s forensic sketch technique to instill pride in women and show their true beauty. The slogan of this campaign is, “You’re more beautiful than you think.” In New York, U.S., an FBI-trained forensic sketch artist interviewed seven women of different ages and races. The artist could not see women’s faces, but could only ask questions about the women’s facial appearances. Women also could not see the artist and could only answer his questions. The next day, third parties came and described the women’s faces to the artist. The results were astonishing. The portraits drawn on the second day, based on the third parties’ description, were all more beautiful than those…

Change

I’ve been attending the Church of God ever since I was in my mother’s womb. This means that I’ve been a member of the Church of God since birth. It was when I was in middle school that I started growing in my faith, not depending leaning on my mother’s faith. As I met many friends in school who had different religions from mine, I started wondering, ‘What truth can lead me to the kingdom of heaven?’ It didn’t take long for my question to be answered. As I studied the Bible diligently in Zion, I was able to understand the truth of the new covenant clearly. However, my life of faith was put on hold when I was in…

Jang Ye-jin from Ansan, Korea

Now!

There is a saying that goes, “Tomorrow is an old deceiver.” This implies that we often put things off until tomorrow and most of the time we just let them fizzle out or give up on them completely. In fact, even when tomorrow comes, nothing changes. Nevertheless, many of us still put off what we have to do immediately until tomorrow. It is proof that we are lacking the will to accomplish it. In the parable of the talents told by Jesus, there was one thing in common among those who were complimented by their master for having gained twice as much as they had received: They went “at once” and put their money to work. They were completely different…

How to Bear Much Good Fruit

The best way to bear the abundant fruits of the gospel is to put God in the center of our hearts. One of the characteristics of those who have put God in the center of their hearts is that they are naturally accustomed to serving others and humbling themselves. It is because God, who has personally shown His children an example of serving, dwells within them. Before the Holy Supper of the Passover, Jesus personally washed His disciples’ feet, so that we would also serve one another with such a humble attitude. The God of heaven, who should have been seated on the highest throne, humbled Himself to the lowest place. As God’s children, if we engrave the will of…

A Surprise Gift

At my workplace, I work for kids, so I’m interested in children. One day, I saw a child who always loosened her hair. I wanted her to look beautiful, so I tied her hair back. After the class was over, her mother came and repeatedly thanked me. I thought it was not a big deal because I used to tie children’s hair back, but seeing her mother take great delight in my help, I felt as if I received a surprise gift. I was reminded of a Bible verse I read before. “I tell you the truth, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward.” Mk…

Sim Hyeon-ji from Guri, Korea

Like the Flower of Dracaena

It was when I went to my friend’s house back in my elementary school days. I was admiring a large variety of well-maintained flowering plants, and my friend pointed to a tall tree and said proudly, “Do you see this flower? It’s a flower of dracaena. It blooms once a decade. It is a very precious flower.” ‘It blooms once a decade?’ I thought if it’s a flowering plant, it should bloom at least once a year to fulfill its duty. So the dracaena was disagreeable to me. Come to think of it now, however, I can imagine how elated the owner must’ve been after taking care of it for a long time. There is a brother who is like…

Shin Gyeong-suk from Guayaquil, Ecuador