there's always a reason

[79coyotefrg]

most of you know  that  for years  i drove  big rigs coast to coast.
       I never thought twice  about helping someone i knew was in need.  Even though  some where always out there  to  smack you in the head and take your stuff,  i seemed to always  get a "feeling"  in those places.  

I did  get  my head cracked in Virginia  one year  but  i should have known better. 

But anyway  this is about  paying it forward  as some people  call it. 

I once  helped another  trucker  put chains on his truck,  he was sick  and running a fever  and we where in Tahoe about to go west into cali
he  couldnt do it  and after i chained up  i quickly  had him on his way.  it wasnt my first trip  thru Donner Pass  but  the first with that much snow.          another 2 miles  and  i lost sight  of anything past the hood of my Kenworth W900L.   
  i was  more or less blind  but could see the glow of another trucks emergency flashers.  when the guy i helped hollered back  "BRAKE CHECK"  i stopped  used my  spotlight  to  shine back  behind me  flashing it  till the other traffic stopped,  then i got out  and after taking about 10 steps   i came to a drop off.   he had went thru a guardrail  and over the  side.  I was following his lights  because i couldnt see anything else.   Had he not  called out for me to stop 



this is why  when i saw this  OLD  email  thats been around for years  i wanted to share

[79coyotefrg]

here is the old email im sure you all have seen,  but i just want everyone to remember the reason  for Christmas.
and  that  I personally feel blessed to be here with all of you as my friends.  You know who you are 




I saw a kid from my class was walking home from school.

His name was Kyle.

It looked like he was carrying all of his books.

I thought to myself, "Why would anyone bring home all his books on a Friday?

He must really be a nerd."

I had quite a weekend planned (parties and a football game with my friends tomorrow afternoon), so I shrugged my shoulders and went on.

As I was walking, I saw a bunch of kids running toward him.

They ran at him, knocking all his books out of his arms and tripping him so he landed in the dirt.

His glasses went flying, and I saw them land in the grass about ten feet from him.

He looked up and I saw this terrible sadness in his eyes


   

My heart went o ut to him. So, I jogged over to him as he c rawled around looking for his glasses, and I saw a tear in his eye.

As I handed him his glasses, I said, "Those guys are jerks. "

They really should get lives.

" He looked at me and said, "Hey thanks!"

There was a big smile on his face.




It was one of those smiles that showed real gratitude.

I helped him pick up his books, and asked him where he lived.

As it turned out, he lived near me, so I asked him why I had never seen him before.

He said he had gone to private school before now.

I would have never hung out with a private school kid before.

We talked all the way home, and I carried some of his books.

He turned out to be a pretty cool kid.

I asked him if he wanted to play a little football with my friends

H e said yes.





We hung out all weekend and the more I got to know Kyle, the more I liked him, and my friends thought the same of him.

Monday morning came! , and there was Kyle with the huge stack of books again.

I stopped him and said, "Boy, you are gonna really build some serious muscles with this pile of books everyday!

" He just laughed and handed me half the books.

Over the next four years, Kyle and I became best friends.

When we were seniors, we began to think about college.

Kyle decided on Georgetown , and I was going to Duke.

I knew that we would always be friends, that the miles would never be a problem.


   wow  this is a LONG story



He was going to be a doctor, and I was going for business on a football scholarship.

Kyle was valedictorian of our class.

I teased him all the time about being a nerd.

He had to prepare a speech for graduation.

I was so glad it wasn't me having to get up there and speak

Graduation day, I saw Kyle.

He looked great.






He was one of those guys that really found himself during high school.

He filled out and actually looked good in glasses.

He had more dates than I had and all the girls loved him.

Boy, sometimes I was jealous!
Today was one of those days.

I cou l d see that he was nervous about his speech.









So, I smacked him on the back and said, "Hey, big guy, you'll be great!"

He looked at me with one of those looks (the really grateful one) and smiled.

" Thanks," he said.

As he started his speech, he cleared his throat, and began








"Graduation is a time to thank those who helped you make it through those tough years.

Your parents, your teachers, your siblings, maybe a coach...but mostly your friends...

I am here to tell all of you that being a friend to someone is the best gift you can give them.

I am going to tell you a story."





I just looked at my friend with disbelief as he told the story of the first day we met.

He had planned to kill himself over the weekend.   








He talked of how he had cleaned out his locker so his Mom wouldn't have to do it later and was carrying his stuff home.

He looked hard at me and gave me a little smile.

"Thankfully, I was saved.

My friend saved me from doing the unspeakable."






I heard the gasp go through the crowd as this handsome, popular boy told us all about his weakest moment.

I saw his Mom and dad looking at me and smiling that same grateful smile.

Not until that moment did I realize it's depth.  







Never underestimate the power of your actions.

With one small gesture you can change a person's life.

For better or for worse.

God puts us all in each other's lives to impact one another in some way.

Look for God in others.

[Lady Di]

 


and FYI 

http://www.snopes.com/glurge/kyle.htm 

[BLACKDOG]

Dang glen, thats crazy!!! 

I too have gotten that email several times, and I've also read the version in Chicken Soup For The Soul  that was mentioned in the snopes.com article.  Regardless of whether this story isa parable or true, I think it is an awesome story, that has a great meaning to it.

 

Thanks glen!

[79coyotefrg]

and FYI 

http://www.snopes.com/glurge/kyle.htm 

   it dont matter if the story is true,  which  im sure  in parts  it is.     i think the people at Snope  must have very sad lives


  but im sure you got my point  of the story

[Lady Di]

   it dont matter if the story is true,  which  im sure  in parts  it is.     i think the people at Snope  must have very sad lives


  but im sure you got my point  of the story

It matters to me if a story is true. I love the people snopes, they are my hero's .

It doesn't matter if it's a tale, a story someone wrote, which is what this was, and it is a great parable, I'm not saying that, but don't come off telling me this is something that truely happened when it didn't.
That just pisses me off.

People take something that comes across there desk and twist it to their own desire to make it sound like it is something that really happened when it was nothing more then a joke or a story. Why?? That just annoys the crap out of me and I will never stop debunking the untruths. Sorry.
I was 'mythbusting' before the mythbusters were out of diapers.


First thing I do when I see something like this is go to snopes, find the truth and repost it as the actual fact of whatever it is. I know   and    but that's me and I'm not going to stop.
Disseminating internet truth for 10 years and counting

[79coyotefrg]

  im gonna  get you to see the GOOD  in stuff if i have to beat it into you   

[79coyotefrg]

another  very nice Christmas story





In September 1960, I woke up one morning with six hungry babies and just  75 cents in my pocket. Their father was gone. The boys ranged from
three  months to seven years; their sister was two. Their Dad had never been  much  more than a presence they feared.

Whenever they heard his tires crunch on the gravel driveway they would  scramble to hide under their beds.

He did manage to l eave $15 a week to buy groceries.

Now that he had decided to leave, there would be no more beatings, but  no  food either.

If there was a welfare system in effect in southern Indiana at that time, I  certainly knew nothing about it. I scrubbed the kids until they
looked  brand  new and then put on my best homemade dress, loaded them into the rusty  old  51 Chevy and drove off to find a job.

The seven of us went to every factory, store and restaurant in our small  town. No luck.

The kids stayed crammed into the car and tried to be quiet while I tried  to  convince whomever would listen that I was willing to learn or
do  anything.  I had to have a job.

Still no luck. The last place we went to, just a few miles out of town,  was  an old Root Beer Barrel drive-in that had been converted to a
truck  stop. It  was called the Big Wheel.

An old lady named Granny owned the place and she peeked out of the  window  from time to time at all those kids. She needed someone on the
graveyard  shift, 11 at night until seven in the morning. She paid 65 cents an hour,  and  I could start that night. I raced home and called the
teenager down the  street that baby-sat for people. I bargained with her to come and sleep on my sofa for a dollar a night. She could arrive with her pajamas on and  the  kids would a lready be asleep. This seemed like a good arrangement to her, so  we made a deal.

That night when the little ones and I knelt to say our prayers, we all  thanked God for finding Mommy a job. And so I started at the Big
Wheel.

When I got home in the mornings I woke the baby-sit ter up and sent her  home  with one dollar of my tip money--fully half of what I averaged
every  night.  As the weeks went by, heating bills added a strain to my meager wage.

The  tires on the old Chevy had the consistency of penny balloons and began  to  leak.  I had to fill them with air on the way to work and again
every morning  before I could go home.

One bleak fall morning, I dragged myself to the car to go home and found four tires in the back seat. New tires! There was no note, no nothing, just  those beautiful brand new tires. Had angels taken up residence in  Indiana ?  I  wondered.< BR>
I made a deal with the local service station. In exchange for his mounting  the new tires, I would clean up his office. I remember it took me
a lot  longer to scrub his floor than it did for him to do the tires.

I was now working six nights instead of five and it still wasn't enough.  Christmas was coming and I knew there would be no money for toys for the kids.

I found a can of red paint and started repairing and painting some old  toys. Then hid them in the basement so there would be something for
Santa to deliver on Christmas morning. Clothes were a worry too. I was sewing  patches  on top of patches on the boys pants and soon they would be too far gone  to repair.

On Christmas Eve the usual customers were drinking coffee in the Big  Wheel.  These were the truckers, Les, Frank, and Jim, and a state trooper named  Joe.

A few musicians were hanging around after a gig at the Legion and were  dropping nickels in the pinball machine. The regulars all just sat  around and talked through th e wee hours of the morning and then left to get  home  before the sun came up.

When it was time for me to go home at seven o'clock on Christmas morning, to my amazement, my old battered Chevy was filled full to the top with  boxes of all shapes and sizes. I quickly opened the driver's side door,  crawled inside and kneeled in the front facing the back seat.

Reaching back, I pulled off the lid of the top box. Inside was whole  case of  little blue jeans, sizes 2-10! I looked inside another box: It was full of shirts to go with the jeans. Then I peeked inside some of the other  boxes.  There was candy and nuts and bananas and bags of groceries.
There was an  enormous ham for baking, and canned vegetables and potatoes.
There was  pudding and Jell-O and cookies, pie filling and flour. There was a whole  bag of laun dry supplies and cleaning items. And there were five toy trucks and one beautiful little doll.

As I drove back through empty streets as the sun slowly rose on the most  amazing Christmas Day of my life, I was sobbing with gratitude. And
I  will  never forget the joy on the faces of my little ones that precious morning.

Yes, there were angels in Indiana that long-ago December. And they all hung out at the Big Wheel truck stop....

THE POWER OF PRAYER. I believe that God only gives three answers
to  prayer:

1. "Yes!"
2. "Not yet."
3. "I have something better in mind."

[Lady Di]

  im gonna  get you to see the GOOD  in stuff if i have to beat it into you   

not a chance. I've been cynical for way to long.

I'll give you this one... I don't know where it came from, but I thought it was cool...someone else probably knows...

when asked why God sometimes doesn't answer prayers, the response was... he always answers prayers but sometimes the answer is 'no'.

[Lady Di]

If a family is praying for their 5 year old son not to die, and he does, you will tell them "God had something better in mind?"
Sometimes the answer is no.

[79coyotefrg]

[Lady Di]

can't argue with that logic, can you?  Sorry. I'm sure many will debate the issue.

[79coyotefrg]

If a family is praying for their 5 year old son not to die, and he does, you will tell them "God had something better in mind?"
Sometimes the answer is no.

very simple,  i would say  "God  needed  him for a much better purpose"

[79coyotefrg]

  my poor little thread,  meant to  inspire  people  for Christmas  has turned into  BAH  HUMBUG 

[Gittinit]

It has inspired me to see how long your post is before i start reading!










nice stories though   just looooooonnnnnggggg.   

[79coyotefrg]

yea  i didnt realise how long they was till i posted them,  reminded me of  some thing BigMike  would post  describing the strength  of a tcase shaft  or something 

[blackwolf00]

Urban Legends some are true and some are lies.. also sometimes i believe God has a higher purpose for us when we die and from what I've found out when our loved ones pass away their souls become a new little person when they are born onto this Earth...And when someone tells you the person you loved like a family member or a friend dies they're in a better place and they're not in pain anymore too....  

also people we have guardian angels watching over us and they're keeping us safe... May God keep us safe and watch over the friends and families who has soldiers over seas fighting to keep our country safe from terrorists...    

[BLACKDOG]

when asked why God sometimes doesn't answer prayers, the response was... he always answers prayers but sometimes the answer is 'no'.

Dunno where it came from, but sounds like a Garth Brooks song : "Unanswered Prayers"  part of the chorus is :  "Sometimes God's greatest gifts, are unanswered prayers" 





Another good story glen.  I'll have to see if I can dig out some of my chicken soup for the soul books.  They've got some good ones.

[abnormaltoy]

  my poor little thread,  meant to  inspire  people  for Christmas  has turned into  BAH  HUMBUG 

Chin up little buckaroo! I don't even celebrate Christmas, but I can appreciate the gesture.

[79coyotefrg]

Chin up little buckaroo! I don't even celebrate Christmas, but I can appreciate the gesture.

[abnormaltoy]

Uh...a hearty hand shake will do.

[MagPede]

Dunno where it came from, but sounds like a Garth Brooks song : "Unanswered Prayers"  part of the chorus is :  "Sometimes God's greatest gifts, are unanswered prayers" 

Yup, Garth Brooks song.   

[Lady Di]

Uh...a hearty hand shake will do.

 

[abnormaltoy]

Yup, Garth Brooks song.   

Actually, I first heard the phrase in a piece entitled "An interview with God".

[JanMarie13]

Glen I think it's a very nice thread. 

I remember one year I was at my local convenience store on my way to work and the girl in front of me in line was obviously a college student on her way home for the holiday break.  She had just gotten gas and was trying to pay with the debit card her parents gave her, but the store didn't accept debit cards yet.  She was all beside herself and didn't know what to do, and the cashier was offering no suggestions.  She obviously didnt' have a cent to her name and was just trying to make it home for Christmas on what money she had left on that debit card (she lived several hours away).  Anyway to make a long story short, I offered to pay for her gas and she was elated.  She insisted on getting my name and address so she could pay me back when she made it home, and she thanked me possibly hundreds of times.  haha.  A few weeks later, I got the sweetest Thank You card from that girl, with a handwritten note from her saying how much she appreciated the help.  And enclosed was a check for double the amount that I had paid for her gas.

[Lady Di]

That's a great story MPA (and I'm sure I don't have to snopes it! )

I have done similar things when people come up short in line. One time this eldery woman was like a dime short for what it was she was purchasing. It was all basic staples, nothing frivilous, she seemed distraught that she couldn't get everything and as she tried to decide what to return and I said 'ah hell, I have a dime!"

The woman was so grateful and that's when the clerk piped up and said "no it's OK, I have it". SHEESH! A dime!

I've always said, what comes around goes around. 

[Lady Di]

An Interview with God.... the quote "God always answers our prayers, but sometimes the answer is no" doesn't seem to be here. or someone editted it out

Beautiful scenery though...

http://www.theinterviewwithgod.com/

[MiniSimp]

God was too busy protecting our guys in Iraq/Afganistan to listen.

[Lady Di]

  I know where I heard it... M*A*S*H. 
The episode where a guy thought he was Jesus. He was answering another patient who wanted to know why God didn't answer prayers.

[abnormaltoy]

An Interview with God.... the quote "God always answers our prayers, but sometimes the answer is no" doesn't seem to be here. or someone editted it out

Beautiful scenery though...

http://www.theinterviewwithgod.com/

Oh well...I've made mistakes before.