Gold, common sense, and fur

[Guest guest]

Thank you Connie for this great story.. It made me laugh..... It brought a

tear to my eye. But mostly....I identified with it...

Happy Holidays to all of us....everyone>

----- Original Message -----

From: <Basic670@...>

, Common Sense and Fur

> By C. Stafford

> My husband and I had been happily (most of the time) married for five

> years but hadn't been blessed with a baby. I decided to do some

> serious praying and promised God that if he would give us a child, I

> would be a perfect mother, love it with all my heart and raise it with

> his word as my guide.

> God answered my prayers and blessed us with a son. The next year

> God blessed us with another son. The following year, he blessed us

> with yet another son. The year after that we were blessed with a

> daughter.

> My husband thought we'd been blessed right into poverty. We now

> had four

> children, and the oldest was only four years old.

>

> I learned never to ask God for anything unless I meant it. As a

> minister once told me, " If you pray for rain, make sure you carry an

> umbrella. "

> I began reading a few verses of the! Bible to the children each day as

> they lay in their cribs. I was off to a good start. God had

> entrusted me with four children and I didn't want to disappoint him.

>

> I tried to be patient the day the children smashed two dozen eggs on the

> kitchen floor searching for baby chicks. I tried to be

> understanding when they started a hotel for homeless frogs in the spare

> bedroom, although it took me nearly two hours to catch all twenty-three

> frogs.

> When my daughter poured ketchup all over herself and rolled up in a

> blanket to see how it felt to be a hot dog, I tried to see the humor

> rather than the mess.

>

> In spite of changing over twenty-five thousand diapers, never eating a

> hot meal and never sleeping for more than thirty minutes at a time, I

> still thank God daily for my children.

>

> While I couldn't keep my promise to be a perfect mother I didn't

> even come close I did keep my promise to raise them in! the Word

> of God.

> I knew I was missing the mark just a little when I told my daughter we

> were going to church to worship God, and she wanted to bring a bar of

> soap along to " wash up " Jesus, too.

>

> Something was lost in the translation when I explained that God gave us

> everlasting life, and my son thought it was generous of God to give us

> his " last wife. "

>

> My proudest moment came during the children's Christmas pageant.

> My daughter was playing , two of my sons were shepherds and my

> youngest son was a wise man. This was their moment to shine.

>

> My five-year-old shepherd had practiced his line, " We found the babe

> wrapped in swaddling clothes. " But he was nervous and said, " The

> baby was wrapped in wrinkled clothes. "

>

> My four-year-old " " said, " That's not 'wrinkled clothes,'

> silly. That's dirty, rotten clothes. "

>

> A wrestling match broke out between and the shepherd and was

> stopped by an angel, who bent her halo and lost her left wing.

>

> I slouched a little lower in my seat when dropped the doll

> representing Baby Jesus, and it bounced down the aisle crying,

> " Mama-mama. " grabbed the doll, wrapped it back up and held it

> tightly as the wise men arrived.

> My other son stepped forward wearing a bathrobe and a paper crown, knelt

> at the manger and announced, " We are the three wise men, and we are

> bringing gifts of gold, common sense and fur. "

>

> The congregation dissolved into laughter, and the pageant got a standing

> ovation.

>

> " I've never enjoyed a Christmas program as much as this one, " Father

> laughed, wiping tears from his eyes. " For the rest of my

> life, I'll never hear the Christmas story with! out thinking of gold,

> common sense and fur. "

> " My children are my pride and my joy and my greatest blessing, " I said

> as I dug through my purse for an aspirin.

>

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