Making Life Count

    How can I live my life so that I will please God? Sometimes we may feel like a speck in the universe, and we wonder how we can do anything for God that will make a difference. Just look up.

   Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest (John 4:35).

   One man named John Chapman made a difference for the pioneers in early America. Known as Johnny Appleseed, he planted apple saplings in nurseries along the frontier trails so farmers could find them and start their own apple orchards. He also passed out Bibles and toys for children. He taught farmers about horticulture and soil management.  Apples were an important food source for animals as well as people. Johnny Appleseed made a difference.

   I read about a man walking along the ocean where hundreds of starfish had been washed upon the beach.  When the tide went out, they were helplessly stranded on shore. One young man started to pick them up and throw them back into the sea. A friend ridiculed him and said, “There are hundreds of starfish on the shore. You can’t save them all. What difference can it make?”

   The young man looked down at the starfish in his hand and said as he threw it back into the water, “It makes a difference for this one.”

   Maybe we can’t help everyone, but it will make a difference to the ones that we can help along the way.

God Bless

Christine