The family. We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another's desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together. ~Erma Bombeck

"All you need for happiness is a good gun, a good horse, and a good wife." - Daniel Boone

You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them. 
-- Desmond Tutu  

 Gracie by Ben Folds

An argument can win the situation but lose the person. When arguing with loved ones, remember the situation is never more important than the ones you love.....

A MOTHERS LOVE

 A little boy came up to his mother in the kitchen one evening while she was fixing supper, and handed her a piece of paper that he had been writing on. After his Mom dried her hands on an apron, she read it, and this is what it said: For cutting the grass: $5.00 For cleaning up my room this week: $1.00 For going to the store for you: $.50 Baby-sitting my kid brother while you went shopping: $.25 Taking out the garbage: $1.00 For getting a good report card: $5.00 For cleaning up and raking the yard: $2.00 Total owed: $14.75

Well, his mother looked at him standing there, and the boy could see the memories flashing through her mind. She picked up the pen, turned over the paper he'd written on, and this is what she wrote: For the nine months I carried you while you were growing inside me: No Charge For all the nights that I've sat up with you, doctored and prayed for you: No Charge For all the trying times, and all the tears that you've caused through the years: No Charge For all the nights that were filled with dread, and for the worries I knew were ahead: No Charge For the toys, food, clothes, and even wiping your nose: No Charge Son, when you add it up, the cost of my love is: No Charge. When the boy finished reading what his mother had written, there were big tears in his eyes, and he looked straight at his mother and said,

 "Mom, I sure do love you." And then he took the pen and in great big letters he wrote: "PAID IN FULL".

A MOTHER'S LOVE

A long time ago, a young man fell madly in love with a beautiful woman. The woman was jealous of the attention his mother gave him. She told him,  "prove your love for me, or the relationship is over"!. She said "if you really love me, kill your mother, and bring me her heart.

  To prove his love, he went to his mothers house, killed her, and cut out her heart. He was excited to bring the heart to her and he was running very fast. Suddenly, he tripped over a rock, and fell to the ground. While he was laying hurt on the ground, he heard a voice from heaven ask.... "are you OK son?"

I don't care how poor a man is; if he has family, he's rich. Dan Wilcox and Thad Mumford

“Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children.” -Charles R. Swindoll

BE PATIENT

This is a true story which happened in the States.

 A man came out of his home to admire his new truck. To his puzzlement, his three-year-old son was happily hammering dents into the shiny paint. The man ran to his son, knocked him away, hammered the little boy's hands into pulp as punishment.

When the father calmed down, he rushed his son to the hospital. Although the doctor tried desperately to save the crushed bones, he finally had to amputate the fingers from both the boy's hands. When the boy woke up from the surgery & saw his bandaged stubs, he innocently said, " Daddy, I'm sorry about your truck." Then he asked, "but when are my fingers going to grow back?" The father went home & committed suicide.

Think about the story the next time you see someone spill milk at a dinner table or hear a baby crying. Think first before u lose your patience with someone u love. Trucks can be repaired. Broken bones & hurt feelings often can't. Too often we fail to recognise the difference between the person and the performance. People make mistakes. We are allowed to make mistakes. But the actions we take while in a rage will haunt us forever. Pause and ponder.

 Think before you act. Be patient. Understand & love.

My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person, he believed in me. - Jim Valvano

A hundred men may make an encampment, but it takes a woman to make a home. - Chinese proverb

In every dispute between parent and child, both cannot be right, but they may be, and usually are, both wrong. It is this situation which gives family life its peculiar hysterical charm. -- Isaac Rosenfeld

A man punished his 3-year-old daughter for wasting a roll of gold wrapping paper. Money was tight and he became infuriated when the child tried to decorate a box to put under the Christmas tree. Nevertheless, the little girl brought the gift to her father the next morning and said, "This is for you, Daddy." The man was embarrassed by his earlier overreaction, but his anger flared again when he found out the box was empty. He yelled at her, stating, "Don't you know, when you give someone a present, there is supposed to be something inside?

 The little girl looked up at him with tears in her eyes and cried, "Oh, Daddy, it's not empty at all. I blew kisses into the box. They're all for you, Daddy." The father was crushed. He put his arms around his little girl, and he begged for her forgiveness. Only a short time later, an accident took the life of the child. It is also told that her father kept that gold box by his bed for many years and, whenever he was discouraged, he would take out an imaginary kiss and remember the love of the child who had put it there.

"The best inheritance a parent can give to his children is a few minutes of their time each day." - M. Grundler

   Many years ago, when I worked as a volunteer at a hospital, I got to know a little girl named Liz who was suffering from a rare and serious disease. Her only chance of recovery appeared to be a blood transfusion from her 5-year old brother, who had miraculously survived the same disease and had developed the antibodies needed to combat the illness. The doctor explained the situation to her little brother and asked the little boy if he would be willing to give his blood to his sister. I saw him hesitate for only a moment before taking a deep breath and saying, "Yes, I'll do it if it will save her."

 As the transfusion progressed, he lay in bed next to his sister and smiled, as we all did, seeing the color returning to her cheek. Then his face grew pale and his smile faded. He looked up at the doctor and asked with a trembling voice, "Will I start to die right away?" Being young, the little boy had misunderstood the doctor; he thought he was going to have to give his sister all of his blood in order to save her. And he was willing to do that for her.

Family faces are magic mirrors looking at people who belong to us, we see the past, present, and future.
-- Gail Lumet Buckley

  "On a gloomy, rainy morning, it came little eight-year-old Tommy's turn to say the blessing at breakfast. "We thank Thee for this beautiful day," he prayed. His mother asked him why he said that when the day was anything but beautiful. "Mother," said he, with rare wisdom, "never judge a day by its weather. "

The most important thing that parents can teach their children is how to get along without them. -- Frank A. Clark

“A father is someone who carries pictures in his wallet where his money used to be”