A father sat his teenage son down to offer some valuable advice. The father was concerned that the boy didn’t handle criticism very well. “Son,” he lectured, “you’ve got to learn how to take criticism.…
Sermon Illustrations
In a “Charlie Brown” cartoon, little Linus, looking very forlorn, asks Lucy, “Why are you always so anxious to criticize me?” Lucy, looking very self-righteous, replies, “I just think I have a knack for seeing…
A father took his sixteen-year-old son, Jason, to the circus. The man on the flying trapeze swung high above the crowd, hanging precariously by his toes as he zoomed through the air. Jason watched incredulously…
You may be sitting there at this moment thinking all is well with you. But before the day is over, the crisis may come, the rain may fall on your parade. You never know when…
A Louisiana lawyer sought a loan from a government agency on behalf of a client, offering a tract of land as collateral. The agency said it would grant the loan if the lawyer could show…
A man who had been dating a young woman for several months, called on her one evening and presented her with a little box. In the box was a beautiful diamond bracelet with her name…
The Christian Science Monitor once ran a story of a springtime in New York, when the fancy of a certain young woman had lightly turned to thoughts of love. She had been seeing a good…
A woman’s scream suddenly startled a party of surveyors at dinner in a forest in northern Virginia on a calm, sunny day in 1750. The men ran in the direction of the scream. One of…
A man had found a magic lantern and, for years, every time he rubbed it a “Genie” would appear to grant his wish. The man was a real worry-bird and, because of his constant anxious…
I attempt to look at life in all its richness, seeking to be affected at levels deeper than those of thought. I contemplate The birth of a baby — The parent’s sense of joy and…
Every weary traveller has wondered if the worst part of the trip is the ride from the airport. A man had a taxi driver pick him up, and the first red light he came to,…
One method of catching crabs is to use a wire basket with a single hole on top. Bait is secured inside the basket which the crabber then lowers into the water. Slowly at first, a…
A teenage girl left for school wearing one yellow and one orange sock. Her mother, noticing this, headed her daughter off at the front door and asked why she was wearing two different colored socks.…
To confess your sins to God is not to tell him anything he doesn’t already know. Until you confess them, however, they are the abyss between you. When you confess them, they become the bridge.…
An elderly woman with hearing problems had a tendency to shout when she went to confession. When the priest asked her to speak more quietly because everyone in the Church could hear her, she shouted,…
The coach of a Little League baseball team addressed his young players: ”Don’t take it too hard, fellas. Losing is no disgrace. The important thing is that you played hard and you played clean. Sure,…
“For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will be disorder...” (James 3:16). Two businessmen became involved in a highly competitive kind of game. Whatever one did, the other immediately outdid. When one bought…
“It was one of those days,” wrote humorist Erma Bombeck, “when I wanted my own apartment — unlisted!” It was a day in which she simply was not in the mood for small talk. However,…
There is a French play with a passage in it that might go on haunting you all week long if you let yourself think about it. All the good people are at the gates of…
Frederich Engels was a German socialist leader and political philosopher who collaborated with Karl Marx on the Communist Manifesto in 1848. When he was a youngster, his father took him on a tour of the…