The Lesson of Growing Good Corn

Photo Credit: snowsoulmate via Flickr

There was a Nebraska farmer who grew award-winning corn. Each year he entered his corn in the state fair where it won a blue ribbon...

One year a newspaper reporter interviewed him and learned something interesting about how he grew it. The reporter discovered that the farmer shared his seed corn with his neighbors. 

"How can you afford to share your best seed corn with your neighbors when they are entering corn in competition with yours each year?" the reporter asked.

"Why sir," said the farmer, "didn't you know? The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my neighbors grow inferior corn, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn. If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbors grow good corn."

He is very much aware of the connectedness of life. His corn cannot improve unless his neighbor's corn also improves.

So it is in our world. Those who choose to be at peace must help their neighbors to be at peace. Those who choose to live well must help others to live well, for the value of a life is measured by the lives it touches. And those who choose to be happy must help others to find happiness for the welfare of each is bound up with the welfare of all. 

The lesson for each of us is this: if we are to grow good corn, we must help our neighbors grow good corn.

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Source:Indianchild.com

Today's post comes from coach Muller, a friend who has a blog called Good Time Stories. For great stories, be sure to check out his blog.

Friendship and Lifting the Spirits of Those Around You

Being able to work together with others in a pleasant, courteous, and agreeable way is a very important trait in today's highly technical and specialized world. Things seem to run smoother when those you work with are in good moods. What are some ideas that can lift the spirit of those we are around on a daily basis like our co-workers, family members, and neighbors?

Like anything in life, it may take some research, practice, and hard work. One idea is to be on top of current events, news, and other readings that are uplifting. Another idea is to collect amazing facts of the world or nature; asking God to reveal these in order to share with others. Here are a few examples:  collect facts like how amazing the universe is like below:

• Did you know that the sun travels 150 miles per second as it rotates around the galaxy yet it takes it millions of years to go all the way around?
• Did you know that there are over 100 billion galaxies with each galaxy having billions of stars?

Regard each other as a national treasure because we are all brothers and sisters that should live in harmony with one another, building each other up, and loving our neighbors as ourselves. We should dream big because we live in a big universe and God can handle big dreams.

The objective is to stimulate conversations that are uplifting; being a friend that is concerned about their co-worker, family member or neighbor. Click on the video link below:

http://www.truefriendsthemovie.com/

Think about your day and how busy it is. There is so much time spent handling pressing problems or meeting some deadline when we should be focusing more on activities like preparation, planning, and relationship building. See each day as a gift of God with a limited amount of time. Be careful to live wisely and most of all realize that it is relationships that last forever and bring true happiness.