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From an Unknown Poet (Lifted from The Daily Encounter – courtesy of Dick Innes)

One song can spark a moment,
One flower can wake the dream.
One tree can start a forest,
One bird can herald spring.
One smile begins a friendship,
One handclasp lifts a soul.
One star can guide a ship at sea,
One word can frame the goal.
One vote can change a nation,
One sunbeam lights a room.
One candle wipes out darkness,
One laugh will conquer gloom.
One step must start each journey,
One word must start each prayer.
One hope will raise our spirits,
One touch can show you care.
One voice can speak with wisdom,
One heart can know what’s true.
One life can make the difference,
You see it’s up to YOU!

When You Are Old

When you are old and gray and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face among a crowd of stars.

Author: William Butler Yeats

A Poem shared by Dick Innes of ACTS INTERNATIONAL Feb 1, 2010

For every hill I had to climb,
For every stone that bruised my feet,
For all the blood and sweat and grime,
For blinding storms and burning heat,
My heart sings but a grateful song–
Those were the things that made me strong.
For all the heartaches and the tears,
For all the anguish and the pain,
For gloomy days and fruitless years
And for the hopes that lived in vain;
I do give thanks, for now I know,
These were the things that helped me grow.
‘Tis not the softer things of life
Which stimulate our will to strive,
But bleak adversity and strife
Do most to keep our will alive.
Over rose-strewn paths the weaklings creep,
But brave hearts dare to climb the steep.

Today’s Daily Encounter
Courtesy of Mr. Dick Innes of ACTS INTERNATIONAL

TURNING STRESS INTO SUCCESS – PART I

A “friend” invoices you for considerably more than his
original quote. A family member takes seriously ill and
is in the hospital for months. Responsibilities and
expenses soar. The result? Stress!

I know because these things all happened to me in the
course of a single year. Stress is a normal part of
contemporary living. Ignore it and it will take years
off your life. As Francis Ford Coppola said in The
Godfather movie, “When the mind is stressed, the body
cries out.” However, if we deal with our stress
creatively, we can turn our stress into success. How
can we do this?

First. Realize that some stress is helpful. It
provides motivation. For instance, if it weren’t for
the stress of needing to eat and having to pay our
bills, we may not want to go to work.

Second. Be aware that stress is only troublesome when
it continues for too long or if there is too much of
it.

I read about a ten-ton bridge that had been serving a
community very well for over fifty years. During the
course of those years it had carried millions of tons
of weight. But one day the driver of a logging truck
ignored the ten-ton load limit sign. The bridge
collapsed. Life’s like that. All of us can carry our
“load limit” day after day, year after year, but only
one load at a time. Overload us and we collapse too.

Many readers will be familiar with the research Thomas
Holmes has done on stress. He found that too much
change at one time was the greatest cause of stress.
An accumulation of 300 or more “life changing units”
in any one year may mean an overload of more stress
than an individual can carry. On his scale, death of a
spouse equals 100 units, divorce 73, marital separation
65, marriage 50, and so on. (See the link to a
“Personal Stress Test” at end.)

Third. The next step in turning stress into success is
to recognize symptoms as early as possible.

Writing in Eternity magazine some time ago Fred
Stansberry talks about “stress-related diseases such
as cancer, arthritis, heart and respiratory diseases,
migraines, allergies and a host of other psychological
and physiological dysfunctions which are increasing at
an alarming rate in our Western culture.”

Other symptoms of stress have been listed as, “tense
muscles, sore neck, shoulders and back, insomnia,
fatigue, boredom, depression, listlessness, dullness,
lack of interest, drinking too much, eating too much
or too little, diarrhea, cramps, flatulence,
constipation, palpitations–heart skip, phobias,
twitches, restlessness and itching.”

Fourth. Identify causes. As already mentioned change
is one of the chief causes of stress. An accumulation
of life’s everyday annoyances can also build up a
significant stress level–perhaps even more than one
single traumatic event. As the old saying puts it:
“It’s the little things that bother us / and put us on
the rack / you can sit upon a mountain / but you can’t
sit on a tack.”

Whatever the cause of your stress is, be sure to
identify it so you will be in a position to do
something about it.

(To be continued)

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please give me the wisdom
to know what I can do about my stressful situations,
and the good sense to do it. And help me to trust my
life to you in every situation in which I find myself.
Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer.
Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

NOTE: See “A Personal Stress Test” at:

http://www.actsweb.org/stress_test.php.

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Daily Encounter is published at no charge by
ACTS International, a non-profit organization,
and made possible through the donations of
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When copying or forwarding include the following:
“Daily Encounter by Richard (Dick) Innes (c) 2010
ACTS International.