I'm Not Learning How To Quit

Somewhere I read the story of a young boy trying to learn to ice-skate.  He had fallen so many times that his face was cut, and the blood and tears ran together.

Someone, out of sympathy, skated over to the boy, picked him up, and said, "Son, why don't you quit?  You are going to kill yourself!"

The boy brushed the tears from his eyes and said, "I didn't buy these skates to learn how to quit; I bought them to learn how to skate."

- submitted by Malcom McPhail, Parables, Etc. (April 1992)

The Need To Ask And The Need For Answers

A father and his small son were walking one afternoon when the youngster asked how the electricity went through the wires stretched between the telephone poles.  "Don't know," said the father.  "Never knew much about electricity."

A few blocks farther on the boy asked what caused lightning and thunder.  "To tell the truth," said the father, "I never exactly understood that myself."

The boy continued to ask questions throughout the walk, none of which the father could explain.  Finally, as they were nearing home, the boy asked, "Pop, I hope you don't mind my asking so many questions..."

"Of course not," replied the father.  "How else are you going to learn?"

- submitted by Jay Martin, The Pastor's Story File (August 1992)