Heart Touchers

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*No Room For Crooks* 3/4/02

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From now on we will be offering our book,
Straight From the Heart "A Celebration of Life" for
only $13 (instead of the regular price of $14.95), and
best of all, we will pay the shipping! So if you have
any interest in purchasing an autographed copy of
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To order your autographed copy send a check or
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Michael T. Powers
1918 Liberty Lane
Janesville, WI 53545

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Straight From the Heart: A Celebration of Life

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Special happy birthdays to Kristin DeLong (March 1) and
Jillian Lucas, who celebrates her birthday today!
We love ya both!
Michael
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No Room for Crooks

By Rubel Shelly

Stan Edmunds inspects houses for a living. He is the fellow whose official scrutiny of foundation, roof, and all things in between is customary to most sales agreements. His job is to find hidden problems in houses that are being sold.

On January 29, 2002, Edmunds was inspecting a property in Hinsdale, New Hampshire. The potential buyer and real estate agent Lewis Major were there, and things were going rather routinely. In order to get to the attic, he had to go through a closet. It was there that something caught his eye. It was a wooden shelf support, but it somehow looked curious to Edmunds' trained eye.

"I tugged on it," said Edmunds, "and it came out. It was a drawer." Inside it were just some old papers -- and four bank deposit bags.

Edmunds unzipped a bag and found several $100 bills. He opened a second bag, and there were still more $100 bills. He didn't bother unzipping the third or fourth. He called out to the property agent. "He had us come in and get it. He didn't want anything to do with it," said Major. "He could just as well have put it in his pocket." Major in turn got in touch with the attorney of record for the estate of the previous owner. The grand total in the drawer was right at $20,000.

Heirs to the estate have since divided the bonanza turned up by the honest inspector. One of them sent Edmunds a whopping $50 reward -- which he immediately said would go to a charity. When asked if it crossed his mind to take the money, he said he never even thought about it. "That's the nature of my business," he said. "You're in people's houses. There's no room for crooks there."

Come to think of it, just where is there room for crooks? Only in jails, one could hope! But occasional events like the Enron debacle expose dishonest souls as corporate executives, accountants, and stock analysts. I have no doubt that what has begun unfolding from Houston will produce helpful integrity initiatives.

As someone who teaches ethics and who occasionally assists in corporate training in ethics, I have an opinion about company codes of ethics and similar integrity strategies. They are maps for sailing, at best. The final disposition will always be in the hands of the sailors on deck. There is no ethics manual that will ever be worth a Stan Edmunds. People with good character make the difference.

Your task this week is not so much to find those people for your company or committee, family or church. It is to be such a person every day.

Rubel Shelly
whcoc@edge.net

Write Rubel and let him know what you thought of his story!

(c) 2002 Rubel Shelly. Used by permission.

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Rubel Shelly has preached for the Woodmont Hills Church of
Christ in Nashville since 1978. During that time, he has also
taught at David Lipscomb University and Vanderbilt University
School of Medicine. He is the author of more than 20 books,
including several which have been translated into languages
such as Korean, Japanese, Portuguese, Italian, French, and
Russian. He is married to the former Myra Shappley, and
they are the parents of three children: Mrs. David (Michelle)
Arms, Tim, and Tom.

Visit: http://www.faithmatters.com to read more of Rubel's
writing or to sign up for his weekly column: FAX of Life.

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Reader Feedback!

Came upon your site one evening recently... got totally absorbed reading story after story...Each portraying life openly and honestly..to touch others lives...A treasure of a web site...
Diana Serrao, Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean
dserrao@tstt.net.tt

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Thought For The Day:

"Only your real friends will tell you when your face is dirty."

Verse for the Day:

"Timely advice is as lovely as golden apples in a silver basket."
-- Proverbs 25:11 TLB

Kid's Thought For The Day:

"A six year old can start a fire with a flint rock even though a 36
year old man says they can only do it in the movies."

Parent's Thought For The Day:

"We have been so anxious to give our children what we didn't have that
we have neglected to give them what we did have."

Coach's Thought For The Day:

"I don't believe for a second weightlifting is a sport. They
pick up a heavy thing and put it down again. To me, that's
indecision." --Paula Poundstone

Writer's Thought for the Day:

"Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the
public and have no self." --Cyril Connolly

Deep Thought For The Day:

"If there was any justice in this world, oil company executive bathrooms
would smell like the ones in their gas stations." -- Johnny Carson

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_
/_/\/\    MICHAEL T. POWERS
\_\ /    HeartTouchers@aol.com
/_/ \    "For I have been crucified with Christ and I no
\_\/\ \   longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I
\_\/   live in the body I live for the Son of God, who
   loved me and gave Himself for me."
   Galatians 2:20
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Video Imagery --Michael's Video Production Business

"I thought of you first after my family sat down to watch
the video we gave them. They loved it, to say the
least! Within thirty seconds my mom was crying
and my dad did too. They said it was the best
Christmas gift we could have given them!! You
did such a beautiful job! They were so surprised
and so touched--they really, really, really loved it.
Thanks for helping to make it so special to us all.
My mom mentioned how the songs were perfect
for the video too! Thanks again!"
Kelli-- College Station, TX

Let me make you a video from your pictures or
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