Cities like Dubuque, Iowa, are banning sledding in their city parks.
Why? Is sledding dangerous?
Recently in the United States, more than 20,000 children were hurt while sledding, according to a report on NPR. But they also report that about 82,000 kids are hurt each year on trampolines, and over 275,000 children have accidents on bicycles.
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In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, let’s get to know King’s most famous speech a little better.
To hear the audio and read the transcript of “I Have a Dream,” click here. To view the speech on YouTube, click here.
This moving speech was originally given August 28, 1963, in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D. C. As Martin Luther King spoke of freedom for all Americans, regardless of their color, the statue of the Great Emancipator Abraham Lincoln was seated behind him. This gave even more meaning to King’s powerful speech.
Jail probably isn’t the optimal location from which to pen a letter. If I were to write one from jail, it would probably say, “Get me out of here!”
However, Apostle Paul writes from jail often and exudes no panic. In Philippians, while chained in a Roman prison, Paul tells the believers in Philippi to rejoice. He doesn’t throw it off as an aside; in fact, he uses the words “joy” or “rejoice” at least twelve times. At one point, he even
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What is your favorite Christmas memory?
Dylan Thomas, a famous poet and author, wrote about his Christmas memories in the memoir essay “A Child’s Christmas in Wales,” in which he remembers friends, toys, hijinks, relatives, and traditions of his childhood. His love of words and of the language makes this memoir a delight to read.
Below is an excerpt from it; you can read the whole memoir here and watch a televised rendition of it on YouTube here. For an extra-special treat, listen to the late Dylan Thomas reading his memoir here in his Welsh accent.
Here’s the excerpt from “A Child’s Christmas in Wales”:
Which part of the Christmas account do you like the best?
Is it the Annunciation where an angel announces to Mary that she will have a child?
Is it the long journey to Bethlehem with no inn available when Mary and Joseph arrive?
Could it be when the angels burst into the night sky and sing to shepherds? Or perhaps when those exotic kings find the real King as a baby and then fool Herod to make their get-away?
Many of our Christmas carols highlight one part of the Christmas story. For instance, “O Little Town of Bethlehem” focuses on the night Jesus was born.
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That first Christmas.
It’s easy to forget all the noise, confusion, exhaustion, rejection, and fear Mary and Joseph experienced. Though our nativity sets look peaceful and serene, I imagine things would have looked very different had we been there to observe those world-changing events.
Whom do you most identify with when you read the Christmas accounts in Matthew 1-2 and Luke 1-2:40? That is, when you read the Bible accounts, which person do you feel closest to? Which one has some similarities to your life? Or think of this: Which person do you wish you could have been?
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You are probably very familiar with the accounts of Jesus’ birth found in Matthew 1-2 and Luke 1-2:40. They are written in the omniscient point of view. That is, the writers tell us everything about everyone.
What if you read the account from the perspective of one of the Magi? Would the story be filled with curiosity and longing? What if the account were written by the wicked King Herod? How angry would he be that he missed his chance to kill the Christ Child?
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Although author Joseph Conrad was born in Poland as Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, he learned to speak and write in English in his twenties.
The fact that he learned how to write in the English language so late in life makes his command of the language, as seen in his stories, impressive.
Joseph Conrad is famous for his novella Heart of Darkness in which the narrator goes on a voyage to the jungles of Africa in the late 1800s in search of a man named Kurtz.
Below is the narrator’s description of a scene he comes upon. You can tell by the words and items he chooses in this description that what he finds next will not be nice:
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Many stores and libraries this time of year have donation boxes to collect gifts for children. Some even have Christmas trees with places to hang mittens, warm hats, socks, and so forth. Those items will be distributed later to children who have no other way to get these needed items.
Christmas is the perfect time to think about giving something to others less fortunate than ourselves.
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How can you tell someone, “Thank you”? What can you do to show your gratitude?
Reader’s Digest asked their Facebook followers to suggest some ways. Here are two of the methods their followers recommended:
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