Sermon Tone Analysis

| Taylor Ostergaard and Linsey Zellitti wanted to bless their neighbors.

On July 31, 2004, the two teenage girls decided to bake cookies for their neighbors rather than attend a school dance.After baking the cookies, the girls set out late that evening.

They left the fresh-baked goods only at houses with the lights on.

It was 10:30 p.m. when they pounded on the door of one home.

The 49-year-old woman inside didn’t answer the door, but she did experience an anxiety attack over the late-night visit.

After a trip to the emergency room the next day, the woman decided to sue the girls.

And she won.The judge awarded the plaintiff $900 to cover the emergency room visit.

The woman said she wanted the girls to learn a lesson, because they should not have been out late at night running from door to door.

“Something bad could have happened to them,” she said.After the story was published in the Denver Post, hundreds of readers were outraged that the girls were sued for dropping off a plate of cookies and a paper heart for their neighbors.

Thousands of dollars poured in to help the girls pay their fine.

Their story was reported on national news programs, and the girls appeared on the Saturday edition of Good Morning America.

As a result of the publicity, a fund has been set up for the girls' college expenses.

Interested donors have the option to contribute to the “Never Forgotten” Scholarship Fund for Columbine High School students.The girls were rewarded many times over for their act of kindness.

The saying “No good deed goes unpunished” is not ultimately true.

Even if our attempts to bless others are rejected and unrewarded in this life, God will one day bless us./Mike

Lundberg, Montrose, Colorado; source: Electa Draper, Denver Post (2-4-05 and 2-6-05)/ |

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Journalist James Glassman declares that "a culture of complaint" has infected American society.

The grievances of Americans are many, but include a protest against the prevalence of outsourcing, as U.S. companies move jobs to countries like China and India.

Some Americans file complaints against food companies, seeking to hold a corporation responsible for making them fat.

Others seek litigation against banks for lending them money even though they were a credit risk.

There are complaints about overcrowding in schools, low paying jobs, and cheap foreign labor.

The truth is that some of these complaints are unfounded or else ignore offsetting blessings.

Compare the American way of life with the low quality of life people in other countries experience.

Glassman writes, "Is it fair for Americans, with our rich infrastructure, our clean water, our incredible financial markets, to compete against poor Indians, who have to climb over sleeping beggars on their way to work?

Who should be complaining here?"

According to Glassman, there are many reasons not to complain:

·                     In 1955 the ratio of students to teachers was 30 to 1. Today it is 19 to 1.

·                     Adjusted for inflation, compensation has tripled since 1947, and the cost of necessities has plummeted.

·                     Food in 1950 represented about one third of a family's total expenditures; today, it's one seventh.

·                     The U.S. Gross Domestic Product is more than the total of the next five countries.

·                     The current U.S. unemployment rate of 5.7% is lower than the average rate over the last 30 years and lower than most countries, including industrialized countries.

·                     Americans work fewer hours, and have more cars, cultural institutions, and children in college than ever before.

The U.S. may jeopardize her prosperity if too many citizens demand and expect an easy road through life and complain about the smallest obstacles and setbacks.

I don't think I'll ever forget an incident a few years ago while I was helping a friend plant a tree at the local park.

She had planted 23 trees in all, most of them without any help.

The trees were donated in remembrance of loved ones by family members.

While we were working, a woman approached us.

I recognized her and assumed she was there to say thank you.

"Remember the tree you planted for me the other day?" she asked.

My friend nodded.

"You planted it too close to the road.

It needs to be moved."

Then she turned and left.

I don't think this woman was intentionally rude.

She was probably distracted, or maybe she'd had a bad day, but the fact remains that out of the 23 trees my friend planted, only two people remembered to say, "Thank you."

/Teresa Bell Kindred, Kentucky Living (October 2000); /

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| Our biggest problem in the church today is this vast majority of Sunday morning Christians who claim to have known the Master's cure and who return not [at other times] to thank Him by presence, prayer, testimony and support of His church.

In fact, the whole Christian life is one big "Thank You," the living expression of our gratitude to God for His goodness.

But we take Him for granted and what we take for granted we never take seriously.

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A man writing at the post office desk was approached by an older fellow who had a post card in his hand.

The old man said, "Sir, could you please address this post card for me?"

The man gladly did so, and he agreed to write a short message on the post card, and he even signed it for the man, too.

Finally the man doing the writing said to the older man, "Now, is there anything else I can do for you?"

The old fellow thought about it for a minute, and he said, "Yes, at the end could you just put, 'P.S. Please excuse the sloppy handwriting.'"

It is probable that in most of us the spiritual life is impoverished and stunted because we give so little place to gratitude.

It is more important to thank God for blessings received than to pray for them beforehand.

For that forward-looking prayer, though right as an expression of dependence upon God, is still self-centered in part, at least, of its interest; there is something we hope to gain by our prayer.

But the backward-looking act of thanksgiving is quite free from this.

In itself it is quite selfless.

9~/10 Americans have some religious affiliation

8~/10 Americans say they are Christians

7~/10 Americans say they pray regularly

6~/10 Teenagers who claim to be Christians will not continue their religious practices into their 20s

5~/10 Americans attend church at least one time per month

4~/10 Americans have read at least a portion of the Bible

3~/10 Americans have read “The DaVinci Code”

2~/10 Americans who say they are Christians tithe regularly

1~/10 Healed lepers demonstrated gratitude

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*Lifetime Contract* \\ \\ After one particularly good season, famed St. Louis Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog was called into the office of Augie Busch, the team's 95-year-old owner.

"You had such a great year," Busch enthused, "I want to give you a lifetime contract!"

"That's great," Herzog tentatively replied, "but are you talking about my lifetime, or yours?"

*Exceptional Soldiers?*

\\ \\ William Pitt was once visited in London by several volunteers offering their services as militiamen.

While they agreed to organize and equip themselves, their offer was circumscribed with so many qualifications as to be of little use.

Pitt read through their proposal, whose umpteenth clause stipulated that they never be required to leave the kingdom - whereupon he took up his pen and added in the margin: "except in the case of actual invasion."

\\ \\ *Demi** Moore Moore Moore* \\ \\ In 1992, Sony graciously sent a plane to fly Demi Moore to New York (from Idaho) to attend the premiere of A Few Good Men.

Moore promptly demanded that the studio send a second plane.

The problem?

The first one, she explained, was too small to carry all of her luggage without stacking bags on top of one another.

\\ \\ *Boomer Esiason: Good Samaritan* \\ \\ While driving home after a disappointing 28-24 loss to the Miami Dolphins one day in 1995, New York Jets quarterback Boomer Esiason had to stop his car because of an accident in front of him.

He got out of his car and asked a woman in the car in front of him if she was all right.

Her car window was broken, and she was in tears.

"She looked at me," Esiason recalled, "and said, 'Boomer?'

I said, 'Yes.'

She said, 'You guys really (stink), how'd you lose that game today?'" \\ \\ [Trivia: "In 1981, Peter Stankiewicz stopped his car and dove into the Potomac River to rescue a driver whose lumber truck had crashed through a bridge railing and plunged 60 feet into the icy water.

After hauling the driver to shore, Stankiewicz was informed that his car had been towed to the pound because it was blocking traffic."]

\\ \\ \\ John D. Rockefeller once discovered that, for his birthday, his family planned to surprise him with an electric car.

This new toy, it was thought, would facilitate his travels around his enormous estate.

"If it's all the same to you," Rockefeller baldly declared, "I'd rather have the money."

\\ \\ \\ *Rockefeller*, John Davison, Sr. (1839-1937) American oil magnate, financier and philanthropist; Standard Oil Company founder; father of John D. Rockefeller, Jr \\ \\ [Sources: R. Shenkman, One-Night Stands with American History] \\ \\ *Meryl Streep: Oscar Blooper* \\ \\ In 1979, Meryl Streep won an Academy Award for her brilliant portrayal of Joanna Kramer in Kramer vs. Kramer.

During the post-awards festivities, she visited the ladies' room - and forgot her Oscar on the back of a toilet.

\\ \\ [In 1953, Audrey Hepburn also forgot an Oscar (for /Roman Holiday/) in the ladies' room.]

*Terrible Fate* \\ \\ In 1555, Ivan the Terrible ordered the construction of St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow.

So thrilled was Ivan with the work of the project's architects, Postnik and Barma, that - in order to ensure that neither would ever build anything more beautiful - he had them both blinded.

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When answering questions for their Internet profiles, contestants on the TV show /American Idol/ were not shy when it comes to their faith.

When asked what they do before performing, 14 of the 24 finalists referred to prayer.

Kinnik Sky replied, "Prayer before anything," and Brenna Gethers said, "I pray before I sing, every time."

When asked about her personal goals in life, Heather Cox replied, "To continue to succeed in everything that the Lord has in store for me."