[ampaterry]

Thank you, permafrost -

Thought for today:

Following Basic Training in TX, I was sent to Denver CO to attend electronics school. I was young, and unprepared for the numerous panhandlers I encountered on the streets of Denver. I will never forget the first one I encountered; it was my first Saturday off base, and this middle aged bearded man accosted me. His story was that he had located a job, but had no means to clean himself up for his interview the following Monday. He said he was five dollars short of the price of a hotel room where he could get presentable, and from then on he would be OK. He even went into detail about the written and telephone interviews he had gone through, how he had answered the various questions, and what the job involved. Oddly, it was in Electronics, the exact field which my ID badge showed I was in. I believed him, and handed him a five dollar bill.
The next Saturday, I was again downtown in Denver, and on the same street corner, I encountered the same man. He immediately came over to me and told me the IDENTICAL same story again, right down to the amount he was short for his room. I pointed out that he had handed me that same line a week previously, and he looked scared and quickly walked away down the street. He, like most of those who hold up those signs claiming they "will work for food", was attempting to present himself as something he was not.
Such tricks may work for a while, but God will judge those that play on the sympathy of others for their own gain in the end.
The Word of God tells us in
Luke 18:10-14 (KJV);
"Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted."
God bless each of you, guys -