You and I were talking about this thing of learning
how to live. How to be happy in living. My goodness
of life, I have met grumpy people. People were
complaining. You know what they're going to answer
you even before you ask the question. Why, good
morning. How do you feel? How are you? Oh, nuts.
So well, you'd get the shock of your life if
sometime that same person would say, oh, oh,
I feel so wonderful. It's so good to be alive.
Isn't life wonderful? You just faint if they
ever. said those words to you. But you want to
know something? There's a secret in learning
how to live and how to be happy in living. As
I told you yesterday, one of the unexplainable
but one of the true mysteries of life is the
fact that you never lose anything that you give.
Never. I don't care how much it is. I don't care
what it is. I don't care in what form it is that
you give it. You never lose anything that you
give. It was Jesus himself who said, he that
loseth his life for my sake shall find it. And
no person really begins to live. No person has
ever learned to live. No individual has really
lived happily here on this earth until he begins
to find out the secret of happiness. The secret.
and he finds it when he finds something big enough
to give himself to beside himself. Too many people
give all right, but they give to themselves.
What do I get out of it? Many a person gives.
Oh, I have found people who give all right, but
they give with a selfish motive. Every time they
give, they give with a mental attitude. What
am I going to get out of it? They give expecting
to receive something from it. They give selfishly.
You've learned the secret of giving when you
give not expecting to get anything in return.
then that you have found real happiness in giving
and it's then that you never lose in giving and
it comes back to you a hundredfold. Oh, that's
glorious. And I've learned something else. And
that is the fact that you never get rid of your
own troubles unless you take upon yourself the
troubles of others. I don't care how big your
troubles are. I don't care. I'm talking to you
this very hour, and I may be talking to somebody
whose troubles are so big, you say, Ms. Kuhlman,
you don't know how big my troubles are. Well,
maybe I don't, but I do know one thing, that
the very best way in the world to get rid of
your own troubles is to take on the troubles
of somebody else. And when you take on somebody
else's troubles, your own troubles are going
to just fade into insignificance. And suddenly
at the end of the day, you're going to look around
and say, what became of my troubles? When I got
up this morning, I felt like I had such big troubles.
They were bigger than anybody else in the whole
world. Suddenly, I went over to my next -door
neighbor, and she told me all about her troubles,
and I took her troubles upon myself, and I tried
to help her, and in helping her, here I am the
close of the day, and my word, what happened
to my own troubles? They just evaporated like
that candy cotton used to evaporate at the old
-fashioned county fairs, you know? that old -fashioned
cotton candy just evaporated and you didn't know
where it went. Oh, sure. When you find yourself
oppressed by melancholy, the best way is to go
out and find something kind to do for somebody
else. For when I dig a man out of trouble, the
hole which is left behind is the grave where
i bury my own sorrow then beloved go out each
day and do something that nobody but a christian
would do i heard a gentleman the other day tell
something That impressed me greatly. He was from
the South. He said he was born and grew up in
White County, Georgia. And any of you folk who
are from Georgia, you know where White County
is. The family had very little money then, but
of course they didn't need much. Life was simple,
and they lived a rather secluded life. He said
it was Christmas Eve when he was just seven years
of age, and his father was going to drive into
the little village and told him that he could
go along. And just before they reached the little
town of Cleveland, His father handed him a dime.
Remember, he was only seven years of age. It
was Christmas Eve. It was the first dime he said
his father had ever given him. And his father
told him when he handed him the dime, he said,
Now, you can get anything that you want with
it. Anything that you like, you may buy with
that dime. And of course, that dime looked like
the whole world. It looked like a fortune to
this kid, seven years of age, who had never had
anything in his life. And the first dime his
father had ever given him. Well, he said when
they got to town, he began looking in the stores
for something he could buy. He said he could
have spent a peck. of dimes because it was so
many things he wanted, and it looked so big and
looked so wonderful to him. Well, he saw some
oranges, the first he'd ever seen, and he wondered
how an orange tasted. Then he saw a big red paper
cloth with a part of the Constitution of the
United States printed on it. Oh, he wanted one
of those, the worst. How he wanted that big red
tablecloth with a part of the Constitution of
the United States printed on it. Oh, he wanted
it so badly, but he passed it by. Then there
were toys. He said he'd never forget that red
striped candy. There were a hundred things he
wanted to buy. He went back to the wagon. And
he and his father ate the food that they had
brought from home. They didn't go to a restaurant.
They brought their food from home. Sat in the
wagon, ate it. Then he went back to the store
again, trying to decide what he could buy with
that dime. Well, sir, finally it was time to
go home. He had made a decision. He put the package
in his pocket. Ran to the wagon his father was
waiting. And while they were driving along home,
he pulled the package out of his pocket. It was
a huge red handkerchief. He looked up at his
father, handed that big red handkerchief to him
and said, I bought you a Christmas present. He
said the great big tears filled his father's
eyes and ran down his cheeks and he never spoke
a word. He said I could feel the thrill that
my father felt, but he said my dad's thrill was
nothing to be compared with what I felt. on the
inside of me when I handed him the big red handkerchief
that I had bought with the only dime I had ever
possessed and said, I bought you a Christmas
present. Beloved, this is a great big world and
there's so many ways I could spend My little
life. In fact, there's so many ways I would like
to spend it. It's hard to know just what to do.
I can spend it all just for myself. But I've
learned that the best and biggest way I can invest
this little life of mine is to give it back to
the father who gave it to me and to give it to
you. that I may help to make your burdens a little
lighter. Amen.