TO PARAPHRASE - A MOST PERSONAL USEFUL TOOL
Often the words I use to paraphrase are but shadows of the originally stated idea but by putting it in my own words that idea takes on a personal meaning. The following is a good example to share: "When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it, but all that had gone before." Jacob Riis
MY PARAPHRASE:
When none of my prayers or meditations seems to help, I remember the stonecutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Perhaps a hundred times I pray and meditate seeking a demonstration or some sign that my Higher Power is doing for me what I cannot, but I experience nothing but silence. Perhaps, at the hundred and first prayer or meditation I realize a demonstration of His Will for me. For this moment it is my proof that I have an Invisible means of Support. I am now supplied with all I need to carry out His Will, for me. Now I know, I realize it was not that last prayer or meditation that did it, but all that had gone before.
QUESTION
Would you be willing to take one of the great ideas you have heard or read and paraphrase it?