PREPARATION

School just beginning. One morning went out to start car to go to church. Flat tire. Lucky I had a spare. Changed tire quickly and on way. Didn't think to drop spare off to be fixed. "I'll get around to it." Within five days went out to car to go to school. Another flat. Only this time no spare! Had to roll it to nearest station and wait while it was fixed. When something breaks, fix it now. Don't wait until you need it and then don't have it! 

Source Unknown.

Several centuries ago, a Japanese emperor commissioned an artist to paint a bird. A number of months passed, then several years, and still no painting was brought to the palace. Finally the emperor became so exasperated that he went to the artist's home to demand an explanation. Instead of making excuses, the artist placed a blank canvas on the easel. In less than an hour, he completed a painting that was to become a brilliant masterpiece. When the emperor asked the reason for the delay, the artist showed him armloads of drawings of feathers, wings, heads, and feet. Then he explained that all of this research and study had been necessary before he could complete the painting. 

Our Daily Bread.

We are told that when John Huss was arrested and informed that he would be burned to death for his faith, he purposely practiced holding his hand over fire to prepare for his final test. He burned himself in preparation. He wanted to be faithful to the end. 

Moody Monthly, April, 1990, p. 76.

Nat Wyeth, engineer and inventor, on his brother, artist Andrew Wyeth: Andy did a picture of Lafayette's quarters near Chadds Ford, Pa., with a sycamore tree behind the building. When I first saw the painting, he wasn't finished with it. He showed me a lot of drawings of the trunk and the sycamore's gnarled roots, and I said, "Where's all that in the picture?" "It's not in the picture, Nat," he said. "For me to get what I want in the part of the tree that's showing, I've got to know thoroughly how it is anchored in back of the house." I find that remarkable. He could draw the tree above the house with such authenticity because he knew exactly how the thing was in the ground. 

Kenneth A. Brown, Inventors at Work.