Saturday, June 21, 2008

The Lesson Of The Frogs

A group of frogs were travelling through the woods, and two of them fell into a deep pit. All the other frogs gathered around the pit. When they saw how deep the pit was, they told the unfortunate frogs they would never get out. The two frogs ignored the comments and tried to jump out of the pit. The other frogs kept telling them to stop, that they were as good as dead. Finally, one of the frogs took heed to what the other frogs were saying and simply gave up. He fell down and died. The othe frog continued to jump as hard as he could. One again, the crowd of frogs yelled at him to stop the pain and suffering and just die. He jumped even harder and finally made it out. When he got out, the frogs asked him, 'Why did you continue jumping? Didn't you hear us?' The frog explained to them that he was deaf. He thought they were encouraging him the entire time.



This story has two lessons:
1) There is life and death in the power of the tongue (Proverbs 18:21). An encouraging word to someone who is down can lift them up and help them make it through the day.



2) A destructive word to someone who is down can be what it takes to kill them. Be careful what you say. Speak life to those who cross your path.

The power of words...it is sometimes hard to understand that an encouraging word can go such a long way. Anyone can speak words that tend to rob another of the spirit to continue in difficult times. Special is the individual who will take time to encourage another.



- author unknown



~Disclaimer~

I take no credit for this article as I did not write it. But I am certainly motivated to put this up by Mel, who lives in flooded Iowa. You should see what she wrote yesterday (Friday). (Ed. Note: Mel, I'm not a sir, my name is Monty. How do you do!)

11 comments:

Odat said...

Amen!

Peace

Mel said...

Oh, what a wonderful story.....



How do you do, Monty.

It's a pleasure and a privilege to have crossed paths with you.

:-)

Glamourpuss said...

Funny, I've been thinking about this very issue this weekend. Thank you for the story.

Puss

Open Grove Claudia said...

Boy, I can't agree with you more. Words... There's a Rihanna song called "Dem Haters" (http://youtube.com/watch?v=E0SmbXLPX9s ) that comes to mind when I hear people telling me that I will never make it - give up - I'm lazy or lucky or stupid or....

I work really hard to support people because one word can push someone off a path for life. (I had a writing teacher tell me that I "would never be able to write an English paper" so I quit writing. Period. I studied biochemistry instead.)

You are on your way - you have to just step through it!

Echomouse said...

Great story and so very true. Thanks for this Monty. :)

I'm heading over to read Mel...

Mel said...

Study hard--take breaks as needed.....
And make bubbles once in a while--they're good for the soul!
:-)

Happy Monday, Monty--best wishes for a good week!

M@ said...

That's some good folks wisdom.

WanderingGirl said...

I like it. I really, really like it.

PhoenixHearse said...

Wow, that was just what I needed today.

heartinsanfrancisco said...

This is great! And whether or not you wrote it, you shared it so thank you.

I will try to be more conscious of speaking life to those who cross my path every day.

Unknown said...

I miss Monty :-(