Encouraging One Another

Encouraging One Another

The frogs

Let me tell you a story about several frogs who were lopping along the road through the woods. Suddenly, two of them fell into a deep, deep hole. All the frogs gathered around the hole and looked somberly into it. They began to speak up - one by one - and told the two frogs in the hole that they were as good as dead. "You are going to die, they yelled - you are as good as dead now! Give up, you are going to die."

These frogs looking down over the hole kept mumbling amongst themselves, stating how sorry they felt for these two frogs in this deep, deep hole. The frogs below, however, ignored their comments and desperately tried to jump up out of the pit. The frogs up above kept telling them to give up - they were as good as dead. Finally, one of the frogs, exhausted from jumping and jumping, took heed to what the other frogs were saying and gave up. He laid down and died. His so-called friends up above said among each other, "See, I told you, I knew it. I knew he would die."

The other frog below, however, continued to jump as hard as he could. Harder and harder he jumped. Once again the crowd of frogs yelled at him to stop the pain and just die. The frog, however, continued to jump even harder. Then..... lo and behold, on one of his leaps he bounced himself right out of that hole.

How did he do it, you ask? You see - this frog was DEAF - unable to hear his so-called friends' yelling at him. He could see them, but he could not hear them. He SAW them yelling at him, except he thought they were encouraging him the entire time.

The moral of the story is:  An encouraging word to someone who is down can lift them up to make it through the day. A destructive word, on the other hand to that same person can be the very thing that brings them over the edge and destroys them.

We need to be careful what we say. Speak life to those who cross your path.  Think before you speak - ribbit, ribbit

Prov 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.