Reb Rev's Blog

“Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, Sweetness to the soul and health to the bones. – Proverbs 16:23

I read a story recently about a bunch of tiny frogs. It seems they decided to arrange a climbing competition. Their goal was to reach the top of a very high tower. As the event began, a large crowd was gathered to see the race and cheer on the contestants.

When the race got underway, few in the crowd believed that any of these tiny frogs would reach the top. Comments were heard such as: “Oh, it is way too difficult!” “They will never make it to the top!” or: “Not a chance they will succeed. The tower is simply too high!”

The little frogs began collapsing one by one…. except for those, who in a fresh tempo, were climbing higher and higher. The crowd continued to yell, “It’s too difficult! No one will make it!”

Now, more frogs got tired and gave up…but one continued higher and higher and higher. This one tiny frog refused to give up!

At the end everyone else had given up climbing the tower, except for the one tiny frog who, after a big effort, was the only one to reach the top. Then all of the other frogs naturally wanted to know how this one frog managed to do it? One of them asked the winning frog how he had found the strength to succeed and reach the goal?

It was only then the losers learned the secret, for the questioner had to shout to get his answer. The winner was deaf and couldn’t hear all the discouraging remarks!

You know, in a very real sense, we sometimes find ourselves in that story. At times we are the observers watching someone else strive to go further, do better, accomplish more. But, how often have you caught yourself thinking – and then saying – he’ll never make it. She won’t be able to do that.

Think now of the times when you were the one striving for that goal. Hopefully, there was someone there who encouraged you, prodded you along with “pleasant words.” Sadly, too often that isn’t the case.

You have the opportunity every day to be an encourager to someone, maybe your child, a co-worker, a friend or a neighbor. Think of someone you can do that for today.

In your own life, don’t listen to those naysayers and pessimists. When you know you are doing the right thing, think: God and I can do this!

There is an old saying which says, “Don’t tell God how big your problems are. Instead, tell your problems how big your God is!” That’s true for you and it is true for those around you.

Is there someone in your life who has been an encouragement? Do you recall a time when you were tempted to give up and an encouraging word kept you going?

This entry was posted on February 5, 2010 at 5:14 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.