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In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out.
It is then burst into flame by an encounter
with another human being. We should all be thankful
for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.
??” Albert Schweitzer
We don??™t often think about the effect that our words have
upon others. Our words do have power and everything that we
say has a positive or negative impact on the people around
us.
There is an old story that is told about an army* of
frogs that went hopping through the forest one day when two
of the frogs suddenly fell into a deep pit. All of the
other frogs gathered around the hole to look down on their
two fallen comrades. They all began to sadly shake their
heads and to croak out dismal warnings. ???It??™s too deep!???
croaked one frog. Another frog croaked that there was no
way that they would ever be able to get out of that
pit alive.
The two fallen frogs began to continuously jump as they
tried to get out of the pit, but the frogs that were
watching kept croaking louder at them that they might as
well stop because they were as good as dead and just wasting
their time. One of the two frogs finally gave up and
heeded the pessimistic advice of the frogs at the top. He
quit leaping and literally ???croaked??? and died.
The other frog just
kept right on jumping and leaping harder than ever in spite
of all the loud croaks of disapproval from the frogs around
the top of the hole. They kept croaking shouts at him to
quit jumping and save himself from all the pain and
suffering he was incurring as he leaped and fell back down
to the bottom of the pit over and over again.
Finally, he jumped
even harder than ever and to the surprise of all the other
frogs he leaped right out of the deep pit. The other frogs
asked him, ???Why did you keep leaping even though we croaked
and yelled at you to stop???? It was then that the frog
explained to them that he was deaf and he had thought they
were cheering for him and shouting words of encouragement
to him the entire time!
A little encouragement can go a long way and as Babe Ruth
once said, ???It??™s hard to beat a person who never gives up.???
Our words do have the power to hurt or to heal. What kind
of frog are you? Are you a croaker or a leaper?
By
Pamela Perry Blaine
?© August 2005
*Note of interest: A group of frogs is called ???an
army???.
Pamela Blaine
Route
1 Box 75
Baring,
MO. 63531
660-892-4517
Pam lives in
Missouri with her husband, Michael. She enjoys composing
music and writing stories. She writes "Pam's Corner" for
her local newspaper, The Edina Sentinel. Pam and her
husband are active in their church where she plays piano and
he is music leader. They have a CD available called, "I'll
Walk You Home". The title song is about her lifelong
friend who died of cancer. You can hear this song on her
website: http://blaines.us/PamyPlace.htm
Several of her stories have been published on the internet
as well as in books such as The Miracle Of Sons,
2The Heart/People Who Make A Difference, and A
Tribute To Moms. Her goal is to write to encourage
others and to write stories for her children and
grandchildren so that stories and family history will be
preserved.
My
Website:
http://blaines.us/PamyPlace.htm
e-mail:
pamyblaine@blaines.us
"NO ONE IS USELESS IN THIS WORLD
WHO
LIGHTENS THE BURDEN OF ANYONE ELSE
)
??.?·?? ??.?·????) ??.?·*??)
( ??.?·?? (??.?·?? ??.?·??
`?·-?»Pamy
"Security is not the absence of danger,
but the presence of God"
My Website:
http://blaines.us/PamyPlace.htm
e-mail:
pamyblaine@blaines.us
"NO ONE IS USELESS IN THIS WORLD
WHO LIGHTENS THE BURDEN OF ANYONE ELSE"
http://www.greatcom.org/laws/englishkgp/default.htm
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