Croakers or Leapers?

Saying for the day: Every thought is a seed. If you plant crab apples, don't count on harvesting Golden Delicious. ~Bill Meyer

The following entitled “ Are You a Croaker or a Leaper” By Pamela Perry Blaine was sent to me by my good friend Ralph and I thought I would share it with you.

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 others around us.
There is an old story that is told about an army* of frogs that went leaping 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 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 jumping 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 that were watching 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 leaped even harder than ever and to the surprise of all the other frogs he jumped right out of the deep pit. The other frogs asked him, "Why did you keep leaping even though we yelled and croaked 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 yelling 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 words do you speak?
Do they encourage croaking or leaping?

News from Pigeon Falls-The little town in my basement where the trains still run, dragons fly, and life is back to normal. Pastor Joan started her sermon today with this story:
There was a man with two loves. His greater love was for diamonds . He loved they way they looked. He loved the way they felt. He loved the big ones best of all. Because of his love he became a diamond merchant. Always he was looking for that perfect stone.
His other love was auctions. He loved to go to auctions. He loved the excitement. He loved the noise. Once in a great while there was even a diamond or two to bid on. Sometimes he found something else he liked and he bid just for the thrill of it.
One day he was at the auction of a rich man who had died. His wife was auctioning off everything. Our Diamond Dealer had his eye on a antique , beautiful, desk. So before the auction he went and examined it. He looked for flaws or imperfections. But there were none. In his examination he hit a secret button of some kind and a hidden drawer opened. In it was this diamond.
( Here Pastor Joan held up a fake diamond the size of a ping pong ball that she bought at Holly Hobby.)
Well one look at that and our dealer knew he had to have it. He pushed the drawer back in and waited. When the desk came up for bids he bid $1000 for it. That was a reasonable bid for that desk and he might have gotten it for that. But there were two others that wanted it. The bidding began to escalate. Soon it was at $10, 000. Then it was at $20,000. Still the bidding went on. It reached $100,000. This was way too much to pay for the desk but in the heat of an auction. In the desire to win people do strange things. Finally our dealer bid $200,321 everything he had in the bank. There was a silence and then no more bids. He won.
He gave up his life savings. He gave up everything he had. But he had the diamond. He had the diamond.
Jesus says the Kingdom of Heaven is like that. When you get a glimpse of it. When you know it’s there. Then you have to be part of it. You will be willing to give up everything to walk in it. To be touched by it. To know the God who is the very center of it.
Have you seen the Kingdom. Do you know the Kingdom’s God?
Faith is the button that opens the drawer and lets you see.
For it is by grace through faith that we come to enter the Kingdom.
******
The verified fact from yesterday is
12. Yard , Texas was so named because of a customer’s request for a yard of cloth in a local store.
Today's Link-Call me Grandma Dawn
Sunday was a great and glorious day. It was Pastor Steve's second Sunday and he was awesome . God has certainly been good to St. Mark's.The call committee must have spent a lot of time in prayer. To be honest I am rather finicky about preachers. I have met too many who think and act as if the congregation should worship them . But just a few moments with Pastor Steve and you can see he was called by God.
I rode my scooter in the Block A Thon today. That was fun.
After church I worked on the website for St. Mark's. Then I helped Betty who is trying to arrange a sale for some old Barbie dolls. Couldn't play canasta because the table is filled with old dolls and old doll clothes. Visited a few blogs and started reading the book " Mr. Monk goes to Germany." Now I need a breathing treatment.
GBYA