Power on Encouragement

Another good one from the mails…

A group of frogs were traveling through the woods, and two of them fell into a deep pit. When the other frogs saw how deep the pit was, they yelled to the two frogs that they were as good as dead. The two frogs ignored the comments and tried to jump up out of the pit with all their might. The other frogs kept telling to them to stop, that there was no hope.

Finally, one of the frogs took heed to what the other frogs were saying and gave up. He fell down and died.

The other frog continued jumping as hard as he could. Once again, the crowd of frogs yelled at him to stop his jumping and just die. He jumped even harder and finally made it out. When he got out, (after taking a needed rest) the other frogs’ clammered, "Didn’t you hear us?" The frog explained to them that he was deaf. He thought they were encouraging him the entire time.

From this we learn two lessons:

A. There is power of life and death in the tongue. An encouraging word to someone who is down can lift them up and help them make it through the day.

B. A destructive word to someone who is down can be what it takes to kill them.

Words have the power of life and death. Be careful of what you say. Speak words of encouragement to those who cross your path. It is often difficult 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 the time to encourage another.

Let us be that special person.