A bishop, speaking to a...
Illustration
A bishop, speaking to a group of seminary students, offered these lessons.
"T. C. Hamlet once wrote a humorous, but effective and engaging poetic fable about two frogs which hopped into a large can of cream. After paddling around for a while, one frog despaired of escaping and just gave up, quickly sinking to the bottom. The other frog, however, was determined to paddle as long as life remained. He paddled so long and so hard, in fact, that the cream soon turned to butter and eventually the frog was able to hop out of the can to safety!
"A similar story is told of an old mule which fell into a deep well. The mule's owner decided that the animal was probably either dead or badly injured and not worth the effort required to retrieve him; therefore, he told his two sons to just shove dirt into the hole and give the mule a 'good burying.' The boys shoveled dirt down on the mule, who was not only alive, but uninjured and determined not to die. So, as the dirt fell, the mule just shook it off his back and trampled it under his feet. The boys kept shoveling and the mule kept shaking and stomping, until at last he was able to walk out of the filled-in hole.
"You see, my young friends," said the bishop, "the simple point is: have faith and never give up. If you persevere long enough, you will do great things for the kingdom!"
- Byrd
"T. C. Hamlet once wrote a humorous, but effective and engaging poetic fable about two frogs which hopped into a large can of cream. After paddling around for a while, one frog despaired of escaping and just gave up, quickly sinking to the bottom. The other frog, however, was determined to paddle as long as life remained. He paddled so long and so hard, in fact, that the cream soon turned to butter and eventually the frog was able to hop out of the can to safety!
"A similar story is told of an old mule which fell into a deep well. The mule's owner decided that the animal was probably either dead or badly injured and not worth the effort required to retrieve him; therefore, he told his two sons to just shove dirt into the hole and give the mule a 'good burying.' The boys shoveled dirt down on the mule, who was not only alive, but uninjured and determined not to die. So, as the dirt fell, the mule just shook it off his back and trampled it under his feet. The boys kept shoveling and the mule kept shaking and stomping, until at last he was able to walk out of the filled-in hole.
"You see, my young friends," said the bishop, "the simple point is: have faith and never give up. If you persevere long enough, you will do great things for the kingdom!"
- Byrd
