Rich Beyond Words

I get off on parables. Modern day people also have a nice selection. Not only the dude in sandals knew how to talk in parables.

Here’s an interesting one by an unknown author:

A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package. What food might this contain?” The mouse wondered - he was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap.

Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning. There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!”

The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, “Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it.”

The mouse turned to the pig and told him, “There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!”

The pig sympathized, but said, “I am so very sorry, Mr.

Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured you are in my prayers.”

The mouse turned to the cow and said “There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!” The cow said, “Wow, Mr. Mouse. I’m sorry for you, but it’s no skin off my nose.”

So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer’s mousetrap alone. That very night a sound was heard throughout the house — like the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey. The farmer’s wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught. The snake bit the farmer’s wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital, and she returned home with a fever.

Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup’s main ingredient.

But his wife’s sickness continued, so friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig.

The farmer’s wife did not get well; she died. So many people came for her funeral; the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them.

The mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness.

The next time you hear someone is facing a problem and think it doesn’t concern you, remember — when one of us is threatened, we are all at risk. We are all involved in this journey called life. We must keep an eye out for one another and make an extra effort to encourage and help one another.

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Never let is be said that faith doesn’t work.

It does if you let it.

Let me tell you about Princess and Charly my pet rabbits.

Princess and Charly came to live with me after living in a small cage and being pretty much ignored by their owners.

The first thing I did was release them into a big pen so that they could hop and do rabbit things.

Then somebody I know told me you can let rabbits hop in the garden, they know where “home” is after they’ve settled in for about 6 weeks.

It was a pleasure to watch these two hippty hop around the garden, grazing grass just like sheep do.

One morning I went into the pen to let them out, like I do every day and Princess came to my feet which was very unusual as normally you couldn’t catch them.

I picked her up and to my horror I discovered that she was being eaten alive by maggots. It was not a pretty site.

What amazed me is thatI hadn’t noticed earlier due to her doing rabbit stuff until she was completely drained of energy.

I took her to the vet where I was told she had little survival chance.

The vet put her to sleep when writing with kind words. In truth I made the decision to take her life.

Princess was not used to freedom and even worse she was not accustomed to eating green food. Her body reacted with diarrea. In warm weather flys come and lay their eggs on the feces which is still sticking to the fur. The eggs hatch and the maggots eat their way into the rabbit.

You can be sure that this is ghastly to see.

Anyway after having put an end to Princess and feeling guilty about my lack of faith I discovered that Charly also had rectal bleeding and was loosing his fur.

Off I ran to the vet again who gave injections and medication.

But it didn’t help, the bleeding got worse.

Feeling desperate I just decided to see Charly getting better.

I thanked God for his healing and firmly stuck to my faith.

Slowly after about a week, the bleeding got less, the fur grew back and Charly got wilder!

Now Charly lives in my garden like a field rabbit and is very healthy.

I didn’t give up, every time I saw him ill, in my minds eye I saw him perfect and at the same time I thanked God for his healing.

Call it what ever you will. I call it God helping when I asked. And then trusting that the healing will happen.

I think Mr. Bean is hilarious.

He makes me laugh and laugh. Laughing is good for you. It just feels so freeing to laugh. It’s true that most people laugh too little.

I know I laugh too little. I take myself far too serious.

How about you?

Watch Mr. Bean do the Mr. Beanbastic to the sound of Mr. Bombastic.

In real life Mr. Bean is played by Rowan Atkins. He plays Mr. Bean with such passion he is Mr. Bean.

I wonder if in private Mr. Atkins is surly and wears a stylish black suit?

Here’s another wonderful parable:

Once upon a time two brothers, who lived on adjoining farms, fell into conflict. It was the first serious rift in 40 years of farming side by side, sharing machinery, and trading labor and goods as needed without a conflict. Then the long collaboration fell apart. It began with a small misunderstanding and it grew into a major difference, and finally it exploded into an exchange of bitter words followed by weeks of silence.

One morning there was a knock on John’s door. He opened it to find a man with a carpenter’s tool box. “I’m looking for a few days’ work” he said. “Perhaps you would have a few small jobs here and there I could help with? Could I help you?” “Yes,” said the older brother. “I do have a job for you.”

“Look across the creek at that farm. That’s my neighbor; in fact, it’s my younger brother. Last week there was a meadow between us and he took his bulldozer to the river levee and now there is a creek between us. Well, he may have done this to spite me, but I’ll do him one better.”

“See that pile of lumber by the barn? I want you to build me a fence –an 8-foot fence — so I won’t need to see his place or his face anymore.”

The carpenter said, “I think I understand the situation.
Show me the nails and the post-hole digger and I’ll be able to do a job that pleases you.”

The older brother had to go to town, so he helped the carpenter get the materials ready and then he was off for the day. The carpenter worked hard all that day measuring, sawing, nailing. About sunset when the farmer returned, the carpenter had just finished his job.

The farmer’s eyes opened wide, his jaw dropped. There was no fence there at all. It was a bridge — a bridge stretching from one side of the creek to the other! A fine piece of work, handrails and all — and the neighbor, his younger brother, was coming toward them, his hand outstretched. “You are quite a fellow to build this bridge after all I’ve said and done.” The two brothers stood at each end of the bridge, and then they met in the middle, taking each other’s hand.

They turned to see the carpenter hoist his toolbox onto his shoulder. “No, wait! Stay a few days. I’ve a lot of other projects for you,” said the older brother. “I’d love to stay on,” the carpenter said, but I have many more bridges to build.

Tip 1

Never treat children as inferiors. I’m often amazed at the attitude of people. Some people think that a child is only a half a person and cannot contribute anything until it has reached adulthood. I have learnt more about myself from my kids than any other person living on this earth. Just think how you feel when your boss, spouse, partner or colleague gives you the impression that they are cleverer, more experienced and better than you. Would you agree that it doesn’t feel like a good place to be in?

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