Spiritual Thoughts for August 23
The School in the Forest
Once there was a man who wanted to help the animals in the forest. He wanted to make things better for them so he decided to start a school in the forest. In his school he had a squirrel, a fish, and a bird. To make their lives better he decided to help each of them become better at what they did not do well. Since the squirrel could climb, but could not swim, he decided to teach the squirrel to swim. The fish could swim, but could not fly so he worked at teaching the fish to fly. The bird could fly, but could not swim so the fish was enrolled in a swimming course.
Over the next year, the squirrel practiced swimming, the fish worked at flying, and the bird tried hard to swim. At the end of the year, the teacher had a squirrel that was a bad swimmer, a fish that could not fly, and a bird that nearly drowned daily.
There is a moral to this story. If you are a squirrel, climb. If you are a fish, swim. If you are a bird, fly. Do not try to be something you are not. God gave each of us special talents. Each of us should work to discover our own special talent. When we do, then our lives and the Kingdom will be blessed.
Paul wrote, “If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.” (1 Cor. 12:17-19)
You have the special abilities that God wanted you to have. If he had wanted you to be taller, he would have made you taller. If He had wanted you to be prettier, he would have made you prettier. If He wanted you to be a better singer, he would have given you a better voice. Success is not about what you have, but about what you do with what you have.
~Lonnie Davis
Heartword – Proverbs 23:6-7
“Do not eat the food of a begrudging host, do not crave his delicacies; for he is the kind of person who is always thinking about the cost. ‘Eat and drink,’ he says to you, but his heart is not with you.”
Note: We would do well to remember that generosity is not always generosity, but the great lesson we should see in this verse is that we need to share with a willing heart.