Lessons from Two Frogs...

  This morning as I sat on the back porch in my quiet time with the Father, I noticed a small tree frog on the side of the pool.  I watched him for a time to see if he would be able to "hop" on out of the pool, but he just sat there.  So in a few minutes I got up and got the pool net to "rescue" him. 

  As I walk toward him, I saw that there were two of them, the other one was sitting on the pool thermometer as I reached that side of the pool.  So, I scooped one up and dropped him into the  flowerbed.  He happily hopped on off, but the other one, well I reached down to get him and he decided to hop off the thermometer and into the water.  It took several tries, but I was finally able to "scoop" him up too.  Success, I thought, but when I released him from the net, he jumped back into the water.  It took several tries to "scoop" him up again, this time I took him out of the fence and away from the pool, so the silly thing would not go back into the pool.

I began to process what had just happened in my mind, and a thought struck me.... how many times does The Father do the same thing with me?  I get myself into a situation, at first I'm okay, I think I can handle it.  Then I realize as nice as the water is, I REALLY don't want to stay there.   I mean, I love to swim, but I wasn't made to do it all the time.  I'm stuck and I need to be rescued, and My Father comes and gets me out of that place, and then silly me, I JUMP back in!!  He comes and gets me again, and sometimes again, until I finally realize that he is trying to "help" me, and hop on off. 

Sometimes the lessons have to be repeated several times before we finally GET IT!  

Later, I thought about the story of the frogs that had somehow gotten into a deep hole and were trying desperately to get out.  As the story goes, there were several frogs around the top of the hole, and only one was trying to help by encouraging them to keep hopping and get out.  The other frogs were saying, "it's no use, the hole is too deep, you will never get out." Then they finally all hop away, except the frog that is trying to help.  He keeps calling and encouraging into the night.  One frog finally just gives up and stops trying to get out.  The other frog tells him, "you have to keep trying", " No, he says, the others are right, it's just to deep, and I am too tired."  And he gives up. But the second frog, with the encouragement of his friend, finally comes to the knowledge that he needs to take one "hop" at a time, and reaches the top and is finally free.

  Encouragers, we all need them, to encourage us to keep trying.... to go on... to get out of the "pit of despair", to take those steps that finally FREE us.

"Shall I come to you with a rod, or with Love in a spirit of gentleness?" (1Cor. 4:21)

"In You our fathers put their trust; they trusted You and You delivered them." (Psalm 22:4)