I love the old story that is told about an insightful little boy and his father out fishing. It seems that the two were having a conversation; but the son was waxing a bit more philosophical than the father was. As the story goes…
The boy told his father, "Dad, if three frogs were sitting on a limb that hung over a pool, and one frog decided to jump off into the pool, how many frogs would be left on the limb?"
The dad replied, "Two." "No," the son replied. "There’s three frogs and one decides to jump, how many are left?"
The dad said, "Oh, I get it, if one decides to jump, the others would too. So there are none left."
The boy said, "No dad, the answer is three. The frog only DECIDED to jump."
How familiar is that? And convicting?! Does it not sound a lot like the New Year’s Resolutions that many of us made at this time last year? For so many of us, we find ourselves with great inspiration and great resolutions. But far too often, I fear, we only decide; and months later, we find ourselves having done no more, only to be still sitting on the same old limb of “do-nothing”.
As you make your New Year’s Resolutions this year, remember that they will have no efficacy if they are only decisions. Whatever things you decide to do must thereafter be followed by you actually doing them!
SOURCE: Help4Sunday Newsletter, January, 1999.
The boy told his father, "Dad, if three frogs were sitting on a limb that hung over a pool, and one frog decided to jump off into the pool, how many frogs would be left on the limb?"
The dad replied, "Two." "No," the son replied. "There’s three frogs and one decides to jump, how many are left?"
The dad said, "Oh, I get it, if one decides to jump, the others would too. So there are none left."
The boy said, "No dad, the answer is three. The frog only DECIDED to jump."
How familiar is that? And convicting?! Does it not sound a lot like the New Year’s Resolutions that many of us made at this time last year? For so many of us, we find ourselves with great inspiration and great resolutions. But far too often, I fear, we only decide; and months later, we find ourselves having done no more, only to be still sitting on the same old limb of “do-nothing”.
As you make your New Year’s Resolutions this year, remember that they will have no efficacy if they are only decisions. Whatever things you decide to do must thereafter be followed by you actually doing them!
SOURCE: Help4Sunday Newsletter, January, 1999.
