When you're at the circus you'll notice the trainer can control a 10-ton elephant as easily as a 300-pound 'baby' simply by roping and staking the elephant to the ground - something any elephant could pull up if he tried without even breaking a sweat.
Apparently, according to one elephant trainer, 'It's easy when you know two things: That elephants have great memories ... and they really aren't very smart.'
Evidently when circus elephants are babies, the trainers stake them down. After 10,000 attempts to pull the stake up, they finally realize it's impossible and they give up. As they grow older and larger and continue to be staked to the ground, their elephant memories take over and they remember for the rest of their lives that they can't get away from the stake.
In some ways, we're like elephants. As children, we may hear 'You're not very smart,' or, 'You're not very pretty or handsome,' or, 'Why can't you ever behave?' ... 'Why don't you grow up?' ... 'You're just like your father' ... 'You'll never amount to anything' ... and as we grow from child to teen to adult we are still held back by some inaccurate one-sentence 'stake' that was hammered into the ground way back.
But we are capable of far more than we realize. We are able, with God's help, to pull up some of the stakes that continue to limit us and hold us down. In Christ, we are no longer bound to the limiting stakes others have placed in our lives. The stakes are far less powerful and strong than we could ever imagine.
Go ahead - pull just a little harder - it'll come up.
And be blessed.
1 comment:
I haven't heard nearly enough encouragement in my life. However, I know, deep in my heart, that I have something to contribute. My true nature is to be open, and encourage others to do the same, and to encourage others, in many ways. Those are my gifts. I know that in my soul.
My prayer is that I passed that to my kids. My heart, says yes.
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