The Story of the Wood Cutter

31 August 2016


Once upon a time, a very strong woodcutter asked for a job in a timber merchant and he got it. 

The pay was really good and so was the working conditions. For those reasons, the woodcutter was determined to do his best. His boss gave him an axe and showed him the area where he is supposed to work. The first day, the woodcutter brought in18 trees.

“Congratulations,” the boss said. “Go on that way!

Very motivated by the boss words, the woodcutter tried harder the next day, but he could only bring 15 trees.

The third day he tried even harder, but he could only bring 10 trees.

Day after day he was bringing less and lesser trees.

“I must be losing my strength”, the woodcutter thought.

He went to the boss and apologized, saying that he could not understand what was going on.

“When was the last time you sharpened your axe?” the boss asked.

“Sharpen? I had no time to sharpen my axe. I have been very busy trying to cut trees…”


Reflection:

Our lives are like that. We sometimes get so busy that we don’t take the time to sharpen the “axe”.

In today’s world, it seems that everyone is busier than ever but less happy than ever.

Why is that?

Could it be that we have forgotten how to stay “sharp”?

There’s nothing wrong with activity and hard work but we should not get so busy that we neglect the truly important things in life, like :

our personal lives, 

taking the time to get close to our God the Creator.

giving more time to our family,

taking the time to read the Bible, spiritual material etc.

We all need time

to relax,
to think and meditate on God's word,
to learn and grow spiritually. 


If we don’t take the time to sharpen the “axe”, we will become dull and lose our effectiveness.
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*After reading this I thought I would share it. These are not my words. Author is unknown. I came across this on my friends personal FB timeline.

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