Sharpen your axe

[Hubi]

A young man went to the foreman of a group of lumberjacks and asked if he could work for him.

“That depends,” said the foreman. “Let me see you cut down this tree.” The young man felled the tree very skillfully. The foreman was very impressed and said to the young man, “You can start on Monday.”

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday went by and on Thursday afternoon the foreman came and said to the young man “ You can pick up your pay slip on your way home today” The young man was startled and said “ I thought I get paid on Fridays.”

“Normally yes, but I have to let you go because you can't keep up with the others. My daily reports show that you've been in last place from Monday to today.” “But I'm a hard worker,” the young man replied. “I'm the first man here in the morning, the last man to go home and I even work when I'm supposed to be on a coffee break.”

Feeling his integrity to his job, the foreman thought for a minute and asked the young man: “Tell me, have you sharpened your axe every day?” The young man replied “ No, I was so focused on the job that I totally forgot.”

THE APPLICATION?

It's the same in our daily lives. Sometimes we are so busy that we totally forget to sharpen our axe.

Nowadays we are much busier, but we are not happy. Why is that? Could it be that we forget to stay sharp?

It's not wrong in itself to be busy and work hard. But God doesn't want us to be so busy and neglect our really important things.

So we should take time to pray and read and study the Bible and not close our ears to the voice of God. We all need time to relax, think, reflect and study in order to progress spiritually.

If we don't take the time to sharpen our axe, we will become dull and lose our talents as God's instruments.

 

Author unknown