The wise old man

There was once a very wise old man who lived up in a mountain. Everyone in the village below knew he could answer any riddle you asked him. One day two young men decided they would try and trick the old man, so they could tell everyone they had outsmarted him. Their plan was to catch a bird, and as the man if the bird was alive, or dead. If the old man said alive, they would crush it... and kill it. If the old man said it was dead, they would let it go. Either way they'd win.

So, they went to the old man's house. When they asked him if their bird was alive or dead, the man was silent. He thought to himself, "If I say the bird is alive, they will kill it, if I say the bird is dead they will let it go. Either way they will win." He sat a moment longer, and then said, "The bird is, what YOU will it to be."

So often in life I think we all "will" our life to be the wrong thing. We either try to be "perfect" and are terribly shocked when we find out it's impossible, or we make excuses for living the wrong way. We have the ability to choose the right thing to do...so our lives are, "what we will them to be." God cannot make our decisions for us. That's why there's so much evil in the world. He's given us the freedom to make every decision on our own...but, He does use the bad choices people make and turn them into good. We may not be able to see them right away, but He doesn't ever leave things just as "bad." Everything in life, sometime or another, will come back to glorify God. Always remember that. Would you like for your BAD decision to come back later and glorify God, or your GOOD decision to not only glorify God, but bless everyone else around you as well? Nobody can be perfect, but if we'd simply CARE about the things we choose to do, I think it would make a HUGE difference in not only OUR life, but others as well!