An Old Danish proverb says: “It’s no disgrace to be poor, but it can be inconvenient.” I’m sure many could testify to the validity of this proverb. It’s never convenient to sit in a house where the electricity has been cut off for lack of payment. Things become so inconvenient. While the top dogs enjoy all the convenience made possible by a good income, the underdogs suffer the inconvenience of poverty. Incidentally, some of us may be in darkness before we know it. Electric bills don’t just go up once a year. Thanks to the mismanagement of TVA, they are increased quarterly.

Here is a proverb on wisdom: “He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it…” (Ecclesiastes 10:8). Digging a pit is hard, but falling into it and getting out is even more difficult. The wrong act leads to trouble. One may dig a pit to ensnare another, but he may very well fall into it himself.

During the Civil Rights years, a first-grade white girl met a black girl on school’s first day. Because of segregation, the white girl had not associated with black people. But things changed, and integration made both little girls afraid. When the white girl returned home after that historic day, she told her mother that she sat next to a black girl in school. Her mother was tensed, anticipating the worst. She asked her little girl what happened. The child said, “We were both so scared that we held hands all day.” The problems of our day would move toward resolution if we could learn from these little girls and hold hands rather than making fists.

Why is it that we throw rocks at each other? A few centuries before Christ, a Greek philosopher named Dion used an insightful image to teach a great truth. Here is the image as quoted by Dion in Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, 14^th edition, page 104: “Though boys throw stones at frogs in sport, the frogs do not die in sport, but in earnest.”

Here is the scene, visualize it. Boys are playing on the bank of a pond when suddenly they spot some frogs on a cluster of lily pads. They immediately fill their hands with rocks, taking aim at the frogs. Some dive for safety. Others are hit and die a painful death.

“I have a mountain of credit card debt,” one man told another.

“I have lost my job. My car is being repossessed and our house is in foreclosure, but I am not worried about it,” exclaimed his friend. “I’ve hired a professional worrier. He does all my worrying for me, and that way I don’t have to think about it.”

“That’s fantastic! How much does your professional worrier charge for his services?

“$50,000 a year,” he replied.

“$50,000 a year! Where are you going to get that kind of money?”

“I don’t know,” came the reply. “That’s his worry.”

(Contributed by Mike Benson; found online.)

Most of us can’t say, “I don’t worry,” for we do. But according to Jesus, worry is senseless: “ Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?” –Mathew 6:2