CONSIDER FIRST… A man walks into a pet store and says, ‘‘I want a talking parrot.’’ The clerk says, ‘‘Yes sir, I have several birds that talk. This large green parrot here is quite a talker.’’ He taps on the cage, and the bird says, ‘‘The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.’’ He knows the entire Bible by heart. ‘‘This red one here is young but he’s learning.’’ He prompted, ‘‘Polly want a cracker.’’ And the bird repeated back, ‘‘Polly want a cracker.’’ Then I’ve got a mynah bird but he belonged to a sailor, so if you have children you won’t want that one.’’The man says, ‘‘I’ll take the younger one, if you can teach me how to make him talk.’’ ‘‘Sure I can teach you,’’ said the pet store owner. He sat down with the man and spent hours teaching him how to train the parrot. Then he put the bird in the cage, took his money, and sent the man home to start his training regimen. After a week the man came back into the store very irritated. ‘‘That bird you sold me doesn’t talk.’’. ‘‘He doesn’t? Did you follow my instructions?’’ asked the clerk. ‘‘Yep, to the letter,’’ replied the man. ‘‘Well, maybe that bird is lonely. I tell you what. I’ll sell you this little mirror here and you put it in the cage. That bird will see his reflection and he will start talking right away,’’ responded the clerk. The man did as he was told but three days later was back in the shop. ‘‘I’m thinking of asking for my money back, that bird won’t talk.’’ The shop owner pondered a bit and said, ‘‘I bet that bird is bored. He needs some toys. Here, take this bell—no charge. Put it in the bird’s cage. I bet he’ll start talking once he has something to do.’’ In a week the man was back angrier than ever. He walked in carrying a shoebox, ‘‘That bird you sold me died.’’ He opened the shoebox and there was his poor little dead parrot. ‘‘I want my money back.’’ The shop owner was horrified, ‘‘I’m so sorry, I don’t know what happened. But . . . tell me . . . did the bird ever even try to talk?’’ ‘‘Well,’’ said the man, ‘‘he did say one word, right before he fell off his perch and died.’’ ‘‘What did he say?’’ the clerk inquired. The man replied, ‘‘Fo-o-o-o-od.’’ It’s funny how we are so concerned about what we want people to do for us and how we want them to behave that we don’t care about what they are going through. The man never bothered to feed the parrot but he was bent on getting the parrot to talk( with which energy ke?). we are so quick to judge! We want people to be nice to us, we want people to respect us, we want people to love us, we want people to please us… jeez! It is not always about you! We’re so bent on getting what we want that we neglect what the people around us want too. You are not the only one that has needs, you are not the only one that wants to be loved and pleased. Others have needs too. I always find myself in the trap of thinking someone is not talking to me because he hates me or is angry with me but I tend not to consider that the person may be going through some storms and has his mind so occupied that he’s oblivious of anything else. I realized with time that I am not the only thing on everybody’s mind so I should stop bickering and just give all the love I can without wanting everything in return. Trust me, sometimes, I still find myself doing the same thing to people over again but when I consider how God loved me ahead of me and forgave me ahead of my sins, I have no choice but to exhibit the nature of my Father, Creator, Lover and Friend. When relating with people. “Consider before you comment” Chinenye Unique Ilondu ( The Story was culled from the book “Whoever tells the best story wins” by Annette Simmons)
Posted on: Tue, 24 Sep 2013 16:03:53 +0000
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