Mouse Trap Story

Dear Saints,

This arrived in my mailbox and I felt it was worth placing it in here. Sometimes we get so caught up with our own problems, we don't consider what others are going through. Let us consider where that might lead us as we read this story:

MOUSE TRAP STORY


A STORY WITH A MORAL AT THE END



A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package.

What food might this contain? The mouse wondered......he was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap!

Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning: "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"

The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, " Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it."

The mouse turned to the pig and told him, "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!" The pig sympathized, but said, "I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured you are in my prayers."

The mouse turned to the cow and said, "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!" The cow said, "Wow, Mr. Mouse. I'm sorry for you, but it's no skin off my nose."

So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer's mousetrap alone.

That very night a sound was heard throughout the house -- like the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey. The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught.

The snake bit the farmer's wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital and she returned home with a fever.

Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient. But his wife's sickness continued, so friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock.

To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig.

The farmer's wife did not get well; she died.

So many people came for her funeral, the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them. The mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness.

So, the next time you hear someone is facing a problem and think it doesn't concern you, remember, when one of us is threatened, we are all at risk.

We are all involved in this journey called life. We must keep an eye out for one another and make an extra effort to encourage one another.

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Many are going through many trials and tribulations in this hour. We could allow our situations to consume us, not giving throught to what our brothers and sisters in Christ might be going through, or even those who are strangers to us. I truly believe that as we extend our hand out in love to those around us, God sees and honors our humble attempts to help others. While it might not totall keep us out of harms way I believe it keeps us from a much worse fate we would have faced otherwise.

The next time someone shares their concerns to you please take the time to consider their situation and offer words of encouragement and hope. Those very words you speak to them, that time you give selflessly to another, might be the very thing that will spare you in the future.

God bless!