A frog?

 

How could I ever be compared to a frog?

 

Frogs (like humans) live all over the world and are found on every continent except Antarctica and inhabit almost every environment. Frogs (like humans) need to be around areas with a water source and eat nearly anything that will fit into their mouths. Frogs (like humans) are social creatures that live in groups.

 

Clearly there are more than one or two differences, but there are some frog-like tendencies that we can often develop that should be avoided. Some of tendencies that come to mind that we must pay attention to will reduce foolishness and may spare our lives in the bargain.

 

Some of us live in geographical places and cultures where food choices are narrower, but for more affluent cultures worldwide transportation development gives us an array that boggle the mind. In such places as this, you can enjoy fruits, vegetables, and all manner of meat or fish produced, caught, or harvested from the local farmers’ market or a ranch, field, orchard, or sea on the other side of the world. How easy to forget such a blessing when a local grocery store offers us aisle upon aisle of options.

 

All these options mean we too can eat nearly anything that fits in our mouths and we often do that to our own detriment. If we fail to consider the nutrients in too great an abundance or those lacking, our health will suffer over time.

 

Our available resources from books to videos to movies to television to our electronic screens in nearly any and all forms create a veritable smorgasbord for us to take into our thoughts, hearts, and spirits as well. If we have access to all of these things, we can become desensitized to what they may be doing to shape how we think, behave, and respond. They also can influence what we believe about our culture, our government, our faith, and ourselves. They do not always conform to a standard we say we subscribe to nor do they present truth or reality.

 

Paul writes an important reminder to us all in 2 Timothy 2:15 (KJV):

 

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

 

 Yes, I know this translation might bog us down in the word choices, but the first word makes it a very useful translation: study.

 

It can be easy for any of us to become lazy and take what other people write or say without considering the “nutrients” it contains or doesn’t contain and how it will affect our well being. We have parents, teachers, and pastors whom we entrust with leading and guiding us and that is as it should be, but it never excludes any one of us from the personal responsibility of studying to know the truth.

 

I once heard a pastor say, “Don’t just take what you hear me say. Go home and see if what I say lines up with what the Bible says and means.”  Amen!

 

We (and frogs) need a water source around us. Our bodies are made up of 60% water. All cells, organs, and tissues of the body use water to help regulate temperature and maintain other bodily functions. One of those crucial ones is to help detoxify the body of things that can harm us.

 

All of us know to some degree that not all water sources are safe, healthy or beneficial for us to consume or jump into.

 

Frogs are not quite so discriminating if we consider this old story about a frog that was looking for water after he apparently got too far away from his best and healthiest source of water.

 

In his effort to find water the frog discovered there was a large pot of water in the kitchen. His jumping prowess gave him the ability to jump from his place on the floor into the pot. The water felt and tasted great, but what he didn’t realize was that the pot was sitting on a stove and as he swam and drank and enjoyed himself the water got warm and then hot. It was so relaxing the frog didn’t realize until too late that he was getting cooked and would never leave the pot again.

 

This illustrates yet again that if we are not to emulate the foolish frog in the story, we need to consider our water source.

 

On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, “Anyone who is thirsty may come to me! ³⁸ Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’”

John 7:37-38 (NLT)

 

We (like frogs) are social creatures, but if we don’t discriminate those with whom we spend the bulk of our time we can succumb to all types of peer pressure (at any age) and become more like someone we never planned to be.

 

“Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.”

1 Corinthians 15:33 (NIV)

 

Don’t be a foolish frog.  (Can you find the one on the lily pad in this photo I took?)