Rev. A.J. Ogden

Many years ago I read a story about a country pond which was a very noisy place to be around. It was populated by a great number of frogs that croaked all the time! The story said a terrible drought came to that region which was causing the water level to go down rapidly in that pond. This was bad news for the once happy family of frogs because frogs must have water. When the pond was almost dry the frogs held an emergency meeting to discuss their problem.

Two birds were listening from a nearby tree and offered a solution for one frog who was crying by then. “There is another large pond ten miles away full of water yet, and you’ll have to go to it some way to survive! You can’t hop that far so we birds will transfer you there.” The got a stick, held it in each one of their beaks at each end and told the frog to hold the middle of the stick with his mouth, they would fly him over. They told him not to open his mouth and say anything.

Suddenly Mr. Frog was air borne, holding that stick with all his might and mouth, and well on the way. But suddenly a voice from the ground said, “Hey, look at that, what a wonderful idea that is; I wonder who thought up such a wonderful plan?” Then Mr. Frog opened his mouth to say, “I did,” falling a hundred feet to become history! His mouth and false pride cost him his life!

Opening his mouth in pride to brag caused Mr. Frog’s fall to death. This is true of many men and women. Proverbs 8:13, “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the forward mouth, do I hate.” False pride has destroyed many ministries, and men and women in our time. Far too many have mouth trouble. Instead of boasting and bragging about our accomplishments, we should give all the glory to God who gave us these abilities. Without God we can do nothing. We can’t even walk without Him holding our hand. Our very heartbeat all depends on somebody bigger than us, namely God!