POSITIVE ATTITUDE

SHARPEN YOUR AXE

A young man approached the foreman of a logging crew and asked for a job.

"That depends," replied the foreman. "Let's see you fell this tree."

The young man stepped forward, and skillfully felled a great tree.

Impressed, the foreman exclaimed, "You can start from Monday."

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday rolled by and Thursday afternoon
the foreman approached the young man and said, "You can pick up your pay
cheque on the way out today."






Startled, the young man replied, "I thought you paid on Friday."

"Normally we do," said the foreman. "But we're letting you go today because
you've fallen behind.

Our daily felling charts show that you've dropped from first place on Monday
to last place today."

"But I'm a hard worker," the young man objected. "I arrive first, leave
last, and even have worked through my coffee breaks!"

The foreman, sensing the young man's integrity, thought for a minute and
then asked, "Have you been sharpening you axe?"

The young man replied, "No sir, I've been working too hard to take time for
that!"

Our lives are like that. We sometimes get so busy that we don't take time to
"sharpen the axe."

In today's world, it seems that everyone is busier than ever, but less happy
than ever. Why is that? Could it be that we have forgotten how to stay
sharp?



There's nothing wrong with activity and hard work. But God doesn't want us
to get so busy that we neglect the truly important things in life, like
taking time to pray, to read and study Scripture, or to listen to 'the still
small voice of God.' We all need time to relax, to think and meditate, to
learn and grow. If we don't take time to sharpen the axe, we will become
dull and lose our effectiveness