Taken from the same principles found in Matthew Chapter 25.
A little boy loved his father. Everything that his father did the little boy tried to copy. When his dad split wood, the little boy gathered twigs. When the father pulled weeds from the garden, the little boy was by his side tugging at the strands of grass.
One day the father said to his son, today I think we should go fishing. The little boy was excited. This meant a whole day of being with his father. When they got to the lake the little boy gathered his cane pole and began to dig for worms a few feet away from the shore.
To his surprise he looked up to see that his father did not have a fishing pole, but a net. His father threw the net into the water and upon retrieving it found that he had caught seven fish. The little boy cast his line into the water and began to wait.
As an hour passed the father threw his net in time after time, pulling in fish after fish. The little boy sat still, sulking because he had only caught one small fish. His father came over and asked him what was the matter. The little boy looked up with tears in his eyes and said, "I'll never be able to do what you can."
The father smiled a warm smile and told his son, " I came to the lake with a net and was able to use what I brought to catch a lot of fish. You came to the lake with a cane stick and some twine and still managed to catch a fish."
He patted his son on the head, " I'm proud of you! You used what you had to get the most you could. You never stopped trying, even when you felt like you were failing. No one can be asked to do more."
The little boy cracked a smile and wiped away the tears. "I love you dad."
"I know," said the father, "I love you too."
Moral:
Sometimes it is easy to lose our focus and begin to compare ourselves to others. God has called us all to his service, not all of us will have similar results. I don't think he expects the same results out of all of us. Read the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25. See in this story how Jesus gives differently to each of us, and how he rewards us when we use what he has blessed us with for his purpose.
