Tongues

The king made a banquet and ordered his clever slave to serve the best food that money could buy. The main food at the meal was tongue... all kinds of tongue cooked in all kinds of ways. All the side dishes and even dessert were also tongue... When the king objected, the slave said: "My Lord, what excels the tongue? It is the channel of wisdom and learning. By it we make speeches and carry out business. By it great personas are made known. With our tongue we speak even to God.. King, there is nothing equal to the tongue." The king all the guests were astounded to hear all this wit and wisdom come from the slave. The next day the king threw another banquet. The same guests came back. This time the king ordered the slave to serve the worst kind of meat he could find. Again, he served tongue - and only tongue. When the king began to scold the slave over this, he answered: "My Lord, can there be anything worse than the tongue? Treasons, deaths, violence, injustices, fraud, murder, wars - all are debated and decided by the tongue. The tongue ruins empires and countries, peoples and families. What is worse than the tongue?"

When would have the slave served your tongue? 

Relaxation

They say that Saint John the Apostle liked to play with his pet sparrow from time to time. One day a hunter came to visit him and was surprised to see such a famous man playing. He surely could and should be making better use of his time. So he asked him, "Why do you waste your time playing? Why devote so much attention to something as useless as a sparrow?" Saint John looked at him in surprise and asked: "Why is the string on your bow not tight?" "Oh, you can't keep it tight all the time," the hunter explained, "otherwise it loses its tension and becomes useless for shooting arrows." So Saint John told him in return: "My friend, just as you always release the tension on your bowstring, so you must release the tension inside of you and relax. If I don't relax and just play, I have no strength for any great undertaking. I don't even have the strength to do what I have to and what is necessary."

The recess break which gets us out of the classroom or office is a very necessary part of work and education. We will need it later on in life if we want to do a good job for a long time... 

Hope

Many years ago there lived a very old man. Before his house stood two tall mountains that kept out the sunlight. He was not happy about this and so he sat down with his sons and all made a solemn promise that they would hack back away those two mountains A neighbor saw them go out with their hoes and shook his head. "How stupid can you get?" he screamed. "It's absolutely impossible for you to carry away those mighty mountains." The old man only smiled and said: "Well, when I die, my sons will carry on the work. And when they die, my grandsons will continue it. Yes, the mountains are high but they won't get any higher. But our strength can still grow. With every shovel full of earth that we carry away, we come closer to our goal." "It is better to do something than just sit around and complain that those mountains keep out the sunlight." With complete conviction the old man kept right on digging. God saw it and was moved to send two angles to earth. They lifted the two mountains onto their shoulders, and carried them off.

In his letter to the Corinthians, Saint Paul talks about having faith great enough to move mountains.