Do you know your right hand from your left?

How many of you know your right hand from your left?  This will be a fun story.  As your mother or father reads this story out loud there is something you will have to do!

leftt hand

right hand

Every time you hear the word THIS raise your RIGHT hand and every time you hear THAT raise your LEFT hand.  Every time you hear the word KING raise both hands and say "OH MY".

king

                      
You've got it? Here is the story.  It goes like this. (right hand) tricky!!!

This is a story about a King, who wanted his people to learn to do things for themselves.  When a problem came up they always asked, "King, what should we do? "  The king was getting very  tied  of his people always asking questions and never doing anything for themselves, so he thought he would teach a lesson.

gold

The king called his most, trusted and special servant to his throne room and said, "Take this shovel and this bag of gold and dig a hole in the middle of the road. Then put this bag of gold  in that hole and cover that hole with a big stone.".  The servant left and dug a big hole as he was asked to do. He put that bag of gold into the hole and covered it with a big stone. He returned to the king and this is what the the king told him, "Now whoever removes that rock out of the middle of the road may keep the gold." 

Out of curiosity the king sat by his window watching the reaction of the people. First a man came by, ""What is that," he questioned to himself,  'what is this stone doing in the middle of the road?  It will block my vegetable cart when I go to the market.  I must go and tell the king.".   "This is just what I expected ,' said the king.'that man will NOT get the gold."


Later some teenagers came by and saw the stone in the middle of the road,"What a stupid place for a stone.  We had better go to tell the king."  This response sadden the king. He thought at least the young people would have thought for the safety of others, but they didn't. The king said, "The gold will not be theirs"

stone

Several days went by and the king was getting rather anxious, "Isn't there anyone in the my kingdom who can think for themselves?"  No one THOUGHT to remove the stone. Every time they ran to tell the king. So the king told his servant, "I will give this challenge one more day to see if there is anyone in this kingdom who will think for themselves." 


The very next day a young boy came down the road and saw the stone.  "What is this stone doing in the middle of the road?  That can be very dangerous. Someone might get hurt. I had better move this stone."  The young boy bent down, picked up the stone and noticed the bag of gold in the hole. He looked inside the bag and said,  "Oh no,this is gold!  I must return this gold to the king." The king saw the boy remove the stone and he was delighted, "At last I've found someone who can do this or that for himself!"

The young man and the king

The boy went to the king and told him his story, "Sir, this has to be your gold"  But the king interrupted him and said, "Son, you are the only one in my kingdom who removed that stone and this gold is your to keep." And that is the end of the story about that boy and that gold and this king.





  

The smallest gift

Isaiah Higgins was a very wealthy man who had a very generous heart. He loved to buy gifts and give them away to the poor. One day there was a famine in the land and Isaiah was very troubled for the little children. They were getting very hungry and had very little to eat. 

Isaiah had heard that the famine was coming, so he was able with his wealth to store up bags of wheat. One day he had this creative idea, "Why don't I make loaves of bread  with all the wheat that I have stored". I will allow each family to have one loaf each day until the famine is over.

This was a very generous idea, but when the children came to collect their loaf of bread fights would break out.  They fought over, who had the largest loaf.  The children were very rude and ungrateful.  I think that they were just too hungry.

Every day, Isaiah noticed a little girl, Frances, who stood by and waited for all the older children to stop grabbing. After they left, then she would modestly go up to the basket and take the only remaining loaf, which was always the smallest. She would thank the kind gentleman and go home. The next day the children were just as rude. It broke Isaiah's heart to see the children so ungrateful, but Frances was a sweet little girl.

Faithfully every morning, Frances arrived and waited for the smallest loaf to take home. One night at dinner, when her mother cut into the loaf of bread, several silver coins dropped out. Her mother was frightened and said, "Frances,you have to take these coins back immediately.  It must be a mistake." Frances wrapped up the bread and headed back to see Isaiah and told him what had happened.  Isaiah was NOT surprised.  He explained to her, " I have been observing how patient and content you have been with the smallest loaf, so I decided to make a special loaf  just for you.  I put the silver coins in it  to help your family through the famine."  Frances didn't know what to say.  She graciously thank Isaiah and hurried home to tell her mother.

• Her mother was very grateful.  The coins made it possible not only to feed her own family , but she was able to share some food with her neighbors.  Frances experienced for herself that "The biggest is not always the best".