A Prayables Fable

aprayablesfable

Once upon a time there was a good man and his beautiful daughter who owed money to a cruel and dishonest merchant. The merchant threatened to kill the man if he did not pay his debt. He offered one way out:

Two pebbles would be placed in a bag, one white and one black. The daughter is to pick a pebble from the bag and if she picked the black pebble she would become the evil merchant’s wife and her father’s debt will be forgiven. If she picked the white pebble, she and her father would be free from obligations to the merchant.

They were standing on a pebble strewn path. The merchant bent over to pick up two pebbles. As he picked them up, the sharp-eyed girl noticed he picked up two black pebbles and put them into a bag.

Now, imagine you are that girl, what would you do?

A.   Refuse to take a pebble.
B.   Show that there were two black pebbles in the bag and expose the cheat.
C.   Pick a black pebble and sacrifice yourself to save your father.

Most problems do have a solution. Sometimes we have to think about them in a different way.

The girl put her hand into the bag and drew out a pebble. Without looking at it, she fumbled and let it fall onto the pebble-strewn path where it immediately became lost among all the other pebbles.

"Oh, how clumsy of me," she said. "But never mind, if you look into the bag for the one that is left, you will be able to tell which pebble I picked."

- Adapted from Folklore

Choices

I watch as he weighs the choices.
I want to tell him what to do.
“Make the safe choice.”
“Make the choice that I want,
the one that keeps you close to me.”
Help him to be more objective than I can be.

Help him to make the choice
that takes advantage of his strengths and his passions,
his knowledge and his abilities.
Help him to choose well.
Only You can give me the strength
to wait patiently until he decides.

Help me smile and congratulate him
in my heart and with my words,
as I see the man
You have helped him become.