Are you positive or negative?

From time to time I like to utilize sonderful stories to illustrate points that I teach. Here is one of those stories.

I heard the story about a king in Africa who had a close friend with whom he had grown up.

The friend had a habit of looking at every situation that occurred
in his life (positive or negative) and remarking, "This is good!"

One day, the king and his friend were out on a hunting expedition. The friend would load and prepare the guns for the king. The friend had apparently done something wrong in preparing one of the guns, for after taking the gun from his friend, the king fired it and his thumb was blown off.

Examining the situation, the friend remarked as usual, "This is good!" to which the king replied, "No, this is NOT good!" and proceeded to have his friend thrown into prison.

About a year later, the king was hunting in an area wherein he should have known not to hunt. Cannibals captured him and took them to their village. They tied his hands, stacked some wood, set up a stake and bound him to the stake. As they came close to set fire to the wood, they noticed that the king was missing a thumb. Being superstitious, they never ate anyone who was less than whole. So untying the king, they sent him on his way.

As he returned home, he was reminded of the event that had taken his thumb
and felt remorse for his treatment of his friend. He went immediately to the prison to speak with his friend.

"You were right", he said,"it was good that my thumb was blown off."

And he proceeded to tell the friend all that had just happened.

"And so I am very sorry for sending you to prison for so long. It was bad for me to do this."

"No," his friend replied, "this is good!"

"What do you mean, 'this is good!'" said the King aghast. "How could it be good that I sent my friend to prison for a year?!"

"Well, if I had NOT been in jail, I would have been with you, and I would have been eaten!"

I hope you enjoyed this story and can see how a positive outlook may even one day save your life.

That's all for today!

May you be blessed always and in all ways!

Harry