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Motivation

Written by: Zig Ziglar

Article Overview: From the pages of Crossroads, written by Edgar T. Chrisemer and published in 1962 by Bruce Humphries of Boston, MA, comes this inspiring story:

Motivation

From the pages of Crossroads, written by Edgar T. Chrisemer and published in 1962 by Bruce Humphries of Boston, MA, comes this inspiring story:

Many years ago one of the large eagles in Scotland snatched from the front of a small cottage a sleeping baby wrapped in light clothing. Several people witnessed the event, and quickly the whole village turned out, trying to catch the eagle as it flew away with the baby. However, eagles fly and people don’t, so the eagle landed on a lofty crag. Most of the people from the village lost all hope for the child’s life. However, some of the villagers were determined to exhaust every possible avenue and make the effort to save the baby before conceding what appeared to be the inevitable.

First, a sailor who was between trips tried to climb the high crag. But after a time he reached an impasse, accepted defeat, and abandoned the effort. Next, a rugged, experienced highlander who was accustomed to mountain climbing also tried. Although he got closer to the baby, he, too, could not quite make it, so he turned back in failure.

A frail peasant woman stood silently by while all of this was going on. Then she indicated that she was going to try. No one said anything, but it was obvious that everyone was thinking if a healthy, young sailor and a rugged highlander had failed to scale the heights, what chance did this frail woman have? She removed her shoes and started putting her bare feet first on one shelf of the cliff, then another, and another until she rose to the level of the child. She lifted the baby from the eagle’s nest while the villagers waiting below watched anxiously and fearfully.

The descent was even more difficult than the climb because one wrong step would now result in the death of two people. Carrying the infant added to the difficulty. But slowly, step by step, the woman descended the side of the mountain. Once she hit the bottom the amazed villagers welcomed her. She was able to succeed while others failed because she had a different kind of motivation. She was the mother of the child. Her love enabled her to scale heights the others could only dream about.

To say this woman had a vested interest and a heart filled with love for the child would be an understatement, but those were motivation factors in her life. I’m confident the sailor and the highlander desperately wanted to save the child, but for the mother it was a question of the life of the baby she loved with all her heart. That’s real motivation.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the love of all human life, not just our own family, would become a part of our society? I encourage you to remember that God loves all of us, and He has a vested interest in each of us. If that thought were to saturate our minds, wouldn’t we be kinder and gentler to the people we deal with? Wouldn’t we take more interest in the oppressed? Do you ever wonder just what we would be capable of doing and how much better our world would be if all of us showed genuine care and concern for other people?

Somebody has observed that there is so much bad in the best of us and so much good in the worst of us that all of us should be careful about what we say to and about the rest of us. To that we should add “and what we do for others.” Who knows when a kind deed – or ever a kind word – might have a substantial impact on the life of someone else?

Message: Responsibility and commitment enable us to do things well. Love empowers us to do them beautifully.

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Article Tags: boston ma, crossroads, eagles fly, eagles nest, edgar, failure, fly, frail woman, high crag, highlander, humphries, impasse, light clothing, peasant woman, scotland, shoes, sleeping baby



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