Story about the impact of one

Never underestimate the impact of one youth...one mentor...one act.

His name was Fleming, and he was a poor Scottish farmer. One day, while trying to make a living for his family, he heard a cry for help coming from a nearby bog. He dropped his tools and ran to the bog.

There, mired to his waist in black muck, was a terrified boy, screaming and struggling to free himself. Farmer Fleming saved the lad from what could have been a slow and terrifying death

The next day, a fancy carriage pulled up to the Scotsman's sparse surroundings. An elegantly dressed nobleman stepped out and introduced himself as the father of the boy Farmer Fleming had saved.

'I want to repay you,' said the nobleman. 'You saved my son's life.'

'No, I can't accept payment for what I did,' the Scottish farmer replied waving off the offer. At that moment, the farmer's own son came to the door of the family hovel.

'Is that your son?' the nobleman asked.
'Yes,' the farmer replied proudly.

'I'll make you a deal. Let me provide him with the level of education my own son will enjoy If the lad is anything like his father, he'll no doubt grow to be a man we both will be proud of.' And that he did.

Farmer Fleming's son attended the very best schools and in time, graduated from St. Mary's Hospital Medical School in London, and went on to become known throughout the world as the noted Sir Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of Penicillin.

Years afterward, the same nobleman's son who was saved from the bog was stricken with pneumonia.

What saved his life this time? Penicillin.

The name of the nobleman? Lord Randolph Churchill .. His son's name?

Sir Winston Churchill.

"You, a child, lead armies?"

When we are dealing with the greatness within our youth, the sheer immensity and power of their individual missions, we must never doubt who they are and what they are capable of!  I was reminded of this when I read the following quote from "Joan of Arc" by Twain:

"You, Joan?  You, a child, lead armies?

"Yes.  For one little moment or two the thought crushed me.  For it is as you say, I am only a child--a child and ignorant--ignorant of everything that pertains to war, and not fitted for the rough life of camps and the companionship of soldiers.  But those weak moments passed.  They will not come again.  I am enlisted, I will not turn back, God helping me, til the English grip is loosed from the throat of France."

This quote caused my daughter Tova and I to think of the hymn "We are all enlisted"...and we all are, youth and parents alike!

"This new light in the eye and this new bearing were born of the authority and leadership which had this day invested in her by the decree of God and they asserted that authority as plainly as speech could have done it, yet without ostentation or bravado.  This calm consciousness of command and calm outward expression of it remained with her thenceforth until her mission was accomplished."

May we imbue our youth with this same confidence, by leading them to God, to truth, and to the greatness within each of them!

Inspirational Chicken and Eagle story about potential

Everytime I see something like this, I think of those youth of ours, and our sacred responsibility to teach them that they are eagles, not chickens

This is a story I love to share at things like the Vision Hike:

At the edge of the woods, near a small farm, a baby eagle fell out of the nest.   The farmer found the eagle, and thinking it was one of his own, brought him to the chicken coop with his other chickens.   As time passed, the baby eagle grew up learning to do what chickens do.  He clucked, he strutted around the coop pecking at the corn and even tried his voice at the morning wake-up call.
A neighbor came to visit his friend the chicken farmer.  He was surprised to see the eagle strutting around the chicken coop, pecking at the ground, and acting like a chicken.  The farmer explained to him that he had brought the bird to the coop as a chick and only later discovered that it was an eagle.  He further told his friend that since the bird had been raised a chicken that the bird actually believed himself to be a chicken.
The neighbor knew there was more to this noble bird than his behavior showed as a chicken.  He was born an eagle and had the heart of an eagle, and nothing could change that.  The neighbor reached down and lifted the eagle onto the fence surrounding the chicken coop and said,  “Eagle, you are an eagle.  Stretch your wings and fly.”  The eagle only look blankly at the man and clucked.  He jumped off the fence and continued doing what chicken do.  The farmer was satisfied. “I told you - he thinks he’s a chicken,” he said.
The neighbor couldn’t sleep that night and returned the next day to convince the farmer that the eagle was born for something greater.  The man took the eagle from the dirty coop and carried him to the top of the farmhouse.  Setting the bird down on the roof, the neighbor spoke to him: “Eagle, you are an eagle.  You therefore belong to the sky and not to the earth.  Stretch your wings and fly.” The large bird blinked at the man, clucked, and then jumped down into the chicken coop.
After another restless night, the friend returned the next morning to the chicken farm and took the eagle and the farmer away from the chicken coop to the foot of a high mountain.  They could not see the farm nor the chicken coop from this great height.  The man lifted the eagle on his outstretched arm and pointed high into the sky where the bright sun was beckoning above.  He spoke: “Eagle, you are an eagle!  You therefore belong to the sky and not to the earth.  Stretch your wings and fly.” This time the eagle stared skyward into the bright sun, straightened his large body, and stretched his massive wings.  His wings moved, slowly at first, then surely and powerfully.
With the mighty screech of an eagle, he flew away.