Bob was an old horse on my great-grandfather’s farm. He was a very clever horse. But it is not so much for his cleverness as for one thoughtful thing he did that his name has been handed down to us who live so long after him and who never saw him.
Bob was very fond of children. The boys who lived near used to have many a pleasant game with Bob on sunny afternoons, when he was grazing in the fields.
Sometimes the boys chased Bob, and sometimes he chased them. It was a funny sight to see the old horse running after a troop of boys, uttering a peculiar whinny that plainly said, “Isn’t this real fun, boys?”
One day Bob was coming slowly through the one long street of the village, dragging a loaded cart behind him. There, right in the middle of the street, a little child was sprawling in the dust. No one noticed it until Bob and the cart were close upon it.
Was the child to be trodden under the horse’s feet or crushed beneath the broad wheels of the cart? No; for just as the mother rushed out of the doorway with a shriek, Bob reached down, seized the child’s clothing with his teeth, and laid the little one safely on the footpath. It was done tenderly, quietly, and it was over in a minute. Then the wise horse went on as if he had done nothing surprising.
Do you wonder that we keep Bob’s memory green? And isn’t his thoughtfulness a lesson for children whose excuse for carelessness that injures others is, “I didn’t think”? Bob thought, and his thinking saved the child’s life.
Balloons, True Education Series, ©1976, 48, 49.
“Think right thoughts, and you will perform right actions.” The Adventist Home, 54. If we have invited Jesus to live in our heart, we will think His thoughts. Then it will be natural for us to be kind and thoughtful, helping and encouraging others around us. He will help us to think and then do what He would do.