Week 42 Day 5

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On Fair Trades

I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

John 15:5

Lord of the vineyard, we adore

That power and grace divine,

Which plants our wild, our barren souls,

In Christ the living Vine.

For ever there may I abide,

And from that vital root,

Be influence spread through every branch,

To form and feed the fruit.

When Lincoln was a young lawyer in Illinois, a certain judge asked him to trade horses. Lincoln knew the judge had a poor reputation for trades, so he planned to get the best of him. He wasn’t going to be embarrassed or humiliated. He agreed to the trade, and at the appointed time the judge walked up leading the sorriest-looking specimen of a horse Lincoln had ever seen. A few moments later, Lincoln was seen approaching the judge with a wooden sawhorse on his shoulders. The laughter in the crowd only heightened when Lincoln set down his wooden horse and said, “Well, Judge, this is the first time I ever got the worst of it in a horse trade.” Lincoln’s jest proved a point. If you’re going to offer a trade, make it fair. If you think you may get the best of another, you may have another thing coming.