The Little Red Hen

There is a children’s story entitled The Little Red Hen.  In this story, a folk tale of probable Russian origin,  the Little Red Hen finds a grain of wheat and asks all of the farmyard animals to help her plant the grain, and none of them are willing to do that.  After the wheat has grown it is time to harvest the grain, and again the Little Red Hen asks for volunteers to help her with this task, and again there is no willingness to help.  After the harvest the grain must be threshed to separate the chaff from the wheat and then of course the process of milling the wheat into flour.  An again at each phase no volunteers are forthcoming.  Finally the Red Hen is ready to bake the bread and one last time she invites the other farmyard animals to help and once again they say ‘No”. 

Finally, the Little Red Hen has finished baking the bread and asks, “Who will help me eat the bread?”  Unlike all of the other times, the farmyard animals are all willing to be eager volunteers.  But this time she declines the help and says that since they were not willing to help on the front end they wouldn’t be able to benefit in the end.  So she and her chicks ate all of the bread, leaving nothing for anyone else. 

As is mentioned in the wiki about this story, “the moral of this story is that those who show no willingness to contribute to a product do not deserve to enjoy the product.”  You have an opportunity to get in on the front end of the process of helping youth leaders to develop the skills they need to be a positive and effective role model and mentor for youth.  Join us at Entrusted Legacy by logging onto our website at www.entrustedlegacy.org and making an investment in the future.