A little boy was spending his Saturday morning playing in his sandbox. He had with him his box of cars and trucks , his plastic pail , and a shiny , red plastic shovel¹. In the process of creating roads and tunnels in the soft sand , he discovered a large rock in the middle of the sandbox.

在一个周六的早上，一个小男孩在他的沙箱里玩耍，还带了一盒子的玩具车、一只塑料桶和一把闪闪发亮的塑料小红铲。在柔软的沙中堆砌道路和隧道的过程中，他在沙箱的中央发现了一块大石头。

The boy dug around the rock , managing to dislodge it from the dirt. With a little bit of struggle , he pushed and nudged the rock across the sandbox by using his feet. ( He was a very small boy, and the rock was very large.) When the boy got the rock to the edge of the sandbox ,however, he found that he couldn’t roll it up and over the little wall.

小男孩在石头的周围挖呀挖，成功地把它从泥沙中挖了出来。接着，他有点吃力把石头往沙箱上推。（他只是个小男孩，石头显得很大。）当他把石头推到沙箱的边缘是，却发现自己没办法把石头滚过沙箱那堵矮小的墙。

Determined² , the little boy shoved, pushed, and pried³, but every time he thought he had made some progres the rock tipped and then fell back into the sandbox . The little boy grunted⁴, struggled, pushed , and shoved; but his only reward was to have the rock roll back , smashing his chubby⁵ fingers .

小男孩下定决心要把石头移走，他又推又撬，但每次自以为取得一些成果时，那石头又滚了下来掉回沙箱中。小男孩咕哝着，使尽全力去推。但唯一的结果就是石头滚回来，撞到他胖胖的手指上。

Finally he burst into tears of frustration⁶. All this time the boy’s father watched from his living room window as the drama unfolded. At the moment the tears fell, a large shadow fell across the boy and the sandbox. It was the boy’s father. Gently but firmly he said, “Son, why didn’t you use all the strength that you had available?” Defeated, the boy sobbed⁷ back, “But I did, Daddy, I did! I used all the strength that I had!” “No, son,” corrected the father kindly⁸. “You didn’t use all the strength you had. You didn’t ask me.” With that the father reached down, picked up the rock and removed it from the sandbox.

最后，小男孩沮丧地大哭起来。小男孩的父亲一直在客厅的窗户旁注视着这一幕。当小男孩开始掉眼泪的时候，一个大大的身影落在小男孩和他的沙箱上。那是父亲的影子。他温和而坚定地问： “儿子，为什么你没有用尽你所有的力量？” 小男孩很受挫，呜咽的回答道： “我用了，爸爸，我用了！我用尽了我全身的力量。” “不，儿子，”父亲温柔地纠正他说： “你没有用尽你所有的力量。你没有叫我来帮你。” 父亲边说着边弯下腰，捡起那块石头丢出了沙箱。

Do you have “rocks” in your life that need to be removed? Are you discovering that you don’t have what it takes to lift them? There is ONE who is always available to us and willing to give us the strength we need. Isn’t it funny how we try so hard to do things ourselves?

在你的生命中，你也遇到过需要移开的“石头”吗？你有没有发现你缺少挪动它的力量？但无论如何，总会有某人在我们需要帮助的时候愿意向我们伸出援手。我们单靠自己的力量来办事不是很傻吗？