February 21

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DAILY HERITAGE WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2018.
Brotherly kindness is
important for a leader
BY DAG HEWARD-MILLS
BROTHERLY
LOVE is the
love that a
person has
for a brother.
A leader is usually in
diverse relationships
that affect different
aspects of his work.
Brotherly love is the
strong affection for
another person that
rises out of kinship and
personal relationships.
Things you should
know about brotherly
love:
The trait of brotherly
love makes you humbly
put others before you.
This is humility and
before honour is
humility.
Be kindly affectioned one to another
with brotherly love; in honour preferring
one another;
Romans 12:10
Brotherly love is needed to
prevent strife between close
relations.
And Abram said unto Lot, let there
be no strife, I pray thee, between me and
thee, and between my herdsmen and thy
herdsmen; for we be brethren. Genesis
13:8
The personal trait of brotherly
love causes you to sacrifice yourself
for others. Brotherly love causes
you to lay down your love for the
brethren. People who are sacrificial
and lay themselves down for others
are often productive.
Hereby perceive we the love of
God, because he laid down his life
for us: and we ought to lay down
• Bishop Dag
Heward-Mills
our lives for the brethren. 1 John
3:16
The Mouse, the Chicken, the
Pig and the Cow
The chicken, the pig and the
cow did not have brotherly love for
their fellow farm animals and paid a
high price for it.
One day, the farm mouse
looked through the crack in the
wall to see the farmer and his wife
open a package. What food might
this contain?” the mouse wondered.
He was devastated to discover it
was a mousetrap. Retreating to the
farmyard, the mouse proclaimed
the warning.
He rushed to the chicken and
told him, “There is a mousetrap in
the house! There is a mousetrap in
the house!”
The chicken clucked and
scratched, raised her head and said,
“Mr Mouse, what is the meaning of
this frenzied outburst? You are
talking too much and disturbing
our children. We have a job to do
“Mr Mouse, what is
the meaning of this
frenzied outburst?
You are talking too
much and disturbing
our children. We
have a job to do on
this farm.”
on this farm. Honestly, I cannot be
bothered by a mousetrap. A
mousetrap is no reason for you to
disturb the neighbourhood.
The mouse turned to the pig,
“There is a mousetrap in the house!
There is a mousetrap in the house!”
The pig sympathised, but said, “I
am so very sorry, Mr Mouse, but
there is nothing anyone can do
about it. If you were to eat more
and grow bigger you would not be
worried about mousetraps. Anyway,
be assured that you are in my
prayers.”
The mouse then turned to the
cow and said, “There is a
mousetrap in the house!” The cow
said, “Mr Mouse, pull yourself
together! Just be careful when you
are walking around and everything
will be alright. A mousetrap is not
dangerous!”
So, the mouse returned to the
house, head down and dejected, to
face the farmer’s mousetrap alone.
None of the other animals had
understood his dilemma. None of
them really cared.
That very night a sound was
heard throughout the house – like
the sound of a mousetrap catching
its prey. The farmer’s wife rushed
to see what was caught. In the
darkness, she did not see it was a
venomous snake whose tail the trap
had caught.
The snake lunged out and bit
the farmer’s wife. The farmer
rushed her to the hospital where
she was treated for snakebite. After
three days in the hospital, the
farmer’s wife returned home with a
persisting fever.
Everyone knew that the
treatment for fever was fresh
chicken soup. The farmer took a
decision to give his wife the fresh
chicken soup that she needed. He
caught the chicken, killed it and
made fresh soup for his wife.
The sickness continued, so
friends and neighbours came to sit
with her around the clock. To feed
them, the farmer decided to serve
the guests with pork chops, pork
stew, spare ribs and some bacon
and sausages. The pig was quickly
summoned, slaughtered and
converted into these delicacies. In
spite of the special treatment and
care that the farmer’s wife received,
she did not get any better and
eventually died.
Many people came for her
funeral. The farmer was not
expecting so many guests and had
to suddenly cater for hundreds of
mourners. His relatives asked him
to serve the guests with beef stew,
steak, khebab and some meatballs.
They said to him, “You will be able
to buy another cow after the
funeral.”
Under pressure from his family,
he took the decision to slaughter
his cow and serve his funeral
guests. The mouse looked upon it
all from his crack in the wall with
great sadness. Indeed, the chicken,
the pig and the cow never thought
that the arrival of the mousetrap to
the farm would one day affect them
all.
Brotherly love shows concern
for others. Brotherly love is when
you feel the effect of something
that affects your brother. When you
have brotherly love you quickly
recognise that your brother’s
problem is actually your problem.
A leader needs wisdom and
maturity to realize how another
person’s problem eventually affects
him.
CPP commends Ghana for mediation efforts in Togo
• READ FROM PAGE 11
opposition Pan African National Party
(PNP) simultaneously in Accra, Libreville,
New York, and Berlin demanding the reinstatement
of the Togolese 1992 Constitution
which limits the term limit of the President.
The 1992 Constitution of Togo, which
stipulates a two five-year term limit for a
President was set aside by the Togolese Parliament
to allow President Gnassingbe to
contest Election for the third term in 2015.
Besides the reinstatement of the constitution,
the leader of the PNP party Mr Tikpi
Atchadam told the media that they want to
immediately end the Gnassingbe dynasty,
which hadruled Togo for 50 years “from father
to son. It’s like a family property and we
are ready to resist that this time”.
President Faure Gnassingbe has been in
power since the death of his father Gnassingbe
Eyadema in 2005 who ruled for 38
years. — GNA