Watch the animated story · about 4 minutes, read aloud

Eli had a grumpy week.
“Dad, why is everything so hard? My shoes are too tight. My brother was too loud. My bed was too bumpy. When will everything stop being hard?”

1

Dad looked at him for a long moment. Then he said, “Eli, go to the kitchen and bring me a big handful of salt.”

2

Eli came back with his hands full of white salt.
Dad filled a little glass with water. “Put all the salt in the glass. Now stir it. Now take a big drink.”

3

“Dad, that’s way too much salt for a little glass.”
“Trust me. Drink.”

4

Eli took a big gulp and spat it right out. “Bleh! It’s so salty! It’s horrible!”
Dad chuckled. “Good. Now grab another handful of salt, and come with me.”

5

They walked down the hill to the big blue lake. The water was so still that the sky was inside it.

6

“Throw the salt into the lake,” said Dad.
Eli threw it. Splash. The salt was gone.
“Now take a drink from the lake.”

7

Eli cupped his hands and drank. The water was cold and fresh and clean.
“How does it taste?”
“Fresh!”

8

“Do you taste the salt?”
“No, Dad. Not even a little bit.”
Dad sat down on the grass next to him.

9

“Eli, hard things in life are like salt. Everybody gets a handful. But how bitter it tastes depends on what you put it in.

10

If you are a tiny glass, a little salt tastes terrible. But if you make your heart big, as big as this lake, the same salt just disappears.”

11

He gave Eli’s shoulder a squeeze.
“Don’t be a glass, Eli. Be a lake.”

12

The salt is the same.
Make your heart bigger.

13

The Glass and the Lake