Strike while the iron is hot. Did you ever wonder what that means? The blacksmith heats his iron red-hot in the fiery forge. It requires time to heat the iron up and time for it to cool down once it is plunged into the cooling water. But, in between, is the single moment when the iron is perfectly ready, flexible enough, to be struck and pounded into the desired shape the blacksmith had in mind. “Striking while the iron” is hot means that opportunity is fleeting and we are only given a few moments in time to effect changes in others that could last a lifetime. One fleeting moment and the opportunity has past.
There was a man who, ousted from his profession for an indiscretion, took work as a laborer simply to put bread on the table. Near the end of the third week, he felt that he could take no more. “I’ll work till break time this morning,” he told himself, “and then that’s it. I’m going home. I just can’t handle any more of this.” A while later, he decided to finish out the morning and then leave at lunchtime.
Shortly before noon, the foreman came around with paychecks. As he handed the man his envelope, he told him. “Hey, there’s a woman working in the front office who says she knows you. Says she takes care of your kids at church sometimes.” When the laborer opened his envelope, he found, along with
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