Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed. (Proverbs 15:22)

(Thanks to DWOD subscriber Jewelcy Jawahar for forwarding this story in an e-mail. FYI, Jewelcy and I were classmates from Grades 1-5 at Morton English Primary School in Nagercoil, India.)

A farmer died leaving his 17 horses to his three sons. When his sons opened up the will, it read:

My eldest son should get 1/2 (half) of the total number of horses, my middle son should be given 1/3 of the total horses and my youngest son should receive 1/9 (one-ninth) of the total.

Since 17 is indivisible by 2, 3 or 9, the three sons started to fight with each other. With such a mathematical impossibility staring them in the face, they gave up hope of ever honouring their father’s will on their own.

In desperation, they decided to seek the counsel of a farmer who was considered to be quite smart, to see if he could work it out for them.

The farmer friend read the will patiently. After giving it some thought, he got one of his farm hands to bring over one of his own horses. That increased the total to 18 horses.

Then he began to divide the horses according to their father’s will.

Half of 18 = 9. So he gave the eldest son 9 horses. 1/3 of 18 = 6. So he gave the middle son 6 horses. 1/9 of 18 = 2. So he gave the youngest son 2 horses.

As you can see, 9+6+2 add up to 17. This left one horse, which was the farmer’s to begin with. The farm hand took it back to its stable.

Problem Solved!

One thing I have been stressing to couples who go through the marriage preparation process with me is this: “Do not hesitate to ask for help when you run into trouble.”

The worst thing you can do when you have a problem and cannot figure out a solution is to keep it to yourself. Yes, you need to try on your own first. In a marriage, a husband and wife must do all they can to work things out—individually and collectively.

But when your best efforts do not produce results, you could be tempted to give up hope. You could even come to the conclusion that there is no solution to your problem except to get a divorce.

This is when you need to look beyond yourself to someone else. You are so locked up in your problem and your unsuccessful solutions that you cannot see anything else.

Someone looking at your issues from the outside can see things that you cannot see, simply because you are too close to the problem! The brothers in this story were so caught up in the indivisibility of 17 by 2, 3 and 9 that they could not see a way out.

But when they sought the help of their farmer friend, they opened themselves up to the possibility of a solution. Where there was only despair in the air, now there was hope.

Dear DWOD friend, on the road to your destiny, you too will run into situations where you will find yourself frustrated with your inability to solve a problem. Do not despair. If you look around, you too will discover that God has already placed others around you who can come up with a solution to your problem.

The moment you choose to ask for help, you step out of the solitary cell of despair and into the hallway of hope. Now it is just a matter of knocking on a door and discovering that 17 is not indivisible after all!