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Parables for Life in the 21st Century

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Parables for Life in the 21st Century: Modern Parables You Can Apply in Business and in Your Personal Life is an anthology of twenty-four current stories, each with a readily understandable and relevant moral. Some morals may be familiar such as Aesop's "Slow but steady wins the race"; others might be new to the reader, such as "Being born with a silver spoon in your mouth doesn't teach you how to feed yourself." Each modern parable is followed by a more detailed explanation of the parable's meaning and applications. A highly illuminating collection, offering a format that drives its truthful and valuable messages home with stories that resonate and remain in one's memory.

Anyone who attempts to write parables runs the risk of being compared to the master--Jesus. No one can equal such a high standard, but Stuart Gustafson shows that he has a definite gift for writing in this genre. The parables here are often humorous, sometimes multicultural, and always contain either an old insight with a different twist or a new insight with a message for today. These parables can help us live with more poise, compassion, and self-understanding. They also remind us not to take ourselves so seriously and to look for the hidden humor in ordinary events.

The stories, or parables, contained in this book provide some link to the parable approach to teaching that Jesus used, but were not quite as on the ball as I would have liked. They can be useful for a quick read and students, if you chose to read them out, would enjoy them, but they don't really have the profound teaching twists of the Master himself.