A group of frogs traveled together, hopping along as a happy group. Suddenly, two of them fell into a deep pit. The rest were horrified. They gathered around to see what had happened to their friends, and observed just how deep the pit really was. 

“There’s no hope for them,” one of the frogs observed, “The pit is too deep, they’ll never get out.” 

The other frogs agreed. But not the ones who had fallen. The ones who had fallen to the bottom of the pit knew that they had nothing to lose, and decided to try their best to save themselves. Because the other frogs were pessimistic friends, they tried to discourage these efforts of escape, continuing to insist there was just no point.

“Just give up!” they shouted, “You’re only causing yourself more pain! You’ll never make it out, so you might as well lie down and die in peace.” 

Eventually, one of the struggling frogs realized they were most likely right. He was exhausted and came to believe the situation was hopeless, so he gave up, just like his horrible friends told him to, and he died.

But the other frog kept going. He jumped as hard as he could. As the crowd of frogs yelled that he should stop, he began to jump harder and harder. Eventually, he made it out alive. 

“Why didn’t you listen to us?” his so-called friends asked, “We were sure you were doomed.” 
 
The frog didn’t understand the question. In fact, he didn’t even hear the question, because as it turns out, he was deaf. The whole time the crowd was yelling to give up, he thought they were encouraging him. And he’d taken their encouragement to heart. 
 
Moral of the story: what you say can make a huge impact on somebody’s life. Use that power to send messages of encouragement, you could be the voice that saves somebody’s life.