Hated Potatoes Thursday
Posted by: bigguyhereagain <bigguyhereagain@...>
A kindergarten teacher has decided to let her class play a game. The
Teacher told each child in the class to bring along a plastic bag
containing a few potatoes. Each potato will be given a name of a person that the
child hates, So the number of potatoes that a child will put in his/her
plastic bag will depend on the number of people he/she hates.
So when the day came, every child brought some potatoes with the
name of the people he/she hated. Some had 2 potatoes; some 3 while some
up to 5 potatoes.
The teacher then told the children to carry with them the potatoes
in the plastic bag wherever they go (even to the toilet) for 1 week.
Days after days passed by, and the children started to complain due to
the unpleasant smell let out by the rotten potatoes.
Besides, those having 5 potatoes also had to carry heavier bags.
After 1 week, the children were relieved because the game had finally
ended.
with u for 1 week?"
complaining of the trouble that they had to go through having to carry the heavy
and smelly potatoes wherever they go.
Then the teacher told them the hidden meaning behind the game. The
Teacher said: "This is exactly the situation when you carry your hatred for
Somebody inside your heart. The stench of hatred will contaminate
your heart and you will carry it with you wherever you go.
If you cannot tolerate the smell of rotten potatoes for just 1 week,
can you imagine what is it like to have the stench of hatred in your
heart for your lifetime???"
Moral of the story:
Throw away any hatred for anyone from your heart so that you will
not carry sins for a lifetime. Forgiving others is the best attitude to
take! Loveothers even if you don't like them.
currently being cleared. While my son lamented the "loss
of habitat", I watched the activity with little more than a
passing interest. At first they merely bulldozed the underbrush
into small piles, I think more to improve access than anything
else. Then I watched as the tree harvesters pulled out the
hardwoods, no doubt to be milled and fashioned into furniture
or fine veneers. Next they pulled the large pines, straight,
tall, excellent for lumber, and piled them high on trailers
bound for the mill.
That's when I noticed it, a stumpy, gnarly, twisted pine tree,
it's branches deformed into odd shapes. It seems this tree
had taken root under some overhead power lines and as it
reached upward the power company would cut it back to
avoid it's interference with those power lines. This frequent,
indiscriminant, cutting, had forced the poor tree to grow in odd
directions, twisting back on it, with great lumps covering the
thoughtless wounds. The lumber harvesters passed it by, in
favor of the tall, straight trees, useful for building houses,
furniture, decks and the like. I thought, how true this is of
us. God has created us to be tall straight and useful, but our
proximity to earthly things corrupts that intent. I thought
that was a great illustration and topic for a little email, just
like this one.
Then I noticed that "stumpy" had been cut down and piled
up with several other less than stately trees that, for one
reason or another, were of no use to the lumber mills.
I thought, how true, those useless lumps were destined
for the burn pile, their noble intent squandered by playing to
close to the world.
To my surprise, however, they were not burned, but rather
were loaded onto trucks just as the tall, straight pines had
been. That's when I noticed the name of a local paper mill
on the side of one of the trucks; "stumpy" and his friends
were going to be used for paper. Paper that might carry
the news to an eager public, or post a notice about a lost
puppy, or a page in a book teaching my son, or a marriage
certificate, or a paycheck, or a page in a bible that contains
the words; "For God so loved the world..."
You see, I learned that God can use any of us, all of us.
No matter how wounded and scarred we are, no matter how
twisted and rough we've become, no matter how useless we
may seem to others, God has a use for us, a place for us,
a heart for us.
I am continually amazed at what God can teach me by simple
things like clearing a lot.
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