Have You Ever Made this Mistake? – Matthew 13; Luke 8,13

Come, Follow Me: New Testament 2023 (Mar. 20–26)

A woman was at an airport for her hours-long flight. Since her flight was delayed and she had hours to wait, she went to the airport shops to buy a book and a bag of cookies. She sat next to a man and started to read the new book. While engrossed in her book, she saw that the man beside her boldly grabbed a cookie from the cookie bag. Ignoring the incident to avoid a scene, she continued to eat cookies from the bag and read her book. The man enjoying the cookies, took more cookies from the pack and started munching them.

As time passed, she became increasingly irritated as the cookie thief finished her cookie stock. Every time she took a cookie from the bag, he took one. Finally, when the last cookie was left, the man nervously took the cookie and broke it in half. He offered the other half to the lady and smiled. The lady snatched the other half of the cookie from his and thought, “This guy has some nerve that even after eating a half bag of my cookies, he doesn’t show any gratitude.” 

Relieved when her flight was called, she gathered her belongings and headed to the gate, refusing to look back at the thieving ingrate. She boarded the plane and sat in her seat. Reaching her hand into her baggage she was shocked to find a bag full of cookies in it.

“If my cookies are here,” she moaned in despair, “the other bag I was eating from was his bag of cookies, and he tried to share!” (The Cookie Thief, author unknown)

It’s easy to see “tares” in our wheat field when looking outward, but the real work of overcoming the world is looking for “tares” within. (See Matthew 13:24-30)

Emotional Resilience Skill: Concentrate your efforts on improving yourself, not judging how others should change.