MIDWEEK MESSAGE – December 4, 2024

I  recently read a story entitled Sand and Stone, which had a powerful impact on me despite its brevity.  

The story tells of two friends who are walking through the desert.  They argued at some point during the journey, and one friend slapped the other in the face.  The one who was slapped got hurt said nothing but wrote in the sand:

“TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SLAPPED ME IN THE FACE.”

The friends continued walking until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath. The one slapped got stuck in the mire and started drowning, but the friend saved him.  After the friend who nearly drowned recovered from the near drowning, he wrote on a stone:

“TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SAVED MY LIFE.”

The friend who had been slapped and later saved asked his friend, “After I hurt you, you wrote in the sand, and now, you write on a stone; why”?

The other friend replied, “When someone hurts you, you should write it down in the sand where the winds of forgiveness can erase it. However, when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it.”

What do you do in your life?  Do you forgive the hurts and remember the gifts, or do you hang onto the hurts and easily forget the gifts?  We revive no benefits from holding onto resentments and who did what and when to us, forgetting all the blessings we have received from so many people in our lives.

Here is a simple thing to remember that will improve our lives. 

“WRITE OUR HURTS IN THE SAND AND CARVE OUR BENEFITS IN STONE”