The Cookie Thief

by Valerie Cox

A woman was waiting at an airport one night,
With several long hours before her flight.
She hunted for a book in the airport shops.
Bought a bag of cookies and found a place to drop.

She was engrossed in her book but happened to see,
That the man sitting beside her, as bold as could be.
Grabbed a cookie or two from the bag in between,
Which she tried to ignore to avoid a scene.

So she munched the cookies and watched the clock,
As the gutsy cookie thief diminished her stock.
She was getting more irritated as the minutes ticked by,
Thinking, "If I wasn't so nice, I would blacken his eye."

With each cookie she took, he took one too,
When only one was left, she wondered what he would do.
With a smile on his face, and a nervous laugh,
He took the last cookie and broke it in half.

He offered her half, as he ate the other,
She snatched it from him and thought... oooh, brother.
This guy has some nerve and he's also rude,
Why he didn't even show any gratitude!

She had never known when she had been so galled,
And sighed with relief 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 sank in her seat,
Then she sought her book, which was almost complete.
As she reached in her baggage, she gasped with surprise,
There was her bag of cookies, in front of her eyes.

If mine are here, she moaned in despair,
The others were his, and he tried to share.
Too late to apologize, she realized with grief,
That she was the rude one, the ingrate, the thief.

How many times in our lives, have we absolutely known that something was a certain way,only to discover later that what we believed to be true ... was not?

Source: Chicken Soup for the Soul, copyright 1996 by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen

Had this woman only offered to share, well, this story may not have been written. We as a people, especially those of us who call ourselves Christians, need to remember we are NOT always right and we MUST take others into consideration even above ourselves...Phi 2:4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

What Are You Taking In?

Mat 12:34b For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

It has been well said that what is in your heart comes out of your mouth. It can go either way; positive or negative. It's our choice what we are going to feed our spirits. We are exposed to all kinds of influences throughout our day. They come in the form of media and reading materials: TV, radio, internet, books and magazines; in the form of speech, conversations we have or overhear; and even images sent to our cellphones. Many of these we can control. We need to make conscience decisions to allow only those things which are beneficial to our Christian life and walk into our lives.

Philippians 4:8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy think about such things.

There are many ways to start to fill your heart with the positive. You can begin by actively listening to your Pastor's or Preacher's sermons, Praying often, Reading your Bible, Worshiping the Lord, Studying the Bible, Fellowship with other Believers, Meditating and Memorizing Scripture.

After 24 hours you may accurately remember:

• 5% of what you hear
• 15% of what you read
• 35% of what you study
• 57% of what you see and hear
  But you remember 100% of what you memorize!

Starting today, lets change what we allow ourselves to take in so that in the days ahead, what comes forth from our lips is only true, noble, right, pure, lovely and admirable...

Scripture Memorization Verse:
Psalm 119:9How can a young man keep his way pure?By living according to your word.