Be Careful What You Stir Up

Bible Reading: Galatians 5:22-26

Just do it,” coaxed Henry. “She’ll never know it was you.” Henry was trying to get his classmate, Jeff, to put a whoopee cushion on their teacher’s chair. “Come on, it will be hilarious!”

“Okay,” said Jeff. But when Mrs. Mills sat down and her face turned red, it didn’t seem so funny after all.

Later that day, Henry talked some classmates into putting petroleum jelly on all the door knobs in the classroom. But when Mrs. Mills couldn’t open the door for recess, she frowned and announced that they would be staying inside.

At the end of the day, Henry was instructed to go to the principal’s office instead of the bus line. When he arrived, both of his parents were there. They didn’t look happy.

No one spoke on the drive home. When they pulled into the driveway, Dad turned off the engine and told Henry to go get a can of white paint. Henry didn’t know what Dad was up to, but he found an old can and took it out to the side fence.

“Let’s open this up and see how much we have,” said Dad. They pried off the rusty lid and peered inside. It looked okay. “We have to stir it,” said Dad. “It’s been sitting a while.”

As Henry stirred vigorously, chunks of old, rubbery paint and rust began dotting the surface. The harder he stirred, the worse it got. “All this stirring is making it worse!” Henry exclaimed.

“Yes it is,” said Dad. “When you stir an old paint can like that, it loosens all the impurities in the can. Kind of like how you’ve been stirring things up at school.”

Henry stopped stirring the paint and sighed. “I was just trying to have some fun.”

“Yes—but at the expense of others,” said Dad. “When you ask your classmates to do things that embarrass or hurt others, you’re encouraging them to sin. The Bible tells us to stir up love and good works, but you can’t do that by only thinking of yourself—just like you can’t stir up any good paint from this old can. Encourage others to do good things instead.”

“I guess you’re right.” Henry took the stirring stick out of the can. “I’ll be more careful about what I stir up.” – Laura Kuehn

How About You?

Do you like to stir things up? There’s nothing wrong with having fun, but it can’t be at the cost of upsetting a friend or teacher or getting other people in trouble. If you’re someone who can talk others into doing things, use that gift for good! Encourage those around you to honor God and others through love and good deeds.

Today’s Key Verse:
Hebrews 10:24 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works.

Today’s Key Thought:

Encourage others to do good