Thought For Today

I am so glad that you have found this site and I hope you will find encouragement and joy as you read through my thoughts on God, family and life.

Saturday, January 5, 2013

By Their Fruits


By Their Fruits
Abby
 Very early this morning my son came up to our bedroom while it was still very dark.  He said that he was having a dream that was bothering him. I let Will have my spot in bed thinking he could then sleep feeling comforted next to his mother. What happened next surprised me out of my sleepiness.   Anne at that time, for some unknown reason got out of bed, and then proceeded to go downstairs.  I caught up with her half way down the steps.  She quickly turned noticing that I was behind her, and asked me if I had remembered to get Abby’s tooth under her pillow.  I had told her that I had not.  She then went down to Abby’s room while I frantically wrote a note to Abby from the tooth fairy.  I then went down stairs to her room.  Upon arriving at Abby’s doorway, I noticed that she just was starting to awaken, and looking over to the other side of the Abby’s bed, I could barely see through the darkness to where Anne was lying.  I was afraid that Abby had found her tooth and realized that the tooth fairy did indeed not care to visit her last night.  My eyes had at that moment adjusted to the dark and I could see a dollar bill near Abby’s head.  I quickly slipped it under the pillow with a note that I had just written.  Abby then got up and asked it I had seen the dollar that she obviously had noticed before I had arrived.  I told her, "It must be here somewhere.She frantically looked under the pillow and found both the note and the dollar bill.  She was so excited that she wanted to read the note immediately.  Anne then asked me to read it to her.  I went into the bathroom and under the light I read it out loud.  Abby became very excited at that moment.  I next told her that I heard something upstairs earlier, and Abby responded by telling me that she too had just heard fairy wings by her ears a few minutes ago, and that it must have been the tooth fairy that woke us both up.  I agreed, and at that moment, a hidden hand from behind Abby slowly slipped into my mine a tooth wrapped very carefully in tissue paper.  A very deep tragedy at that moment was averted!

Morning outside our window.
Later when getting up, I read from the Bible in Matthew 7.   It was telling me that we would know a person by their fruits that they display.  I thought to myself, “That it was true indeed, we can know a person by their fruits!”  Another thought then occurred to me, “ How is it different from that of judging another?”  After pondering this question for some time, I came to realize that fruit inspectors when looking at their harvest, check very carefully for top grade fruits before sending them on to the consumers.  Bad fruit on the other hand are left on the ground to be used as fertilizer for the growth of future good fruit.

So what is the difference between judging and being a fruit inspector?  Those that criticize and speak badly of others are judging them.  Contrary to this, the desire to help the person who is going down the wrong path is the person we find as a fruit inspector.  He prays for those that display sinful ways, and he also realizes his own humanity and propensity for sin.  Fruit inspectors as well, seek God for help, realizing that they themselves, and others  “all” have a fallen nature and have failed in reaching God’s expectations, and hence need the Savior’s help.