Whose Cookies???

If you have been snared with the words of your mouth, Have been caught with the words of your mouth, Do this then, my son, and deliver yourself; Since you have come into the hand of your neighbor, Go, humble yourself, and importune your neighbor. (Proverbs 6:2-3)

I pray that this poem will remind all of us not to jump to conclusions.  Each of us is bound to recall some time when we did something akin to this poor lady.

At an airport one night

With several long hours

Before her flight.

She hunted for a book

In an airport shop,

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....ooh, brother!

This guy had 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 have we absolutely known that something was a certain way, only to discover later that what we believed to be true.....was not?  Always keep an open mind and an open heart, because you just never know...."You might be eating someone else's cookies."

Prayer

Lord, make my words soft and sweet.  I never know when I will have to eat them.  Amen