A little
boy visiting his grandparents and given his first slingshot. He
practiced in the woods, but he could never hit his target. As he
came back to Grandma's back yard, he spied her pet duck. On an
impulse he took aim and let fly. The stone hit, and the duck fell
dead. The boy panicked. Desperately he hid the dead duck in the wood
pile, only to look up and see his sister watching. Sally had seen it
all, but she said nothing.
After lunch that day, Grandma said, "Sally, let's wash the dishes."
But Sally said, "Johnny told me he wanted to help in the kitchen
today. Didn't you, Johnny?" And she whispered to him, "Remember the
duck!" So Johnny did the dishes.
Later Grandpa asked if the children wanted to go fishing. Grandma
said, "I'm sorry, but I need Sally to help make supper." Sally
smiled and said, "That's all taken care of. Johnny wants to do it."
Again she whispered, "Remember the duck." Johnny stayed while Sally
went fishing.
After several
days of Johnny doing both his chores and Sally's, finally he couldn't stand
it. He confessed to Grandma that he'd killed the duck.
"I know, Johnny,"
she said, giving him a hug. "I was standing at the window and saw the whole
thing. Because I love you, I forgave you. I wondered how long you would let
Sally make a slave of you."
"You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men."
1 Co 7:23
"...we were buried with Him through baptism into death,
that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the
Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life....
"Now if we died
with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,... Likewise
you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to
God in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 6:4, 11
What it
means to be a Christian
