Are Your Potatos Heavy?

A teacher once told each of her students to bring a clear plastic bag and a sack of potatoes to school. For every person they refuse to forgive in their life's experience, they chose a potato, wrote on it the name and date, and put it in the plastic bag. Some of their bags were quite heavy.

They were then told to carry this bag with them everywhere for one week, putting it beside their bed at night, on the car seat when driving, next to their desk at work.

The hassle of lugging this around with them made it clear what a weight they were carrying spiritually, and how they had to pay attention to it all the time to not forget and keep leaving it in embarrassing places. Naturally, the condition of the potatoes deteriorated to a nasty smelly slime. This was a great metaphor for the price we pay for keeping our pain and heavy negativity! Too often we think of forgiveness as a gift to the other person, when it clearly is a gift to ourselves!

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I found this story and loved the message behind it so much that I wanted to share it with all of you. No one gets an exemption from getting hurt. After all, we're only human and we've all experienced it sometime or another. At times it comes from strangers and other times from those we love the most. Many times, in the heat of the moment, things come out of our mouths before they get filtered by our hearts and what we say are mean and ugly things. And yes, those things can hurt so badly that they break our hearts into a million pieces. But the only way to mend our hearts back together again is to show others the same compassion that God gives to us each and every moment in our lives.

So this Christmas, let bygones be bygones. Give others that same gift of forgiveness that God has graciously given to you and you'll see the weight of those potatoes lift off your shoulders and your life will get a little lighter (and happier too).

Much love,