MOTHER HAD just baked batch of chocolate chip cookies and there they were all spread out on the table to cool. Just then little Joanne came in from play and saw all the cookies. My, they smelled good and how tempting they looked!
Mother had gone upstairs, so Joanne called up: “Mother, may I have a cookie?”
“Yes,” said Mother, “you may have one.”
It tasted scrumptious. Then Joanne called out again, “Mother, may I have two cookies?”
“Yes,” said Mother, “but that’s all. I don’t want you to spoil your appetite.”
So Joanne took another cookie, and as she went outside she thought “Some of my friends may come along and will want me to share my cookies with them. I’ll take a few more along with me.” So Joanne went back and got several more, and then sat down on the front porch But no one else came along, and so it came about that Joanne ate all the cookies herself.
But poor Joanne’s pleasure was short-lived. Scripture tells us, “Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.” Proverbs 9:1717Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. (Proverbs 9:17) Joanne knew that she had disobeyed her mother and she ought to have gone right away and confessed to her mother what she had done. But this she didn’t do, and it was a sac little girl that played by herself or the porch all afternoon.
Then just before supper Joanne summoned up the courage to go and tell her mother. She said, “Mother, I disobeyed you this afternoon. You told me I could have two cookies, but I took several more, and I’m very sorry, Mother. Won’t you forgive me?”
Mother was sorry that her little daughter had disobeyed her, but she was glad Joanne had confessed her wrong. Mother told her that she forgave her, but she also told her that when we sin, we sin against the Lord, so Joanne must go and tell the Lord Jesus that she was sorry for what she had done. Disobedience is sin, and the Lord Jesus had to die in order to put that sin away.
Joanne then went away and got down on her knees and confessed to the Lord Jesus that she had been naughty, and that she had sinned against Him. After she had it all out with the Lord, she felt the burden lifted from her heart. Little Joanne was a happier and wiser little girl from then on.
ML-08/24/1969