NOVEMBER 29, Proverbs 1:10

“Yuck! What’s that smell?” Jeffrey asked. “Smells like something rotten,” said Dad, “and I think I know what it is.”

He went to the larder and pointed to a bag of potatoes. “Just as I suspected,” he said as he picked up a couple of them. “I figured these would be out of the way here, but we’ve left them too long. I guess we’d better not buy so many at one go, even if they are on sale.” They checked on more of the potatoes. “Let’s sort these out and get rid of the bad ones,” added Dad.

“Here are all the potatoes that are still good,” Jeffrey announced, handing a bag to Mom. “The rest are yucky,” he shook his head. “At first, I thought there would be more that we could keep, but it looks like the rot spread from the bad ones to a lot of the good ones.”

Mom nodded. “There’s an old expression that says, ‘One bad apple spoils the barrel’, and I guess that works with potatoes as well,” she said. “And people, too,” said Dad, coming into the kitchen.

“Yeah,” said Jeffrey. “We catch stuff like the flu and colds from each other.”

“That’s true,” agreed Dad, “and people ‘catch’ other things, too, such as bad habits. For instance, if you hang around with kids who show no respect for authority, you might follow their lead in that.”

“I think you might also pick up bad habits from television shows,” observed Mom. “On many programmes, God’s name is thoughtlessly sprinkled into the conversations. If you hear that a lot, you could easily start using His name that way too.”

“Which is why it’s a good idea not to watch those programmes,” said Dad. He paused, then added, “In the Bible, yeast is often a symbol of sin, and the Apostle Paul reminded the Corinthians that a little yeast affects the whole lump of dough. Like yeast, and like rotten potatoes, sin spreads. So, avoid bad influences before bad habits spread to you.”

Thought: Do you think you can improve a rowdy group of kids by joining them? Do you expect kids who swear, to stop doing that if you spend enough time with them? Are you quite sure bad websites would not hurt you? Be careful!

Prayer: Heavenly Father, I know sinful habits spread. I know it is good to be friendly with everyone, but the friends whom I spend most time with, should be those who love You and want to please Jesus. Please help me to choose my friends and activities wisely! In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.