A school teacher asked each child in the class to bring along a plastic bag containing a few potatoes. Each potato will be given a name of a person that the child hates, so the number of potatoes that a child will put in his/her plastic bag will depend on the number of people he/she hates.
So on Monday, every child brought some potatoes with the name of the people he/she hated. Some had two potatoes; some had three potatoes, while some up to five potatoes.
The teacher then told the children to carry with them the potatoes in the plastic bag wherever they go (even to the toilet) for the whole week.
As days passed by, and the children started to complain due to the unpleasant smell let out by the rotten potatoes. Besides, those potatoes they also had to carry bags. On Friday, the children were relieved.
The teacher asked: “How did you feel while carrying the potatoes with you for the whole week?”
The children let out their frustrations and started complaining of the trouble that they had to go through having to carry the heavy and smelly potatoes wherever they go.
Then the teacher explained: “This is exactly what happens when you carry your hatred for somebody inside your heart. The stench of hatred will contaminate your heart and you will carry it with you wherever you go.
If we cannot tolerate the smell of rotten potatoes for just one week, can you imagine what is it like to have the stench of hatred in our heart for our lifetime?
Moral of the story
Throw away any hatred for anyone from your heart so that you will not carry sins for a lifetime. Forgiving others is the best attitude to take!
Vocabulary Help
- bring (bring, brought, brought) – trazer
- carry – carregar
- complain – reclamar
- forgive (forgive, forgave, forgiven) – perdoar
- hate – odiar
- hatred – ódio
- heart – coração
- heavy – pesado
- lifetime – vida inteira
- plastic bag – sacola plástica
- potato – batata
- relieved – aliviado
- rotten – apodrecida
- school teacher – professor de escola
- sin – pecado
- smelly – mal cheiroso
- stench – fedor
- unpleasant smell – cheiro desagradável
- whole week – por toda a semana
