A Sack of Potatoes
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 sack 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, in turn, made them unpleasant to be around. It didn't take long for each
of the students to figure out that getting rid of the potatoes was much more
important than carrying them around.
This is 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.
Forgiveness is clearly is for ourselves!