when the 'good' becomes regrettable

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There was a little girl sitting at the table with her family, eating dinner. She knew her mother had made a very special dessert, and did not wish to wait all through beef and dumplings to get a taste. So, when the adults seemed occupied in their conversations, the girl slipped out of her chair and into the kitchen.

    There is was: A glorious cake with white icing and edible flowers, two tiers tall! She slipped a dessert fork from the counter-top and took a tiny piece of the cake. "It is in the back; no one will miss it, so it is not as if I have done anything really wrong."

    She cautiously cleaned and replaced the fork as it had been, and returned silently to her chair.

    She moved her beef around on her plate, distracted by the delicious taste of cake fading on her tongue. She wrinkled her nose at her dinner and decided to slip away again and again. She stopped bothering with the fork, and just dipped her fingers in and stuffed her pretty pink cheeks with the sweet, moist cake. Finally, she entered the kitchen once more and realized she had already eaten one tier of the cake herself. "Well, they willn't really mind so much because I left the smaller tier for them."

    She used her finger to wipe up the last of the frosting from the lower tier and then turned to go. She stopped and glanced back greedily at the last tier.

    "No one will really mind if I have just a taste of this one, too..."

    Before her icing-tipped finger had graced her lips, her parents walked into the kitchen, with their guests following after.

    The girl drew her hand behind her back guiltily.

    "What have you done?!" her mother asked in shock. The girl hung her head, and without another word, she was sent to bed as her mother apologized to the company.

    The girl lay on her bed, beginning to feel sick from too much cake and quite sorry for herself. She had no idea how she had thought she could get away with such a crime, but the cake had tasted so good. How could her parents truly have expected her to sit all the way through mashed potatoes, meat, and all the other distasteful courses before at least trying a bite?

    But was it worth it? Now, she had proven herself untrustworthy before her parents and friends... it would be a long time before she would be able to gain back their trust. 

    She sat up there on her bed, her stomach aching with regret. The girl pictured her father's flat, hard ruler for discipline, and knew her punishment was still yet to come.

Beware of taking the prize before its time.

-The End.

beware of little sins (Grace Gems)

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(Thomas Brooks)

"Avoid every kind of evil." 1 Thessalonians 5:22

Little sins multiplied, become great. There is nothing less than a grain of sand--yet there is nothing heavier than the sand of the sea when multiplied.

Little sins are very dangerous!
A little leaven, leavens the whole lump.
A little knife, may kill.
A little leak in a ship, may sink it.

Though the scorpion is little--yet will it sting a lion to death! Just so, a little sin may at once bar the door of Heaven, and open the gates of Hell!

The least sin will damn us--if not pardoned by the death of Christ!

(Charles Spurgeon, "Flowers from a Puritan's Garden" 1883)

"Not only do great sins ruin the soul, but lesser sins will do the same. Dallying with temptation, leads to sad consequences."

A small dagger thrust into the heart, will give as deadly a wound as a huge two-handed sword. Just so, a little sin unrepented of, will be as fatal as living in gross transgressions.
 
Death can hide in a drop, and ride in a breath of air. Just so, our greatest dangers lie hidden in little things. The least sin may be a very Pandemonium in your heart. It may conceal a host of evils, and a numerous hive of mischiefs, each one storing great harm.

Believer, beware of little sins. Watch and pray, lest you fall by little by little.

Lord, save me from sins which call themselves little!