Smelly Potatoes

Once a Junior School teacher asked her students to bring some potatoes
in a plastic bag to school. Each potato will be given a name of the
person whom that child hates. Like this, the number of potatoes will be
equal to the number of persons they hate. On a decided day the children
brought their potatoes well addressed. Some had two, some had three and
some had even five potatoes. The teacher said they have to carry these
potatoes with them everywhere they go for a week.  As the days passed
the children started to complain about the spoiled smell that started
coming from these potatoes. Also some students who had many potatoes
complained that it was very heavy to carry them all around. The children
got rid of this assignment after a week, when it got over.

The teacher asked, “How did you feel in this one week?” The children
discussed their problems about the smell and weight. Then the teacher
said, “This situation is very similar to what you carry in your heart
when you don’t like some people. This hatred makes your heart unhealthy
and you carry that hatred in your heart everywhere you go. If you can
not bear the smell of spoiled potatoes for a week, imagine the impact of
this hatred that you carry through out your life, on your heart?”

Our heart is a beautiful garden that needs a regular cleansing of unwanted weeds.

Forgive those who have not behaved with you as you expected and forget the bad things. This also makes room available for storing good things.