Encourage, Enlighten, & Inspire.
AUG / SEPT 2010
7
jealousy, gossip, condemnation, self doubt and the list could go on and on. I examined myself that day standing in my kitchen. Is my core crisp and fragrant? Or is it rotten and spoiled? I had to be honest with myself. There are parts of my core that are as rotten as that apple’s core. Just as I took the knife and carefully cut around the rottenness of the ugly core there was beauty to be found still there. Since this little incident I have chosen to look at myself a little closer. To check myself if you will. To trim around the ugly parts of me so that the good parts shine a little brighter. Oh I am not perfect; just ask my husband and daughter, friends or maybe my mother. They will assure you I have an ugly side.
================== Do You Like APPLES? ==================
D
o you like apples? I love red
or green, big, juicy, fragrant, crisp, tart apples. Recently I brought home a beautiful bunch of apples. That afternoon I picked out a big one, gave it a good washing and got out a knife and the peanut butter. Yes I like peanut butter with my apples. As I slid the knife down the center and the fragrant scent rushed to meet my nose my mouth began to water. However, much to my surprise, I was shocked to see that the core of it was rotten. YUCK! My immediate thought was to throw it out, and then I decided, it just might be able to be salvaged. Carefully I cut out the ugliness and found there was still plenty juicy goodness left to devour.
As I was coring this apple thoughts began to race around in my head. When I was a child I would sometimes hear my mother and grandmother make this comment when they would meet someone new, “I wonder if she is as pretty on the inside as she is on the outside.” While coring that apple this is what I thought about. How many of us are as pretty on the inside as we are on the outside. Only we ourselves know for sure. Within each of us there is a core. What our core is rooted in only we know for certain. I appear to be a sweet, loving, kind, generous, caring person. And for the most part I am. But I do battle with thoughts of envy, greed,
But I honestly want to be on the inside the person everyone sees me as on the outside. My apple that day appeared perfect in every way until that first slice. My attitude and actions are clear notes to those I surround myself with what type of person I am. I am grateful that the good Lord and I are the only ones who can see my core. It will take daily sessions with my paring knife (well not really a knife, but you know what I mean) to make sure the people in my life only see the good fruit in me. And if you run across a bad apple, take a second look, I promise there is good in every apple, ya just have to core them first.