The Apology Letter

We all love food that our moms make. I love my mom’s food too.

This incident occurred when I was about 8 years old. Mom made aloo mutter(peas and potatoes cooked in a rich onion-tomato base). She made a pan full of the dish then left for office.

I think I had a holiday at school that day. So when it was lunchtime, I had the dish with rice…mmm yummy..so I took it a second time…mmmmm!
The third time I went directly to the kitchen and  took a spoonful of the gravy and had it..and then again….this happened until I wiped the utensil clean.

Now what? Suddenly I felt fearful. What would mom say? Wouldn’t she scold me? How can one person finish a dish that could fill at least 3  people?

So I thought of a plan. I wrote a letter to her. It was not a small one. I started by describing the dish and how tasty it was and how I was tempted to have more and more. I ended the letter apologising to her.

To make it look like a real letter, I made an envelope and put the letter in it. Wrote our address on it and even pasted a used stamp I got from some other letter.  I was satisfied now.

In the evening when mom came back from office, I pretended that the postman delivered a letter with her name on it.

Mom of course knew it was me. Nevertheless, she patiently read the letter. I could see that she was amused while she went through the content.

By the end she laughed. But she also wondered how could an 8 year old skinny kid empty an entire dish. Was it so tasty? she asked amused. Phew! I was relieved that she didn’t scold me and hopped away happily.

Friendship

We all love having friends around us. When we were kids, we made friends for playing with them. As we got older, we made friends for company, often to get out of boredom of being alone. These days many of us have friends but just how many of us have true friends? We often tend to have friends whom we can compare or compete with. Are her (or his ) things better than mine? I want that thing (maybe a gadget or a new dress) too. With instant messages becoming a norm, we don’t have the time to visit our friends much less listen to their problems or support them. 

I read a quote on social media not long ago. Someone posted Life is all about mind and matter. I don’t mind, you don’t matter. How true it is today! One doesn’t mind (or bother) what the other person does. Because the other person holds little value in the first person’s life.
With this background let’s turn to one of the well known friendships in the Bible- David and Jonathan.

David was a shepherd boy who played music for the king Saul. Jonathan was the son of the king. David was very popular among the people because he had killed Goliath the giant. King Saul was jealous of David’s popularity and wanted to kill him. But Jonathan and David were good friends. Jonathan was kind to David even though Saul hated David. Jonathan was aware that David would be the next king yet he did not grow jealous of David. Jonathan went out of his way and encouraged David putting his own life in danger. The only request Jonathan asked of David was to be kind to his family once David would be king.

What a friendship! Do we care for our friends putting our priorities after theirs? Or are we selfish? Let’s ask God to create a kind and loving attitude in us so that we may show it to those around us.