Grudges

[172 words] One day a visitor leaned on the fence around the farm while he watched an old farmer plowing with a mule. After a while the visitor said, “I don’t like to tell people how to run their business, but you could save yourself a lot of work by saying ‘Gee’ and ‘Haw” to the mule instead of just tugging on those lines.” The old farmer pulled a big handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his face. Then he said, “Reckon you’re right, but the mule kicked me five years ago and I ain’t spoke to him since.” The moral of the story seems obvious. A grudge is harder on the one holding it than the one it is held against. The apostle Paul declared, “Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any; even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye”…