Finding the Golden Rule in a Three-Pack of Strawberries

Like a compulsive gambler who begins scrambling when the chips are low, I am a compulsive fruit buyer. I can't seem to keep enough fresh fruit in the house to keep my five growing kiddos satisfied.

So on a recent afternoon, straight from school pickups, I pulled into the local fruit market. I carefully studied the fresh strawberries on sale — a three-pack for $5. I made a great selection. Luscious, bright red and enormous, they looked ever so sweet. Upon arriving home, I placed them in the perfect shaded spot, anticipating preparation for dinner.

Several hours later, as I exit my home office to begin to prepare dinner, I bump into two neighborhood boys right outside my door. Visits from these boys are not an unusual occurrence in our house.

One asks, "Can I have a strawberry?" Then other pipes up, "Yeah, me too!"

At this point, I become irritated. With a smile on my face, I agree to wash and handout strawberries to everyone. But, I first set down the law.

"Only two strawberries each. We are having dinner soon and I don't want you to ruin your appetites," I exclaimed.

As I hand out the goods, I reflect on why I was feeling so irritated. Am I annoyed because I want to save the strawberries just for my family? Is it the fact that taking on two extra kids at this juncture of the day is not what I had anticipated? Is it the fact that the score in my head is that I've hosted these two boys 186 times in four years and my neighbor has offered to have my children (any or all five) zero times? Is it the fact that I feel like my neighbor may be taking advantage of me? Or, maybe I just feel unappreciated because I personally never receive a thank you.

The older boy interrupts my negative train of thought and says, "Boy, these strawberries are sooo sweet."

I reply, "Yes, God did a great job making them, didn't he?"

He nods his head in reply. My initial reaction would normally be to offer more to any guest in my home. This time, however, I had an internal battle going on. A little voice in my head said, "You said ONLY two strawberries."

Then my husband walks into the kitchen and offers to take the children to the community pool, while I make dinner. "I'll walk the boys home now." I immediately say, "Great!"

As the whole crew exits the front door, I begin to gather my dinner ingredients. I feel initial relief to have everyone gone, but then the negative feelings start taking over again. I stop and ask the Holy Spirit to help me to dissolve these feelings. I am at the sink, washing the remaining strawberries. While I look down at them, I hear my own words to the older boy, "God did a great job making them…" Then I realize, these strawberries are not mine, they belong to God, who made them perfectly, just as he made both of these young boys perfectly.

I immediately packed up one of the plastic containers with freshly washed strawberries and marched to my neighbor's house. I anxiously awaited her arrival at the door. As the door opened, the boys' faces popped out beneath their mom's look of great surprise.

"Thanks so much! You are so generous and thoughtful," she said.

"I wanted to give these to the boys. They had a couple earlier and commented on how sweet they were," I replied.

"Oh, and by the way, thanks for always having the boys over your house to play."

"You're welcome." I could feel my face stretch as I smiled back at her. "Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you….Love your neighbor as yourself," these words jumped into my head. The Holy Spirit had dissolved my irritated feelings.

Let's fast forward. The next evening while putting my daughter to bed, the title of her daily devotional was, "Practicing the Golden Rule." At the end of the story, the question was, "Do you always treat others the way you want to be treated, even if it the circumstance seems unfair?" My daughter embarrassingly said, "No."

This prompted me to share with her how I had just learned the importance of this lesson the day before through a three-pack of strawberries. After sharing my story with her, I asked, "Do you think it was hard for me to do what I did? How do you think I felt after I gave our neighbors the strawberries?"

My daughter put a big smile on her face and pointed to it. "Yes," I said. I was happy that the Holy Spirit prompted me to do this act of kindness — it made our neighbors happy, and opened the opportunity for an exchange of appreciation and healing. You see, the benefits of keeping fruit in the house goes beyond just satisfying the tummy. On this day, it satisfied the heart.

Subscribe to CE
(It's free)

Go to Catholic Exchange homepage

MENU