Once upon a time there was a little boy that loved to do TWO things the most in life; those two things were FISHING and EATING APPLES!!! Oh how he loved to do these two things. One day, he was walking home from the creek after a loooooong day of fishing and NOT catching a single fish. He was soooooo hungry he couldn't wait to get home for a good home cooked dinner from his mother.
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As he was walking home he discovered and apple tree on their family property, he was soooooo EXCITED, he grabbed his fishing pail, climbed up the tree and began picking apples. When his little pail was full, he jumped down and began walking the rest of the way home!!! As he walked, crunched on an apple and dreamed of the apple pie his mom could make with it. Nobody, except his Aunt Mary, could make apple pie LIKE HIS MOM!!!
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When he got to the house, he left the pail of apples and all his fishin gear on the front porch. He ran inside and told his mom all about the pail of apples he had picked and how he was REALLY hoping that she would make him an apple pie with some of them. His mom PROMISED him, that AFTER dinner and AFTER cleaning up after dinner, IF he ate all his vegetables and IF he helped clean up, THEN she would indeed make him that apple pie.
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He was sooooooooo EXCITED!!! He raced to the bathroom, washed his hands WITH SOAP. He helped set the table and when it was time to eat dinner, he ate ALL the food on his plate, INCLUDING the vegetables and then he even asked for seconds on VEGGIES!!! Then he helped clear off the table, he helped sweep the floor annnnnnnnd he EVEN helped wash the dishes, he just COULD NOT wait for this apple pie to be baked...he could just taste the buttery, flaky crust and the cinnomon, sugary apples melting in his mouth...Mmmmmm!!!
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When everything was FINALLY cleaned up, his mom sent him to get the bucket of apples. However, MUCH to this lil boys dismay, when he went to grab the bucket of apples, he looked in and saw a HUGE swarming MESS!!! There were worms EVERYWHERE!!! The little boy didn't understand, were the apples ROTTEN??? Buuuuut they couldn't be he thought, they had seemed sooooo perfect when he picked them from the tree. Plus, he had EVEN eaten one on the way home and it had beed absolutely DELICIOUS!!! WHAT HAD HAPPENED TO THE APPLES???
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Then he saw it, his can of worms that he had used for bait while fishing, he had left them half opened on top of the apples when he put everything down. He looked at his apples, worms swarming everywhere, some eating into the apples, there was NO way he could pick them all out and be sure they were all gone...his apples were RUINED...that meant NO APPLE PIE!!! He couldn't stop the tear from sliding down his cheek as he told his mom what had happened.
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His mommy gave him a hug, then pulled him into her lap to talk to him. She said, you see son, you can't mix the apples with worms, because the worms will over take and eat out the apples. She said by the time tomorrow morning comes, those apples will mostly be gone. She said and son, this is the way it is IN LIFE!!! You can't mix even a little evil with good, because the evil, will over rule and over take the GOOD!!!
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Sometimes in life, we have to reject a WHOLE lot of something that is GOOD, because with that good, there is just a little bit of bad mixed in annnnnnnd EVEN tho the good thing, by far outweighs the bad that is mixed in, and before you even know it, the little bit of bad will over take the good. The GOOD thing, MUST stay COMPLETELY SEPERATED in order to STAY GOOD!!!
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Annnnnnnd soooooooo this little boy remembered this important lesson in seperation from the things of this world. And when friends would try and show him all the GOOD in something, before he ever brought it into his own life, he would ALWAYS check to see if IN this good thing that would help him, IF there was ANY bad at all mixed in...annnnnnd if he even saw one little worm mixed in with that apple, he would find a different apple to bite from.
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Annnnnnnnd because the little boy did this, he one day grew up to be a rightous, holy, man of God. Strong in convcitions...unwavering in the truth. Seperated from the world...and when people asked him how he became the amazing man of God that he was, he always told them, its because I LEARNED that I can't put my apples by the worms. When they asked him what he meant he said,
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you HAVE to keep the bad, COMPLETELY out of the good, if you want the good, to stay good!!!
"Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you." (2 Corinthians 6:17)♥Mary Frances :)
