Our Prayer Companion

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December 31, 2008

So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.

John 8:7

While lunching in a restaurant with my friend Sue, I asked her how it could be that in the four years I had known her, I had never heard her speak an unkind word about anyone. She just smiled and, reaching into her purse, pulled out a small, flat, ordinary-looking stone with the word "First" written on it in fading blue ink.     "My mother gave this to me years ago," she explained. "Whenever I open my purse, there it is to remind me that I’m not yet qualified to throw it."     Later that afternoon, at home, I picked up a small stone from our backyard and with a felt tip pen I wrote "First" on it, then put it in my handbag. Now, when I see that stone, I remember that an unkind word or a gossipy remark can bruise, can hurt the same way a stone can—all the more reason for not throwing it.

by Beverly Heirich