The word "want"

Everybody knows that the car in the Monopoly game is the most popular token of all of them. There are so many choices. But for some reason, the car token seems to be the most common choice. Maybe it's because it's the biggest or because it looks cool. It doesn't matter. This relates to how picky we are. As humans we want what we want and we'll do what we can to get it. Sometimes this means hurting some one's feelings by being inconsiderate to what other people prefer or want.
And what about the word "want?" Even as I write I don't want to write that word so often. The truth is the human race "wants." Maybe by being content with what we have, and realizing that maybe we are not the center of the universe, we can show progress in our attitude. We can not possibly eliminate wants completely, but we can however improve our need to have everything.

One lunch period at a time

I like the way my youth pastor tells his stories, but not only the way he tells them, but the stories themselves. Yesterday, wait, two days ago, was his last lesson and he has a way of telling them so that you're really into his lessons. He mixes stories from his childhood into his lessons. This time his story was about when he was in middle school, this was his story.
"I was in middle school and I didn't really have any friends.
Then one day this guy came up to me and said, "Do you want a piece of chocolate?"
So I said, "Sure" so I ate it and seven other people came up to me and gave me a piece of chocolate. I couldn't figure out why. Later, people came up to me and were asking me if I felt alright.
I said, "Yeah---no wait a minute, I feel kind of weird in my stomach area."
The guy started busting up laughing and said, "You just ate eight pieces of x-lax! One piece makes you poop all day and you just ate eight!" So I set up camp on the toilet and that was the end of that.
There was this guy named Tim who had all the clothes, he had all the shoes---everything and he was the nicest guy ever! And one day I was eating lunch by myself as usual them Tim came and sat next to me and asked if I had any friends I said no. So he said he'd be my friend from then on and he was my friend all throughout school."
I had never heard such a cool story in my life. So the next day, I went to school and before I sat down with my friends I looked over the lunch room to see if any one was sitting by them self. Well no one that day, but the next day there was. So I sat down with him and asked if he had any friends he said not really. Then I asked who he usually sat with and he said nobody so I told him I would be his friend. He said okay and so I just talked to him for the lunch period.
The world would be so much cooler if everybody decided to meet somebody new and actually take the time to get to know each other. One by one we can make a difference in some one's life---one lunch period at a time.

The color of difference

When I was younger, I just so happened to like this guy who had a different skin color than mine. Everybody said, "How can he ever like you? He's black and you're white." Now this confused me. I couldn't figure out why this mattered so much to people. After all, it's not a crime for two different people with two different colors of skin to like each other.

It hurt to hear them say that. It hurt like I had been slapped in the face. I had finally been exposed to real life. Nobody really cares about your heart, but they do care about visual differences. It's not like it's against the law to like some one different than you.

I don't know if you have ever noticed, but everybody in the world is different! So it's not impossible for someone not to love or like some one different than them.

The world needs work --- a lot of work. Racism is a poison that is tearing this world apart. Sometimes I wonder if the world will ever change. Look at the picture above. If a tiger and a lion can get over their differences, so can we.