The berries growing next to the rotten ones get blemishes a lot quicker than those sitting next to the fresher ones. If you’ve ever been to a farm to pick strawberries near the end of the season, you’ll be able to attest to the fact that there are many rotten berries on the plants. It’s impossible to pick all of the berries without some of them inevitably rotting. However, you can also find beautiful sweet strawberries growing right alongside, often touching the rotten ones. Almost everytime that I pick a strawberry that has been growing directly next to a rotten one, the spot that was touching the rotten strawberry is also beginning to rot. This reminded me that I need to choose my friends carefully. When I surrounded my self with friends that didn’t know God, I found myself listening to off-color jokes, skipping church, and going places that I would not ordinarily go. A part of me was beginning to rot. When, I left those friends behind and surrounded myself with Christian friends I got back on track, reading God’s word, looking for ways to serve, and carefully watching my language and actions so as not to be offensive. My non-christian friends were fun, wild, and spontaneous but were leading me astray from the path God wants me to walk. My Christian friends, are just as wild (in a different sense), fun and spontaneous, but are also affirming and edifying and hold me accountable for my actions.

     Looks can be deceiving. It’s exciting to find that perfect berry. It looks so red, and shiny and you reach out to pick it only to find that what’s hiding on the other side is either rotten, or half eaten away by a slug. People are just like that berry. We try so hard to keep up appearances. We have to look just right, or talk just right so that people will think we are holding it all together and not see the rotten spots lurking just under the surface or behind our back. We won’t let ourselves be vulnerable enough to anyone to show our true colors (our struggles, fears, disappointments) and therefore often hide beneath deceptive disguises. I know whenever an acquaintance greets me on the street or in passing the discourse goes something like this: "Hi, how are you?"; Fine, thanks and how are you?" Neither of us the wiser as to what’s really going on beneath the surface. Neither willing to take the time to see the pain or hurt the other might be experiencing and thus we go our separate ways believing our polite greeting has kept the world at bay and prevented others from seeing our carefully hidden secret lives.

     Not all the best looking berries are sweet - some are very sour. You know the type. The person you want the world to see in you is the one you are drawn to. In public they are all smiles, their prayers make you feel like you’ve been in God’s presence. You hear only edifying words on their lips, they hold the doors for you when others are apt to be watching. Get them alone for a few minutes and you hear a string of curses that would make your grandmother blush. They complain about the actions of others while oblivious to their own faults. They find the "speck in their brother’s eye" while missing "the plank" in their own. The word that comes to mind is hypocrisy "The profession of beliefs or virtues, one does not possess." We can all fall into the trap of hypocrisy. Do as I say, not as I do. Not allowing our kids to watch certain movies because of the content, then watching the same movies after we think they are in bed. Or teaching them not to lie, then they hear us tell someone on the phone "I’m sorry he’s not here right now can I take a message, while Daddy is sitting right beside them all the while saying "If it’s for me, I’m not here." Others may see us as hypocrites because we happen to be having a bad day and are acting out of character. While we do have to be careful how we act and speak in public and at home in the presence of our precious little ones, God knows of our imperfections and our potential for sin. He looks on the heart and knows our true intentions even when the world is blinded, and it’s only a short trip back to the Saviors feet when we have sinned.