B. The Restitution:
1. They kept on walking, mostly in silence, until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath and cool form the heat.
2. It was the one who had been slapped in the face that got stuck in the quicksand and started drowning, but his friend saved him.
3. After he recovered from the near drowning, he engraved on a stone:
4. 'Today my best friend saved my life'

C The Understanding”
1. The friend who had slapped him and saved his best friend asked him, “After I hurt you, you wrote in the sand and now, you chisel on a stone, why?”
2. The friend replied to the inquiry with this answer: “When someone hurts us, we should write it down in sand, so that winds of forgiveness can erase it in time, like Stephen:
Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, "Lord, do not charge them with this sin." And when he had said this, he fell asleep. (Acts 7:60)
3. But, when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it', like Christ:
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)

D. Conclusion:
Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man's all.
(Ecclesiastes 12:13)
1. Learn to write your hurts in the sand; and to carve your benefits in stone.
2. They say it takes a minute to find a special person,
a. An hour to appreciate them,
b. A day to love them,
c. But then, an entire life to forget them.
3. Do not value the material things you have in your life, but value who you are and who you have known in your life!
And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. (Acts 11:26b)
4. Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle, within or without himself.

By Gary Murphy

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