“The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all, training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly.”  Titus 2:12

Mr. Potato Head was preparing his children, Polly and Haman, for church tonight.  He told each of them that they were allowed to bring one thing to church tonight to play with during the worship service.  Polly choose to bring her new giraffe along.  Haman put his item in a bag so that no one could see it.

“What’s in the bag, son?” asked Mr. Potato Head.  “My toy to ‘play’ with,” said Haman as he tapped his fingers together and raised one eyebrow. “Looks like you’ve got big plans,” smiled his father.  “I DO!” said Haman, also smiling.

“Daddy, Ham is going to tease me, I just know it!” Polly cried. Haman can sometimes be very cruel to his sister.  And his sister then cries a lot.  And then it turns into a fight, every time.  Mr. Potato Head thought to himself, “We can’t have fighting in our family like this, especially on Christmas Eve.  And so he sat them down and had a serious talk about “self-control.”

“Children, I love you both, very much.  And I want for us to be a happy family.  Haman, I know you like to tease your sister, and Polly, I know it upsets you and then you cry. However, sometimes it just looks like a bully and a crybaby.  I know our family can do better than that.”  Polly asked “How?”  Haman looked nervously at his bag. 

“It’s hard work to do the “right” thing, I know.  But neither one of you are lazy.  You are both willing to work hard.  So I would like us to work hard to use self control.”  Mr. Potato Head looked directly at Haman and said “The next time you think about teasing Polly, just stop and slowly count to ten.  And instead of teasing, say something nice, or at the very least, say nothing at all.  But STOP YOURSELF from being a bully.”

And then Mr. Potato Head looked directly at his daughter.  “Polly, if Haman, or anyone, teases you, BEFORE you start to cry, stop and count to ten.  And instead of crying, say something nice, or at the very least, say nothing at all and walk away.  STOP YOURSELF from becoming a cry baby.”

And then Mrs. Potato Head called from upstairs “Mr., could you come up and sign this card please.”  And Mr. Potato Head went upstairs.

Both Polly and Haman weren’t quite sure how to do what their father had instructed them to do, but they did understand that they must stop the pattern of bullying and crying. 

Polly ran upstairs to get a blanket for her new giraffe doll, so it wouldn’t get cold on Christmas Eve in church. 

Haman sat still and looked at his bag.

Then he looked at the manager.  He looked at Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus.  The baby Jesus figure is very special because it used to be his Grandmother Potato’s when she was a little girl.  Then he looked at the shepherd and the sheep that came to see Jesus on the night he was born . . .  And he counted the sheep . . . .one . . two . . . three . . . four . . . five . . . six . . . seven . . . eight . . . nine . . . ten!  Haman thought about his plans to tease his sister.  And he realized he had just counted to ten.

He thought about what he had in the bag.  This had been a great plan, the perfect instrument of torture to make his sister cry, right in the middle of the sermon.  He KNOWS it is wrong to tease his sister.  So Haman used SELF CONTROL and he opened the bag and removed the . . . POTATO MASHER!

Let there be Peace on earth and let it start here, tonight, with Polly and Haman, with me and you and with everyone here!  THE ENDP

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