Underwear in the Fridge? The power of stories to change our lives

Today my children reminded me of the power of stories to impact how we behave, how we live our lives.

Of course, it's all my fault too.

You see, every night before we read a Bible story together, my children insist on hearing me tell them a "Herbie" story that I am forced to come up with every night. Herbie is the name of a froggie who has great and wonderful adventures - and who also has a rather mischievous side. Recently, I told them a story of how Herbie took all of his father's underwear and put it in the freezer. Herbie, of course, suitably learned from this mischievous behavior and the story progressed from there. 

Clearly my children learned from this behaviour as well, because guess what I found in my fridge this morning?

That's right. My underwear (and yes, it was clean).

Fortunately, they couldn't reach the freezer.

This brings to mind the greatest story teller of all, Jesus, who shared parables that have literally changed lives since the day He shared them, whether the parable of the prodigal son or the unforgiving servant, the parable of the lost sheep or the good Samaritan. I am reminded to be filling my mind and my life with HIS stories, with His words of Truth and Life, allowing them to change me from the inside out and hopefully impact the world about me.

I may not be leaving underwear in my neighbour's freezer (after all, I'm rather partial to avoiding jail time), but I hope I'm having a different impact on my neighbour, whether my literal neighbour, my friends, my co-workers, or the people in the world around me.

I hope that I am living out the words and stories and Truth of Jesus and bringing light to a darkened world.

That's my prayer for today, anyway.