Too Ashamed?

I just finished watching an old episode of The Little Rascals entitled "Teacher's Pet". What a great lesson it had!

A little boy named, Jack gets a ride to school from a beautiful young lady driving an old Ford convertible with the top off. He begins to carry on and on about the new teacher coming to school that day. He even showed her the scary picture he drew of this lady named, Miss Crabtree. He continued on with telling her about all the tricks his friends were going to play on her that day as well.

Boy was he in for a surprise when he walked into the one room school house and found the lady, who gave him a ride that morning, to be the Miss Crabtree. She smiled and asked Jack to come to the front and held up the picture he drew. The class giggled while poor Jack wanted nothing less than to hide under a chair somewhere.

Shortly after that, she asked Jack's friends to bring forth their little surprises-a bottle of ants, sneeze powder, and an old matchbox containing a live, white mouse. It wasn't long before Dorothy and Weezer, two younger children, came into inform Miss Crabtree that Jack and his friends, Chubby and Furinia, needed to rush home because their parents desperately needed their help. In reality, it was only so the boys could play hookey and enjoy some swimming in the pond nearby. All of this right before Miss Crabtree had boxes of cake and huge barrels of vanilla and chocolate icecream delivered.

Cake and icecream or swimming hole? Well naturally, Miss Crabtree played along and said, "Come now boys, you need to get going. Your parents are waiting for you." She practically had to help escort them out the door with her arm around Furinia's shoulder.

Upon sitting on the school steps, Furinia chided Jack, "Some friend you are! You snitch!"

Jack answered back, "How was I supposed to know she was the teacher? She didn't have a sign on her when she picked me up."

Furinia declared, "Well I'm going in there and fess up, so I don't miss out on that ice cream! What about you?"

Jack began to sob, "I can't! I'm too ashamed!" Furinia and Chubby turned to get up and walked back in the school house. Miss Crabtree welcomed them and piled on the cake and icecream. Jack was laying down under a Maple tree sobbing. He would've missed out had Miss Crabtree not been so gracious. She walked out to him and sat 2 plates in from of him on the ground. Jack looked at the huge pile of vanilla icecream on one plate and the hunk of chocolate cake on the other and with tears streaming down his face, confessed to Miss Crabtree, "You are the most beautiful teacher and as nice as Miss McGuilicuddy was. You're even nicer."

1 John 1:9 reads "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."

Let's not miss out because we're too ashamed. There's always more than enough icecream and grace to go around.