Be Careful As You Read - written by Alfred (a short story for kids)
Once upon a time there lived a young man named Tom. Life was tough for him and things just seemed to be one hustle after another. Making ends meet and trying to keep his head afloat just kept getting harder with each passing day.
One day when he was grumbling in his heart about all his many struggles but keeping a smile on his face as camouflage, a lady walked up to him and shared the gospel with him. They ended up talking a lot longer than he might have expected. He just opened up to her. He told her what was really going on inside him – he told her about the struggle of the man behind the mask. She listened attentively and with genuine concern. She spoke wisely and by the spirit of God so at the end of that afternoon she had lead him in a salvation prayer, invited him to her church and had also told him something that was more precious than anything gold can buy – she had told him what he didn’t know but wanted to hear – she had told him what he needed to hear – she had told him what would bring his suffering and hustling streak to an end – she had told him that all he needed was wisdom and knowledge.
Later that day when Tom sat alone at home and reflected on what the lady had told him he is mesmerized at the benefits of having wisdom and knowledge.
A few years later, Tom was a rich Christian man. He was reaping the benefits of continually seeking knowledge and he was smart enough to still keep seeking knowledge in-spite of the fact that it had already made him rich. His personal library in his really big mansion was really a marvel on its own. The great thing was that it wasn’t just a beautiful personal library that contained many books that the owner of the library never read and would never read but it was a library owned by a voracious reader who devoured and devoured and devoured more.
Tom became obsessed with reading (which is a good thing) and he would even tell anyone that would listen that they should form the good habit of reading.
Tom however started reading all kinds of books including books that were against his Christian beliefs. As time when on, the amount of time he spent reading Christian books decreased and the time spent on reading other books (that where sometimes secular) increased, thus balancing itself out. Tom didn’t notice this. All he knew was that he was gaining knowledge – lots of it.
What he couldn’t see was the difference that now he was gaining lots of knowledge that is against God’s word.
In metaphorically terms he may still be in a car that’s moving forward, but the thing was that now he was moving in the wrong direction.
Like a thief that sneaks up silently on their victim, strange beliefs and ideologies started creeping up on Tom. In a matter of months he was a totally different person with different beliefs and a different worldview. He now believed the wrong things, asked the wrong questions and thought the wrong thoughts. Pretty soon the questions that where birth as a result of the wrong books took away reading from him.
He had lost what had inspired him to pick up books in the first place. The wrong kind of knowledge he had gained had quenched his thirst for knowledge all together.
He started making the wrong business decisions and soon lost all his wealth.
He died a wretched and poor man all because he didn’t watch how he read.
Don’t be like him. Love reading, but read only the right books.
THE END.