We often learn the most from our children. Some time ago, a man punished his 3 year-old daughter for wasting a roll of gold wrapping paper. Money was tight, and he became infuriated when the child tried to decorate a box to put under the tree.

Nevertheless, the little girl brought the gift to her father the next morning and said, "This is for you, daddy." He was embarrassed by his earlier over reaction, but his anger flared again when he found that the box was empty. He yelled at her, "Don't you know that when you give someone a present, there's supposed to be something inside of it?" The little girl looked up at him with tears in her eyes and said, "Oh, daddy, it's not empty. I blew kisses into the box. All for you, Daddy." The father was crushed. He put his arms around his little girl, and he begged her forgiveness.

I'm sure all of us can think of times when we've rushed into something prematurely or made a foolish decision because we didn't stop and think through our actions. Be patient in your circumstances. Ask God for wisdom. Angry people often make mistakes. Wise people get counsel before making decisions. Did you know that Jesus Christ went and prayed by Himself before choosing the disciples? We should follow His example.

Judging a book by it's cover has blown up in people's faces more times than we'd like to admit. In John 7:24, Jesus says "Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment." Superficial judgments are wrong because they are not based on the facts or the whole truth. In this story, the man could have asked his daughter about the box before getting angry. However, he made a false assumption and felt sorry for it.