Nothing that isn't true.

One day a blind man was sitting on the steps of a building with a hat near his feet and a sign that said, “I am blind, please help.”
One man walked by and stopped. He saw a disabled man who only had a few coins in his hat. He threw him a couple of coins and wrote new words on the sign without his permission. He left it to the blind man and left.
At the end of the day he returned and saw that the hat was full of coins. The blind man recognized him by his steps and asked if he was the man who copied the tablet. The blind man also wanted to know what exactly he had written. He replied:
- Nothing that would be untrue. I just wrote it a little differently.
He smiled and left.
The new inscription on the sign was: “It’s spring, but I can’t see it.”

Reminder

One young man was driving a shiny new Jaguar in a great mood, humming some tune. Suddenly he saw children sitting by the road. After he carefully drove around them and was about to pick up speed again, he suddenly heard a stone hit the car. The young man stopped the car, got out of it and, grabbing one of the boys by the collar, began to shake him and shout:
- Brat! Why the hell did you throw a rock at my car? Do you know how much this car costs?!
“Excuse me, mister,” the boy replied. “I had no intention of harming you or your car.” The fact is that my brother is disabled, he fell out of the stroller, but I cannot lift him, he is too heavy for me. We have been asking for help for several hours, but not a single car has stopped. I had no choice but to throw the stone, otherwise you wouldn't have stopped either.
The young man helped sit the disabled man in a chair, trying to hold back his tears and suppress the lump that had come to his throat. Then he went to his car and saw a dent in the shiny new door left by the stone.
He drove this car for many years, and every time he said “no” to the mechanics’ offer to repair this dent on the door, because every time it reminded him that if you ignore the whisper, a stone will fly at you.

You can't save everyone

One day the tide brought in a lot of starfish. The tide was low and a huge number of them began to dry out in the sun.
A boy walking along the shore began throwing stars into the sea so that they could continue their path in life.
A man approached him and asked:
- Why are you doing this? This is just stupid! - he shouted. - Look around! There are millions of starfish here, the shore is simply dotted with them. Your attempts will not change anything!

The boy picked up the next starfish, thought for a moment, threw it into the sea and said:
- No, my attempts will change a lot... for this star.

Junior Rain Chief

One day, two sailors set off on a journey around the world to find their destiny. They sailed to an island where the leader of one of the tribes had two daughters. The eldest is beautiful, but the youngest is not so much.
One of the sailors said to his friend:
- That’s it, I found my happiness, I’m staying here and marrying the leader’s daughter.
“Yes, you’re right, the leader’s eldest daughter is beautiful and smart.” You made the right choice - get married.
- You didn’t understand me, friend! I will marry the chief's youngest daughter.
-Are you crazy? She's so... not really.
- This is my decision, and I will do it.

The friend sailed further in search of his happiness, and the groom went to get married. It must be said that it was customary in the tribe to give a ransom for the bride in cows. A good bride cost ten cows.
He drove ten cows and approached the leader.
- Leader, I want to marry your daughter and I’ll give ten cows for her!
- This is a good choice. My eldest daughter is beautiful, smart, and worth ten cows. I agree.
- No, leader, you don’t understand. I want to marry your youngest daughter.
-Are you kidding? Don't you see, she's so... not very good.
- I want to marry her.
- Okay, but, as an honest person, I can’t take ten cows, she’s not worth it. I'll take three cows for her, no more.
- No, I want to pay exactly ten cows.
They got married.
Several years passed, and the wandering friend, already on his ship, decided to visit his remaining comrade and find out how his life was. He arrived, walked along the shore, and was met by a woman of unearthly beauty.
He asked her how to find his friend. She showed. He comes and sees: his friend is sitting, kids are running around.
- How are you living?
- I'm happy.
Then that same beautiful woman comes in.
- Here, meet me. This is my wife.
- How? What, did you get married again?
- No, it's still the same woman.
- But how did it happen that she changed so much?
- And you ask her yourself.
A friend approached the woman and asked:
- Sorry for my tactlessness, but I remember what you were like... not very much. What happened to make you so beautiful?
“I just realized one day that I was worth ten cows.”

Parable of the Nails

Once upon a time there lived a very hot-tempered and unrestrained young man. And then one day his father gave him a bag of nails and ordered him to drive one nail into the fence post every time he did not control his anger.
On the first day there were several dozen nails in the pillar. The next week he learned to control his anger, and every day the number of nails hammered into the pillar began to decrease. The young man realized that it was easier to control his temperament than to drive nails.
Finally the day came when he never lost his temper. He told his father about this and he said that this time every day, when his son manages to restrain himself, he can pull out one nail from the pillar.
Time passed, and the day came when he could tell his father that there was not a single nail left in the pillar. Then the father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence:
“You did a good job, but do you see how many holes there are in the pillar?” He will never be the same again. When you say something evil to a person, he is left with the same scar as these holes. And no matter how many times you apologize after this, the scar will remain.

Two angels

Two traveling angels stopped for the night in the house of a rich family. The family was inhospitable and did not want to leave the angels in the living room. Instead, they were put to bed for the night in a cold basement. As they were making the bed, the elder angel saw a hole in the wall and repaired it. When the younger angel saw this, he asked why. The elder replied:
-Things are not what they seem.

“Things are not what they seem,” answered the elder angel. — When we were in the basement, I realized that there was a treasure of gold in the hole in the wall. His master was rude and did not want to do good. I repaired the wall so that the treasure would not be found. When we were sleeping in bed the next night, the angel of death came for the owner's wife. I gave him the cow.

Things are not what they seem. We never know everything. And even if you have faith, you still need to instill trust that everything that comes is in your favor. And you will understand this over time. Some people come into our lives and quickly leave, some become our friends and stay for a minute. Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today…
The present is a gift. Life is magic, and the taste of every moment is unique!

Start of the topic here "The best parables about the meaning of life"
Continuation of the topic here "The best historical parables"

Bonus for those who like short sketches with deep meaning.

The Parable of the Spoons

One day a good man was talking with God and asked him:
- Lord, I would like to know what Heaven is and what Hell is.

The Lord led him to two doors, opened one and led the good man inside.
There was a huge round table, in the middle of which there was a huge bowl filled with food, which smelled very tasty.
The kind man felt his mouth water.
The people sitting around the table looked sick and starving.They had spoons with long, long handles attached to their hands. They could get the cupfilled with food, and scooped up food, but since the handles of the spoons were too long, they could not bring them to their mouths.

The good man was shocked by the sight of their misfortune.
The Lord said, “You just saw Hell.”

The Lord and the good man then walked towards the second door. The Lord opened it. The scene that the good man saw was identical to the previous one. The same huge round table, the same giant thicket that made his mouth water. The people sitting around the table held the same spoons with very long handles.Only this time they looked well-fed, happy and deep in pleasant conversations with each other.
The good man said to the Lord: “I don’t understand.”

It’s simple,” the Lord answered him, “they learned to feed each other.” And they think only about themselves.
Hell and Heaven are structured the same way. The difference is within us .

The great writer, whose name, alas, has been lost over the years, read a magnificent text to the student audience, which brought everyone into complete delight, close to ecstasy. Here it is necessary to make a tiny digression and clarify that this writer was at that time a figure of the greatest magnitude, we are not afraid to overdo it in epithets - a special symbol, almost a messiah.

The students, without any doubt about the answer, asked:
-Who is the author of this divine text?

If I tell you that these stigmata clearly appeared in heaven, and I was only a diligent scribe who reproduced them on paper, you will tremble and reverently pray for these lines.
- If I say that at night in a dream their voice of God whispered quietly into my ear, you will experience great respect, but I don’t think you will kneel in tears and trembling.
- If I say that the author is one of you, you will probably become despondent and secretly begin to envy each other, and perhaps even hate each other.
- And if I tell you that I picked up the text in the dirt from the hands of a beggar and a homeless person, you will probably laugh, and the holiness of the text will melt away like a ghostly morning fog...

M We remember many Gospel parables that we heard in childhood, despite the fact that many years have passed. This is because they are lively and vivid stories. For this purpose, the Lord Jesus Christ clothed some religious truths in the form of parables and stories, so that people could easily remember and retain these truths in their consciousness. It is enough to mention one title of the parable, and a vivid gospel image immediately appears in the mind. Of course, often everything ends with this gospel image, for we understand many things in Christianity well, but we do not fulfill everything. A Christian needs to make a volitional effort in order to feel the vital significance of the truth, the need to follow it. Then this truth will shine for us with a new, warming light.

After a relatively long break and several months before His suffering on the cross, the Lord Jesus Christ told us His new parables. These parables conditionally form the second group. In these parables, the Lord revealed to people the endless mercy of God, aimed at saving sinful people, and also gave a number of visual teachings about how, following God, we should love each other. Let's begin our review of this second part by discussing three parables: the lost sheep, the prodigal son, and the publican and the Pharisee, which depict God's mercy towards repentant people. These parables must be considered in connection with the great tragedy generated by original sin and expressed in illness, suffering and death.

Sin has desecrated and distorted many aspects of human life since the most ancient, immemorial times. Numerous Old Testament sacrifices and ritual washings of the body gave man hope for the forgiveness of sins. But this hope itself was based on the expectation of the coming into the world of the Redeemer, who was supposed to remove sins from people and restore to them the lost bliss in communion with God (Is. 53rd chapter). Parable

About the Lost Sheep

vividly and clearly depicts the long-awaited turn for the better, to Salvation, when the Good Shepherd, the Only Begotten Son of God, comes into the world to find and save His lost sheep - a person mired in sins. The parable of the lost sheep, like the next two parables, was told in response to the murmur of embittered Jewish scribes who blamed Christ for His compassionate attitude toward obvious sinners.

“Which of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the lost one until he finds it? And having found it, he will take it on his shoulders with joy and, having come home, will call his friends and neighbors and say to them: Rejoice with me, I have found my lost sheep! I tell you that there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who do not need to repent” (Luke 15:1-7).

The proud and self-righteous Jewish scribes expected the Messiah to come to establish a powerful and glorious kingdom in which they would occupy a leadership position. They did not understand that the Messiah is, first of all, the Heavenly Shepherd, and not an earthly ruler. He came into the world for this purpose, to save and return to the Kingdom of God those who recognized themselves as hopelessly lost people. In this parable, the shepherd’s compassion for the lost sheep was especially manifested in the fact that he did not punish it as if it had done something wrong, and did not force it back, but took it on board. your shoulders and brought it back. This symbolizes the salvation of sinful humanity, when Christ on the cross took our sins upon Himself and cleansed them. Since then the redemptive power sufferings of the cross Christ makes possible the moral rebirth of a person, restores to him lost righteousness and blissful communion with God. Next parable

About the Prodigal Son

complements the first, speaking about the second side of salvation - about voluntary man's return to his Heavenly Father. The first parable talks about the Savior looking for a sinful man in order to help him, the second talks about man’s own effort necessary to unite with God.

“A certain man had two sons. And the youngest of them said to his father: Father! Give me the next part of the estate. And the father divided the estate to his sons. After a few days, the younger son, having collected everything, went to a far side and there squandered his property, living dissolutely. When he had lived through everything, a great famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. And he went and accosted one of the inhabitants of that country, and he sent him to his fields to graze pigs. And he would be glad to fill his belly with the horns that the pigs ate, but no one gave it to him. Having come to his senses, he said: How many hired servants of my father have an abundance of bread, and I am dying of hunger! I will get up, go to my father and say to him: Father! I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Take me among your mercenaries. He got up and went to his father. And while he was still far away, his father saw him and took pity and ran, fell on his neck and kissed him. The son said to him: Father! I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. And the father said to his servants: Bring the best robe and dress him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf and kill it. Let's eat and have fun! For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found” (Luke 15:11-24).

The parable of the Prodigal Son describes the characteristic features of the life path of a sinner. A person, carried away by earthly pleasures, after many mistakes and falls, finally “comes to his senses,” that is, he begins to realize all the emptiness and dirt of his life and decides to repentantly return to God. This parable is very vital from a psychological point of view. The prodigal son was only able to appreciate the happiness of being with his father when he suffered abundantly away from him. In the same way, many people then begin to value communication with God when they deeply feel the lies and aimlessness of their lives. From this point of view, this parable very truly shows the positive side of everyday sorrows and failures. The prodigal son would probably never have come to his senses if poverty and hunger had not sobered him up.

God’s love for fallen people is figuratively told in this parable through the example of a suffering father who goes out onto the road every day in the hope of seeing his son returning. Both of these parables, about the lost sheep and about the prodigal son, talk about how important and meaningful for God is the salvation of man. At the end of the parable of the Prodigal Son (omitted here), the older brother is angry with his father for forgiving his younger brother. By elder brother, Christ meant the envious Jewish scribes. On the one hand, they deeply despised sinners - tax collectors and harlots and the like and abhorred communication with them, and on the other hand, they were indignant that Christ communicated with them and helped these sinners to take the good path. This compassion of Christ for sinners infuriated them. Parable

About the Publican and the Pharisee

This parable complements the previous two parables about the mercy of God in that it shows how a person's humble awareness of his sinfulness The imaginary virtues of the proud are more important to God.

“Two men entered the temple to pray: one was a Pharisee, and the other was a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed to himself like this: God! I thank You that I am not like other people, robbers, offenders, adulterers, or like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of everything I acquire. The publican, standing in the distance, did not even dare to raise his eyes to heaven, but, striking himself on the chest, said: “God! Be merciful to me, a sinner!” I tell you that this one went to his house justified more than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 18:9-14).

Probably the Pharisee described in this parable was not a bad person. In any case, he did no harm to anyone. But, as can be seen from the parable, he did not do any real good deeds. But he strictly performed various petty and secondary religious rituals, which were not even required by the Old Testament law. While performing these rituals, he had a very high opinion of himself. He condemned the whole world, but justified himself! (Words of St. John Chrysostom People with such a mood are unable to critically evaluate themselves, repent, or begin a truly virtuous life. Their moral essence is dead. The Lord Jesus Christ more than once publicly castigated the hypocrisy of the Jewish scribes and Pharisees. However, in this parable Christ limited himself only to the remark that “ This (publican) went to his house justified more than that (Pharisee),” that is: the tax collector’s sincere repentance was accepted by God.

The three parables given here make us understand that man is fallen and sinful creature. He has nothing to boast about before God. He needs to return with a repentant feeling to the Heavenly Father and surrender his life to the guidance of God’s grace, just as the lost sheep surrendered its salvation to the good shepherd!

The following parables teach us to follow God in His mercy, to forgive and love our neighbors, regardless of whether they are close or distant to us.

Related information.

Olga Chechetkina
Summary of a lesson on spiritual and moral education “Parable for children about mercy”

The Fifth Beatitude.

"Blessed are you merciful, because they will be pardoned».

TARGET CLASSES:

Introduce children with the parable of monk Barnabas(Evgeniya Sanina).

TASKS:

1. Teach children notice the beauty of nature.

2. Explain to children that in nature you can’t just tear off, trample or crush anything.

3. Promote the development of speech, voluntary attention, memory, lay the foundation for the formation of skills for positive relationships between man and nature.

4. Reinforce the rules of caring for all living things.

5. Develop feelings of compassion, kindness, responsiveness and mercy in young children.

EQUIPMENT FOR CLASSES:

Flannelograph, figurines parable, balls, round vase.

Progress of the lesson.

Children enter the hall.

TEACHER:

Guys, look how many guests we have today. Let's say hello. We are very happy to have guests.

TEACHER:

The guys want to tell us how good we are.

(Children stand in a circle)

I am very good, obedient, handsome.

I'm everyone's favorite.

I am protected by God.

You are very good, obedient, handsome.

You are everyone's favorite.

You are protected by God.

TEACHER:

Now everyone knows how good we are. And all the good guys are told fairy tales, and I'll tell you parable, which was composed by the monk Barnabas.

Walk one after another onto the chairs.

But before we begin our tale, Maxim will tell us a poem by Elena Vladi "Open your palm"

"Open your palm"

“God sends rain on both the evil and the good...”

We come into the world to make life brighter,

At least for a small, modest spark,

The one we can carry in our palms

Through the darkness and wind of life's roads.

Do not expect praise or rewards in return -

When giving good, one cannot conceal self-interest.

This is how spring gives us the flowering of the garden.

This is how the sky gives - blue heights.

“God sends rain on both the bad and the good...”

Gives everyone a sip of living water.

This is how the sun warms the souls of the sorrowful

And even the smallest flower.

And we cannot go our way any other way.

After all, the world is great and everyone is a wanderer in it.

Can you hear? Someone is crying by the road...

Open your palm and give it warmth.

TEACHER:

Thank you, Maxim, sit down. And so our story begins.

(show parables using flannelgraph)

"A flower grew in a field rejoiced: sun, light, warmth, air, rain, life... And also the fact that God created him not as nettles or thistles, but in such a way as to please man.

It grew and grew... And suddenly a boy walked by and tore it off. Just like that, without even knowing why. He crumpled it up and threw it on the road. The flower became painful and bitter.

The boy didn’t even know that scientists had proven that plants, like people, can feel pain.

But most of all, the flower was offended that it was just picked like that, without any benefit or meaning, and deprived of sunlight, daytime warmth and nighttime coolness, rain, air, life...

The last thing the flower thought was that it was good that the Lord did not create it with nettles. After all, then the boy would certainly burn his hand.

And he, having learned what pain was, did not want anyone else on earth to be in pain...”

TEACHER:

Guys, do you feel sorry for the flower? Why? (answers children) . So you are good guys.

What do you think, did the boy do well? Why? (answers

children). Guys, how can you and I help the boy? (tell him about good deeds)

Guys, to our great regret, we will no longer be able to help this flower. But you and I can plant seeds of goodness, from which our good deeds will grow. Our good deeds will bring goodness, love and mercy to our loved ones and people around us. And share the seeds of goodness with that boy, so that the boy becomes kinder, better and more merciful to the people around us, to plants and animals.

(put a table with a round vase and a basket with multi-colored balls).

You see, on my table there is an empty transparent vase. It looks like our Earth, just as round and big. We live with you in a wonderful world, where the sun shines, beautiful flowers bloom, the grass turns green, butterflies flutter. Our world is filled with kindness mercy and there live such good, kind children like you. There are seeds of goodness here in the basket, look what they are colorful: blue, red, yellow, green, there are so many of them. They are magical.

Let's each take a seed from the basket and say a kind word out loud. (children take a ball and say kind words to it).

Now let's fill our vase with seeds of goodness. Guys, look what our vase has become! It was empty, but now it is colorful and beautiful. Just as our vase was filled with seeds of goodness, so our Earth is filled with your kind words and deeds with love, kindness and mercy.

Love, be merciful to people and be loved by God. This is our class is over. Say goodbye to our guests.

Animals