Compiled by Freekidstories Publishing

The Three Strangers

A woman saw three strangers in front of her house and invited them in to have something to eat.

"We can't go in together," they told her.

"Why not?" she asked.

"Her name is Wealth," one of them explained, pointing to one of her friends, "and she is Success," pointing to the other. "I am Love." Then Love added, "Now go in and decide with the rest of your family which one of us you want in your home."

The woman went in and explained the whole thing to her husband, who was overjoyed at the prospects. "Let's invite Wealth. Let her come and fill our home with wealth! How nice!"

His wife disagreed. "Why don't we invite Success? We would be the envy of everyone in town."

Their little girl overheard the discussion and piped in. "Wouldn't it be better to invite Love? Then our home will be filled with love!"

The husband and wife finally decided to heed their daughter's advice, so the wife invited Love in.

Wealth and Success were soon invited in by other families. Of course, they didn't stay long before moving on again. They never do.

Not so with Love. Love is forever.

And so our little family lived happily ever after.

Sure, there were a few rough spots, but they hardly noticed them. Love saw to that.

They weren't the wealthiest or most successful family in town, but they were the happiest. Love saw to that too.

The Legend of the Magic Mask

There was once a king of a vast domain. He was shrewd and powerful and feared by all, but no one loved him. Each year, as he became more severe, he became lonelier. His face reflected the bitterness in his soul. There were deep, ugly lines around his mouth, and deep, permanent furrows on his forehead.

But it so happened that in his realm there lived a beautiful girl whom everyone seemed to love. The king wanted to make her his wife, and finally he decided to speak to her of this love. He dressed in his finest robes, but when he looked in the mirror, he saw a cruel, hard face, even when he tried to smile.

Then a thought came to him. He sent for his magician. "Use your greatest skill to paint a mask that looks kind and pleasant and handsome. I will pay any price you ask."

"This I can do," said the magician, "on one condition. You must keep your own face in the same lines that I paint. One angry frown, and the mask will be ruined forever and I cannot replace it. You must think only kindly thoughts and do kindly deeds. You must be gracious to all men."

So the magic mask was made, and it looked so natural that no one guessed it was not the true face of the king. Months passed, the beautiful lady became his bride, and the king fought hard to keep the mask from breaking. His subjects attributed the miraculous change in the king to his lovely wife, who, they said, had made him like herself.

Eventually the king regretted having deceived his beautiful wife and summoned his magician. "Take away this deceiving mask!" he cried. "It is not my true self!"

"If I do," said the magician, "I can never make another. You will have to wear your own face as long as you live."

"Better so," said the king, "than to continue to deceive one whose love and trust I have won dishonorably. Take it off, I say!"

The magician did as he was commanded.

In anguish, the king turned to see his reflection in his mirror. Suddenly his eyes brightened and his lips curved into a radiant smile. The ugly lines were gone. His face was the exact likeness of the mask he had worn so long. When he returned to his beloved wife, she saw only the familiar features of the man she loved.

Yes, this is only a legend, but it teaches a truth: A man's face portrays what is inside, what he thinks and feels. The wise and true Scripture tells us, "As [a man] thinks in his heart, so is he" (Proverbs 23:7).

The Camel’s Nose

According to a Bedouin fable, an Arab and his camel were crossing the desert. Night came and the temperature dropped. The Arab put up his tent, tied his camel to it, and went to sleep.

The temperature dropped further, and the camel asked the Arab for refuge from the cold.

The Arab was adamant. "There is only room in the tent for one!"

The camel was quiet for a few minutes, but soon asked again. "Please, Master! Just my nose. If I could just put my nose in your tent, it would keep me from freezing out here."

The Arab reluctantly agreed.

The camel's nose became warm, but after a while the temperature went down even more. The camel woke the Arab and asked, "Please, can I just put my forelegs in the tent? They are very cold!"

Again the Arab reluctantly agreed. "Only your forelegs, nothing more!" So the camel nudged his forelegs into the tent and they became warm.

After some time, the camel woke the Arab again. "Master, I must put my hind legs in the tent. Otherwise I fear that they will freeze and I won't be able to finish our journey tomorrow. What good is a camel with frozen hind legs?"

So the Arab agreed once more, and the camel moved his hind legs in. But since there was only room in the tent for one, the Arab was forced to move out into the cold, where he barely survived the night.

Moral compromise is like that camel. It just needs a small opening to get started—usually a thought that seems to have some basis in truth or reason—but if you entertain that thought, pretty soon it and a whole lot more like it move in and take over. Don't let the camel get its nose inside your tent.

“This is Good!”

The story is told of an African king and his close friend, who had grown up together. The king's friend had a habit of looking at every situation positively and remarking, "This is good!"

One day the king went on a hunting expedition, and he gave his friend the job of loading his guns and handing them to him. Apparently the friend did something wrong at some point, because one gun misfired and blew the king's thumb off.

"This is good!" the king's friend remarked as usual.

"No, this is not good!" the king replied, and he sent his friend to jail.

About a year later, the king was hunting in an area that he shouldn't have ventured into. Cannibals captured him and took him to their village. They tied his hands, bound him to a stake in the ground, and stacked firewood around his feet. However, just as they were about to set fire to the wood, they noticed that the king was missing a thumb. The cannibals had a superstition that forbad them from eating anyone who was less than whole, so they untied the king and sent him on his way.

As the king traveled home, he was reminded of the event that had taken his thumb, and he regretted the way he had treated his friend. He went straight to the jail and released his friend.

"You were right," the king said. "It was good that my thumb was blown off." And he proceeded to tell his friend about his brush with death. "I am sorry for sending you to jail for so long," he said. "That was very bad of me!"

"No," his friend replied, "this is good!"

"What do you mean, 'This is good'? How could it be good that I sent my friend to jail for a year?"

"If I had not been in jail," the king's friend replied, "I would have been with you."

The Legend of the Four Angels

According to a Jewish legend, before creating Adam, the first man, God took into His counsel the angels that stood about His throne.

"Create him not," said the Angel of Justice, "for if You do, he will commit all kinds of wickedness against his fellowman. He will be hard and cruel and dishonest and unrighteous."

"Create him not," said the Angel of Truth, "for he will be false and deceitful to his fellowman, and even to You."

"Create him not," said the Angel of Holiness, "for he will follow that which is impure in Your sight, and dishonor You to Your face."

Then the Angel of Mercy, God's most beloved, stepped forward and said. "Create him, Father, for when he sins and turns from the path of right and truth and holiness, I will take him tenderly by the hand and lead him back to You."

The North Wind and the Sun

The sun and the wind once had a conversation, in which the boisterous and argumentative wind contended that he was the stronger of the two.

"I'll prove it!" said the wind. "Do you see the old man down there? I bet I can get his coat off him quicker than you can!"

So the sun sighed and hid behind a cloud, and the wind blew and blew until it was almost a tornado. But the harder it blew, the tighter the old man clutched his coat to him. Finally the wind gave up and calmed down.

Then the sun came out from behind the cloud and smiled kindly on the old man. After only a short while the man mopped his brow and pulled off his coat.

The sun had shown the wind that warmth and kindness were stronger than fury and force.

Free stories for children – www.freekidstories.org

Story adaptations copyright Activated; used by permission.

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