Watermelon Caper, Grace Given

A stolen watermelon, a knock at the door, and a seven-year-old’s conscience tugging at a question he can’t shake—if it’s fine, why are we crawling? Today we share the Great Watermelon Caper of 1938, a true family story that starts with sticky summer joy and ends with a lesson strong enough to reset your day: the difference between guilt that weighs you down and grace that lifts you up.
We walk through Don’s childhood memory with color and care: older brothers and pastor’s kids urging a stealthy raid, bellies pressed to warm soil, the sweet crack of melon by the tracks, and the uneasy feeling that sneaking tells the truth better than words do. The next day the farmer arrives with generosity and a plea—please ask, don’t take—and the whole moment reframes. 

That’s where so many of us live as adults: realizing after the fact that we crossed a line, then letting shame narrate our worth. We name that cycle and bring it to a promise that doesn’t flinch: 1 John 1:9 says God is faithful and just to forgive and to purify, not only clearing the debt but washing the residue that clings to our minds and moods.

Along the way, we talk about the signals we ignore when group momentum pushes us to crawl instead of walk, why asking builds relationship while taking breaks it, and how confession is not groveling but alignment with a God who actually wants to restore. If you’ve been hauling around regret like contraband fruit, this short, story-driven reflection offers practical hope: speak the truth, receive forgiveness, and trust that purification means you don’t have to rehearse the failure to prove you’re sorry. Press play for a five-minute reset that blends storytelling, scripture, and soul-level encouragement. If it helps, share it with a friend who’s ready to put the guilt down. And if you haven’t yet, follow the show, leave a quick review, and tell us: what verse anchors you when regret tries to stick?

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome and Morning Setup
• 0:24 The Great Watermelon Caper
• 1:47 The Consequences Unfold
• 3:00 From Guilt to Grace
• 5:16 Closing Encouragement

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:04

Good morning and welcome to Starting Right with Danny Mack. I'm going to be here every Monday to Friday to help you get a great five-minute start to your day. So grab your cup of coffee, sit back, relax, and let me help you start your day right. Good morning everybody. It's great to have you here. And today I am going to tell a story of my father-in-law. Now, to make sure I wouldn't get into trouble telling this story, I phoned my father-in-law just to make sure he was okay with it, and he was fine. In fact, he gave me some more of the details to share with you today. So here it is. I call it the Great Watermelon Caper of 1938. I hope you enjoy it. Back in the 1930s, when my father-in-law, whose name is Don, was six or seven years old, he had two older brothers who were, as older brothers often are, often getting him into trouble. Well, one day these two older brothers, along with two of the pastor's kids, asked Don if he would like to have some watermelon. Now a seven year old kid in South Dakota in the middle of summer asked if he wanted to have some watermelon. That wasn't even a question. Absolutely Don wanted some watermelon, so the other four kids said to him, Come on then, we're gonna go get some. Now just a little ways down the road there was a man who had a big garden patch. He was in fact one of the suppliers of fruits and vegetables to the local stores. So he had all kinds of really good stuff. As they approached the field, Don asked his brothers and the pastor's kids if this was okay for them to have the melon. Oh yes, they said. They assured him, this is fine, the man who lives here, he's a good guy, he lets us take it. But as they got closer to the patch, the other four said to Don, Okay, Don, now we have to be really quiet, and we have to crawl on our bellies up into the patch to get the watermelons. But it's okay, everything's fine. They crawled up to the patch, they each grabbed a watermelon and crawled back out again. They ran away from the patch with the watermelons under their arms over to beside the train tracks where there was a slight dip along the edge. They huddled together in this ditch, breaking open the watermelon and feasting on it. It tasted so very, very good. And Don still had this little nagging thought in the back of his head, why do we have to crawl up and sneak up to be able to get the watermelons if it was okay? Well, they had their feast, and Don was encouraged by the others not to tell his parents that they'd already eaten so much watermelon, or they wouldn't be able to have as much supper either. So Don was quiet, but he still had this nagging thought in the back of his mind, why did we have to crawl in to get it? The next morning the neighbor from the watermelon patch arrived, and he had a big wheelbarrow full of watermelon and cantaloupe and some other fruit and vegetables. He knocked on the door and spoke to Dawn's mom. And he told her, I brought you some watermelon and some cantaloupe and some of the other fruit and vegetable here, uh and you can have it. But but please, please ask your boys not to sneak into the patch to take the watermelon. They just tear up the vines, they don't know to pick 'em. If you need some, come and ask me. And with that he turned around and walked away. Don heard this exchange between the man and his mother, and tried to hide. Now I have not been privy to all the details as to what took place after Don's mum was given this revelation of the watermelons, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't one that was painless. Well, poor Dawn, he didn't know he had done anything wrong until the man came up to the door. But then he was very afraid, afraid of the punishment, and that fact that he had actually stolen from this man just overwhelmed him. And you know what? Sometimes as well meaning, God loving Christians, we will say or do something that we may not at the time know is wrong. It happens more often than we probably want to admit. And then down the road a little bit further, we either find out how wrong we were, or we are overwhelmed with guilt within ourselves because we get thinking about how foolish we think we were, and we feel completely guilty and overwhelmed. And sometimes we even speak to ourselves and say, How could I be so stupid to do something like that? And can God really forgive me when it is my own fault and I did it with the full intention of doing it? Can God forgive me? Well, John 119 says this If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. That's what our God does. When we do something wrong, even if we didn't know at the time it was wrong, but then we realize that it was wrong and we ask God to forgive us, He does. It's done, it's forgiven, it's gone. Not only is it forgiven, the scripture tells us that He purifies us, that means He absolutely removes and washes away all of the unrighteousness. We don't need to carry around guilt from those mistakes and sins that we do that we have asked God forgiveness for. And God loves us so very much that He actually does forgive us and love us. So, my friends, that's the story of the great watermelon caper of 1938. I hope you enjoyed it. And I hope you have a great day. We will talk again tomorrow. Thank you for joining us today, and I invite you to join us every Monday to Friday right here at Starting Right with Danny Mack.