A Painful Lesson
“Watch out!” my brother shouted as he crashed into me.
Brian had hurt his foot and still hadn’t learned how to use crutches. He kept complaining about how uncomfortable they were, but I thought they looked fun. When I told him this, he just laughed and said, “Bob, believe me, it is not fun.”
I didn’tbelieve him and spent the rest of the day glaring at Brian.
Once, when he wasn’t looking, I snuck the crutches out of his room to try them out. But he caught me and told Dad. Then I decided to tell everyone at school about what a horrible brother I have. The only problem was that it was Sunday. I had to wait a whole 14 hours before I could unveil my plan.
When we went to church that morning, the pastor talked about jealousy and how to avoid it. I thought about it for a while. Then I realized I was doing the very same thing the pastor said not to. I was being jealous of my brother! That night, I asked God to forgive me and help me not be jealous anymore.
A week later, I fell off a tree and hurt my foot at Billy’s house. Yay! My parents didn’t understand my excitement. I tried explaining that if my foot hurt, that meant I could use crutches and that crutches were fun. They didn’t get it.
The next three days were the best days of my life! I enjoyed the crutches to my heart’s content. The best part was crashing into Brian!
The four days after that, however, were the worst. I got so tired of the crutches that I couldn’t even look at them. No running, no jumping, no playing, no nothing. Plus, my armpits got super sore. At least God answered my prayer. I sure wasn’t jealous of Brian anymore.
— Camila G., 12, New York
Chocolate Catastrophe
Today, we were having a class trip to the chocolate factory! I was really excited. There was a man by the door of the huge building. He put up a hand to us. I waved back at him and rushed inside. Turns out he was trying to stop us. He was really grouchy at me after that.
Mr. Davis, our tour guide, took us up some stairs and showed us a chute. It looked like a cool slide!
“Ooh, first dibs!” I called, dashing toward it.
“No, no, wait!” Mr. Davis said. “That’s a chute down to the chocolate tub. It’s off limits.”
I looked down it. I saw chocolate on both sides, running down.
“OK,” I said. But suddenly I slipped on some chocolate that got onto the floor. Whoops! I tripped and fell in headfirst into the chute. I hollered the whole way down. It was slick and really cool!
Splash!
I landed in a chocolate pool.
“Coolest slide ever!” I shouted. It was really good chocolate too!
They made us leave. But on the bright side, the man outside wasn’t grouchy anymore. He was laughing his head off!
— Maureen S., 14, Michigan
Doggy Dilemma
Have you ever felt like your dog is absolutely crazy? I have. All day long, he runs around like he sees a squirrel. When he actually sees a squirrel, he is only half as excited as he normally is.
The other day, Brian and I were playing outside with our dog when I had an idea.
“I wonder what would happen if I rode our dog like a horse,” I said.
Doesn’t everyone think that at least once in their life? I ran inside, grabbed our dog’s leash and tied it into some sort of reins. My dog did not want me to put it on him, but finally I wrangled it onto him.
“Bob, I don’t think that that is a good idea,” Brian said.
I ignored him and sat on our dog’s back. He took off! He was like a horse at a rodeo, bucking up and down. I had to hold on as tight as possible, so I didn’t go flying off. Somehow, we ended up in our barn, and I was lying on a pile of hay. Thankfully, neither of us were hurt, but my dog now hates me.
When I came out of the barn, Brian ran over and yelled, “Are you OK?”
“Yes,” I said.
I guess I should have listened to Brian. This is a great lesson about listening to good advice. Matthew 11:15 (NLT) says, “Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand!” Now that I think about it, maybe I should have let go of the reins.
— Ellie B., 11, Manitoba
