Real Life Stories
A Gift
By a 12-year-old girl
My sister’s birthday is coming up and so I was in my room making her a surprise (I can’t tell you exactly what in case she reads this magazine before her birthday). I told her that she wasn’t allowed in my room. One night she came up to my room to tell me good night and I had to stop her from going in my room so she wouldn’t see the present before it was done and it was her birthday. As I hugged her in the hallway I told her, “It is because I love you that you can’t go in my room,”. Later that evening I was thinking about what I’d said. Then I realized that this is often the case with our parents, and with God. They tell us we can’t do something and our response should be “Yes sir” or Yes Ma’am” but instead I think our responses are often “Why?…” It doesn’t matter if we don’t understand the reason why, but sometimes, it is for our own good. Somethings would hurt us to do or see prematurely. God and our parents know us better than anyone and they know what we need sometimes even better than we do ourselves (God does for sure). We also have to trust them.It is good and beneficial to submit and be humble to our parents and God. Eventually we will see how valuable their protection was for us. It is a gift God had given us to have people in authority over us.
Why can’t I?
By a 12-year-old-girl
This isn’t a story about me (though I’ve noticed similar things) but it is a story someone else told me. One day she was gardening and she looked up and saw her dog watching her with the strangest expression. Suddenly she got it! Here she was doing what to her dog was a ‘no no’. She was digging in the garden while she had been telling her dog to not dig in the garden. This can be like us with God. We don’t understand why he tells us to do certain things; like the dog was confused why he couldn’t dig. It doesn’t matter, we have to obey without question. Another thing my dog reminds me of often is this: When I am trying to tell my dog to obey and do what I say to or I am teaching her something she get’s distracted or pulls at the leash in a different direction. Than I realized we are often like this with God: He is trying to teach us something or tell us something and we say, “No! I want to do this… or: I know a better way!” When we don’t. Say I am trying to tell my dog to come with me inside because I know there are treats for her inside but instead she wants to eat the stick outside and is insisting that it is better than whatever I have. Who knows better?
Th!nk Magazine 