Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: HONEST (05/31/18)
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TITLE: Ella's lesson | Previous Challenge Entry
By Gloria Pierre Dean
06/07/18 -
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She shocks me one day when she walks in with her mother with tears flowing down her face. She would not greet anyone.
“Ella,” I ask “what is wrong?”
Her mother shakes her head and shrugs her shoulder saying “She won't tell me either.”
The young children went into the back room for their classes and I forgot about her as the service proceeds. Halfway through the service, I feel a tug on my arm. I turn to see Ella. In the back room doorway, Anna, her Sunday School teacher beckons to me.
I quietly get up and go back with her.
“Ella wants to say something to you,” she says quietly.
As I sit down beside her, she produces a pen out of her pocket. It was my pen that I had lost weeks ago.
“The lesson today was on the Ten Commandments,” says Anna.
“Thou shalt not steal” is our topic of discussion. She is shaken up a bit to hear that God specifically wrote these words”{Exodus 20:15}.
Ella turns to me and between sobs says “I found it on the floor near where you sit. I should have returned it to Mum, but I did not.”
I freely admit that it was a pretty pen and must have attracted her. “Ella, I forgive you,” I say as I hug her. “You have been an honest girl and you must forgive yourself. You did the right thing by returning it. So please stop crying.”
I add with alacrity “ Will you do me a huge favour?”
“Yes,” she said with her old smile. I say to her “Please keep the pen. It is my gift to you for being honest. Keep it in your bag and tell Mum when you get home.” I continue quietly “Please learn from this, Ella and do not ever take anything that is not yours. I love you, dear.”
The lesson from this must be; do any one of us ever feel tempted to take something that is not ours? As a child I was, but the dread of my strict father and God’s Words in my spirit stopped me.
So, in conclusion, we must not condemn or cast stones at Ella because as Jesus said: “If anyone has no sin, cast the first stone!” {John 8:7}
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Little Note: Watch out for the verb tenses. The way you switched back and forth between present tense and past tense was a little distracting.