Adventures and Angry Words

Bible Reading: Ephesians 4:29-32

Kaylee and Jackson were best friends. Every day of summer vacation, they were in Kaylee’s backyard, where there was lots of space to play. They liked to pretend they were adventurers searching the woods for buried treasure and keeping records of their travels.

One afternoon they were in the backyard as usual, tracing leaves in the notebooks they called their “field journals.” They sat in the grass, talking about their adventures.

Kaylee picked up Jackson’s binoculars from the grass and looked through them. “There’s a flock of birds flying toward us! What should we do, Jackson?” she exclaimed.

“Hey, those are my binoculars,” Jackson said. “Can I please have them back? You didn’t ask to play with them.”

Kaylee frowned. “You weren’t playing with them. I just wanted to try them for a minute. It’s not a big deal.”

“They were a gift, and I don’t want them to break.”

Kaylee dropped the binoculars. “Well, can I look at them now?”

Jackson shook his head and inspected his binoculars. “You just dropped them! That’s not a nice way to treat other people’s stuff, Kaylee.”

“I wasn’t going to break them!” Kaylee exclaimed. She glared at Jackson. “Maybe we should stop playing if you’re so worried about me breaking your stuff.”

“Yeah, I think we should.” Jackson crossed his arms and walked toward his house next door.

Left alone in the grass, Kaylee started to replay her words in her head. What she had said to Jackson hadn’t been very nice. She shouldn’t have touched his binoculars without his permission. They didn’t belong to her, and she didn’t think she would like it if somebody did that with her things.

Kaylee walked to Jackson’s backyard. He was sitting on the swing set looking sad. She sat down beside him. “Jackson, I’m sorry for messing with your binoculars. I should’ve asked your permission to use them and not argued when you said no. I wasn’t speaking loving words like Jesus, but I want to do better now.”

Jackson smiled at Kaylee. “Thank you. I accept your apology.”

Kaylee nudged Jackson with her elbow. “Do you want to come over and keep playing? I promise I’ll be nicer this time.”

Jackson nodded. “You bet I do!”

-Reagan Motsinger

How About You?

How do you respond when someone says or does something that upsets you? Instead of saying something mean to them, God wants your words to be full of love and kindness so they can build others up. Jesus loves us and cares about our feelings, and He’ll help you pay attention to what you say so your speech reflects His love, compassion, and forgiveness.

Today’s Key Verse:
Ephesians 4:29 Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them. (NLT)

Today’s Key Thought:

Speak kindly to others