By MH, Age 14
Many of you know about cutting. When people get emotional or stressed they cut their arms, legs, etc. The pain relieves stress and that anger you had building up inside you. It is like this giant burden you carry around with you. You have these marks that might stay or might go away. You live your whole life like this and not knowing that there are better options.
The reason I am writing about this is because I have a friend who lets all her anger out on her body with a knife. I met her this year and I am so glad that I did. One day we were sitting at lunch and she said, “I know this might sound weird, but I want to go to church.” After hearing that all I could do is cry. I wanted to cry so bad because it is a miraculous thing to hear. I gave her the directions to my church. She was very excited and so was I.
Last Sunday she was supposed to meet us at church and we ended up not going so I had to cancel on her. She came to me on Monday and said, “When you told me you weren’t going I was really upset.” That touched my heart because I knew that she really wanted to go to church. So as the week went by we talked about going to church and she was getting even more excited.
When Sunday came around again I had talked to her about meeting her at my church. I was afraid that she would say that she would come but then never show up and make a lame excuse, but that’s not what happened. She came to church for the first time. I was praying that she would like it and want to come back. The sermon was incredible! My pastor talked about helping people who don’t know Christ and that God forgives all of our sins.
We were talking Sunday night and she was saying that she loved it and wants to come back and I asked her if she knew why the sermon was referring exactly to her. She said a coincidence. I told her that God had a plan for everyone, including her and his plan was to not have her go to church the first Sunday but the second because he knew what our pastor was going to preach. God had a plan for her and is working in her.
My pastor said “The same sun melts the wax and hardens the clay.” It means that God softens people’s hearts and hardens them. He had melted her heart. I think that she now understands that there is a God and that he is our Lord and our Savior. She wanted to come back, but there was a problem. I wasn't going to church next Sunday because I was at a camp.
I went to school on Monday and she told me that she went to church! I asked her what the sermon was about and she knew exactly what it was about. It makes me very happy because I know that God is working in her and she listened and she wants to be there. And I ask you all to pray for those out in the world who don’t know the Gospel and are having the same problem as my friend. Take the opportunity to reach out to them and show them the Gospel. And don’t take your life for granted. God has a plan for my friend and he has a plan for you.