Making Things Right
It was raining outside, so the children at St. Margaret’s School had indoor recess. During recess, Mia and Lucas were building tall rockets with wooden blocks. They had worked on it for almost the whole recess.
“Look!” Mia said. “It’s almost as tall as my desk!”
Lucas carefully placed one more block on top.
Just then, Ethan hurried past them and bumped into the wooden rockets.
CRASH!
Blocks scattered everywhere.
Mia frowned. “Ethan! You ruined our rockets!”
Ethan looked back but kept walking.
Mia was angry. She wanted to tell everyone what Ethan had done. But then she remembered something her teacher, Mrs. Green, had taught the class: When someone hurts you, first try talking to that person kindly and privately.
So Mia walked over to Ethan.
“Ethan,” she said, “I felt upset when you knocked down our rockets and didn’t stop to help.”
Ethan looked at the floor. “I didn’t mean to knock them down,” he said. “I was in a hurry to use the bathroom.”
“Will you help us rebuild them?” Mia asked.
Ethan nodded. “Yes. I’m sorry.”
The three children went back to the blocks. Soon their new rockets were even bigger than the first ones.
Later that day, Mrs. Green gathered the class together.
“Sometimes friends hurt each other’s feelings,” she said. “What can we do when that happens?”
“We can talk to them,” Mia answered.
“We can listen,” said Lucas.
“And we can say we’re sorry,” Ethan added.
Mrs. Green smiled. “Exactly. Jesus taught us not to give up on one another. When there is a problem, we should try to make things right. Sometimes we can solve it by talking together. Other times, we may need to ask a trusted person to help us.”
Before the class went home, Mrs. Green invited everyone to pray.
“Jesus, help us to forgive one another, listen to one another, and make peace when we disagree.”
“Amen,” the children said together.
Mia smiled at Ethan, and Ethan smiled back. Mia learned something important that day. Jesus wants us to help bring people back together, not push them farther apart.
And when we gather in Jesus’ name and ask for his help, Jesus promises to be right there with us.
Inspired by Matthew 18:15-20.