The Right Path

"Are you reading your favorite fairy tale again?" Kalea asked her younger sister.Nani nodded. "Want to hear it?" She cleared her throat and began "reading" the story without even looking at her book. "When Hansel and Gretel woke up, the forest was very dark. 'How will we find our way home?' asked Gretel. She began to cry. Hansel picked up a pebble lying on the pathway. 'Look, Gretel, here are the pebbles I dropped. We can follow them back home.""I know the story," said Kalea with a grin. "When Mom left for the store, she said to remind you to memorize your Bible verses for church. Have you done that already?""Those verses are too hard!" said Nani. "Besides, what good is learning a bunch of verses anyway?""Well, for one thing, the Bible shows us who God is and how much He loves us. It tells us what Jesus did to save us and how we should live as we trust and follow Him." Nani continued to pout, so Kalea sat on the sofa beside her little sister. "Think of it like this," she said. "Bible verses hidden in our hearts are like the pebbles Hansel hid in his pocket and used to mark the path that would lead them home. The pebbles showed them the way to go, and verses we memorize help us know the way to go too. When we remember the truth of God's Word and trust Him to help us live it out in our lives, it helps us stay on the right path.""But it's too hard to memorize verses," said Nani."How did you learn the Hansel and Gretel story so well?" Kalea asked.Nani shrugged. "I guess it's because I read it so much." "Well, if you read your Bible verses over and over, I bet you'll remember them easily too," said Kalea. "Try it."Nani got her Bible and curled up on the sofa again. "Make me walk in the path of Your commandments…Make me walk in the path of Your commandments…Make me walk…"When Mom came home, Nani jumped up and held her Bible behind her back. "Listen, Mom," she said. Then she recited her verses perfectly. -Lucinda J. Rollings