Assignment

“Will you pick me up for church?” was the faint, mumbled request on the phone I recognized as the 12-year-old girl who usually rides with us. “I have to get right with the Lord,” she confessed breathlessly before she hung up. This puzzled me a little, but we were to have communion service last night, so maybe something was weighing heavily upon this at-once-mature-and-childish “tween”.

We saw the little brother banging the screen door in his dash out to play, chatted with him and asked him to tell his sister her ride was here. He ran in to tell her, but long minutes passed and we were running late. Then her sister hurried out to say “She’s in the shower. Mom will bring her.”

I felt a nudge on my shoulder in church and looked around to see a damp young lady, looking a little tremulous. “What’s wrong?” I asked. She said she’d tell me after church and came and sat with me. Soon she was shivering from her wet hair and the cold air conditioning. “Ask the pastor’s wife if you can go to the nursery and get a blanket,” I suggested, since no one had a wrap that I could see except a frail elderly lady in front of us who looked like she might need the shawl she’d brought.

My little friend spent the rest of the service huddled beneath a crib sheet while I worried she would catch cold. She asked for mints from my purse, saying she was hungry; I offered her a sample pack of Milk Duds, then when that was gone, she mouthed, “More mints”.

I asked her if she “got right with the Lord” after we had prayed prior to communion. She nodded, a little tearfully, though. In the car, she began to pour out her heart. “I didn’t do my kitchen, because I couldn’t find the broom,” she explained, saying they had a chore list. “Then you were in the driveway, and I wasn’t ready. When I came out, you were gone, so I called Shirley (her other ride).”

“Did your mom say you could go?” I asked, to which she replied, “No, all she said was ‘Get out of my face!’” Telling her she must obey her mother, I said I hoped her mom would understand this time.

My heart goes out to “Brittany”. She obviously is tender toward the Lord and finds comfort and security in church. She is the only one of the children who faithfully attends every service. I well remember the spiritual longing I felt at that age, a time when young hearts are sensitive and a time of uncertainty and immaturity. This is the age when conflicting emotions and temptations vie for her attention. Lord, put a hedge around this one who has so much potential for you. Help me lend a guiding hand and a word of wisdom for her journey.