Jenny Age 10

Jenny Story Age 10 – Beth A.

“Hi, Jenny,” Terri greeted Jenny as she came to the door.
“Jenny, remember your manners. I’ll be back in two hours to pick you up,” Jenny’s mother said. “I will!” Jenny said. The girls dashed up the stairs to Terri’s room. “I am so excited. I haven’t come to play with you at your house for a long time! I brought my doll, so we can play ‘house’?” Jenny asked, setting it down on the bed. “Can we play right now?”
The girls played ‘house’ happily for an hour. Then Terri wanted to play something else. “We have some more time ‘til your mother comes…humm… what shall we do next?” ten-year-old hostess Terri asked. “Do you want to play Dominoes?”
“That’s fine,” Jenny said, “but can James play too? We kinda need more than two people for Dominoes.”
James was Terri’s 13-year-old brother, a really smart boy. He was diligent in school and kind to his sisters. Jenny didn’t have a crush on him; she just wanted to get him involved and have fun.
“I’d rather he didn’t play with us,” Terri said. “Let’s just play by ourselves. He’ll keep us from having fun.”
“I think it would be more fun with more people,” Jenny said. “Besides, we might need help knowing how to keep score.”
“Okay,” Terri said with a loud sigh, as they left Terri’s bedroom and went to the family room to get the game. “James, do you want to play Dominoes with us?”
“Sure,” he said, closing his book.
As he came over Terri scowled, “But don’t tell us what to do! We don’t need help from you!”
In all the time Jenny had known Terri she had always thought of her as a sweet girl. They had met each other at a revival in a nearby town. The girls had kept in contact by phone and letters, but didn’t see each other often because of attending different churches and schools. Terri had always been very kind... to Jenny at least. They would write to each other about all sorts of girly things: planning tea parties, making artwork, writing stories, playing instruments, and much more. Occasionally, they would exchange gifts and borrow books from each other. They both were the same age so they liked many of the same kinds of things. Jenny hadn’t been around Terri’s family very much, but she did know who everyone was. She was quite saddened by Terri’s lack of “sisterly love” for James.
At some point in the game Terri couldn’t decide which domino to play and needed help. “Jenny, will you help me? PLEASE?” she asked.
“I can help you,” James offered.
“Why don’t you let James help you? He’d probably give better advice than I would,” Jenny said.
“I don’t want his help!” She glared at him. James reached over to help her, and she shoved him away, saying angrily, “Go away! Quit annoying me!” As she shoved his arm away, three dominoes fell to the floor revealing the dotted side of them. “See what you made me do! Now EVERYBODY knows what I have!” Terri whined. “MOM! James is annoying us. Tell him to go away!” Terri hollered.
Jenny’s heart sank. She hadn’t known that Terri could be so hateful to her brother. She searched her mind to see if anything she had done had caused the fussing.
Terri’s mom came and said, “What’s the matter? What are you fussing about?”
“He made me knock over ALL my dominoes!” Terri exaggerated. “Brothers are so annoying!” she said sassily. “I wish he’d never have been born!”
Mom said, “Come with me, James, I need your help in the other room.”
“But, Mom, it wasn’t like that at all!” James protested as he left the room with his Mom.
The visit was spoiled for Jenny. Somehow she made it through the rest of the afternoon and was relieved when her mother showed up. As Jenny got into the car, Mother asked, “What happened? You look upset about something.”
Jenny burst into tears. Jenny wouldn’t talk for a long time, so Mother prodded, “Please tell me, Jenny.”
“It was fine at first,” Jenny said, “when we were playing dolls; but after that when we played dominoes… I wanted James to play with us, so it would be more fun with three people. So he did; but when Terri needed help she didn’t want James to help her. He moved over to help her and looked at her dominoes. She knocked his arm away and three dominoes fell to the floor. Terri got really angry and said really mean things about James. Her mom came in and took James away. Then Terri and I decided to play something else. I didn’t have fun after that, because Terri acted so unkindly to her brother. It was very hard for me to be nice to her.”
“I am so sorry that Terri acted that way…” Mother started.
“It doesn’t seem fair, though, because James got taken away when it wasn’t even his fault. Terri was mad at him. He didn’t do anything!” Jenny interrupted.
“Probably Terri’s mom didn’t want to punish her when her guest was there. You definitely need to pray for Terri to love her brother, but you can’t take up an offense for James. We need to pray for God to give grace to James to forgive Terri. You can’t hold a grudge about it, Jenny. God gives grace to forgive to the person who’s been offended, but to people like you, who weren’t offended, you need to personally let go of it and pray for their family. You remember in devotions the other night when we were talking about forgiveness? Jesus said that we are to forgive our brother who sins against us. You weren’t sinned against, James was. So you need to let go of it.”
“But, Mother, should I not be friends with Terri anymore? The Bible says in Proverbs 22:24, ‘Make no friendship with an angry man, And with a furious man do not go.’ What shall I do?”
“Jenny, for one thing, you didn’t get my point just now: it’s not your problem, you need to let go of it…”
“But, what about that verse?” Jenny sighed in despair.
“She isn’t your closest friend and you are not around her that much,” Mother explained, “and you need to be a good influence on her to be more Christ-like whenever you have opportunity. You can be strong enough in the Lord to not be influenced badly by her attitudes, meanwhile praying that you can help her. We cannot isolate ourselves. How do you expect to help others do right if you aren’t willing to be with them? Jenny, you have to be careful, in this too, that you search your own heart and not think too highly of your spiritual ‘goodness’. Romans 12:3 says, ‘For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.’ This is a good opportunity for you to search your own heart, and see if people looking on would say that you love your brothers all the time. Jenny, I want you to learn these two lessons very well; you’ll need them all your life. You must never take up someone else’s offense, and you must guard against a ‘holier-than-thou’ attitude.”
“I am so glad I have you for a Mother to talk things over with. But, sometimes it seems like I do everything wrong, because I was having a bad attitude about the whole thing.”
“When we get some instruction about something, we have to be humble enough to accept it as truth and work on our problems, not be mad about our former train of thought,” Mother said. “I know how you feel, believe me! I have been humbled many times; and I just had to be willing to learn from it.”

Sis. Trenton (Terri’s mom) called Jenny’s mother that evening, and apologized for the bad behavior Terri had had while Jenny was visiting. “We have really been praying for Terri, that she will give her heart completely to Jesus. We have been working on her and disciplining her. I am so sorry that she wasn’t a good example for your Jenny this afternoon.”
Jenny was still thinking about Terri, and about her own relationship to her brothers. Jenny didn’t know Sis. Trenton had called but came to her Mother to talk some more. “Mother..”
“Yes, Jenny.”
“Remember earlier when you said for me to think about whether or not I treat my brothers like Jesus would want me to? Well, I’ve been thinking about it,” Jenny paused. “You didn’t know it, but Gordon and I had an argument yesterday. I wanted to jump on the trampoline. He wouldn’t get off right away, so I said really mean things and accused him of being selfish. Oh, and then I wouldn’t play a game with him when he asked me to, because I was so mad at him.”
“Jenny, do you realize that whatever you do or say, people are watching and listening? It is not a good witness for the Lord to our neighbors who are watching when you argue with your brothers.”
“But, Mother, I am so sorry! I don’t want to do things that don’t please Jesus. I know that it makes the devil happy. I don’t want to serve the devil,” Jenny said with tears running down her cheeks.
“Would you like to pray and ask Jesus to forgive you for being unkind?” Mother asked lovingly. Jenny nodded her head. They knelt beside Mother’s bed.
“Dear Jesus, I am so sorry for displeasing you! I am sorry for fighting with Gordon,” she prayed. “Please forgive me and save me. In Jesus name, Amen.” Then she added, ”Thank you for forgiving me, Jesus.”
“Mother?” Jenny said, “I don’t think that it is enough just to read my Bible everyday. I mean, I have to obey it, not just read my Bible so I can say I did.”
“That’s right, Jenny. The whole point of reading your Bible is so that you can know God’s heart, and obey what He wants,” Mother said. “-To be like Jesus. And it doesn’t matter how old you are, you have to keep reading it to know how to grow to be Christlike. About Gordon and Jordon- if you’ll be sweet to them, you can be best friends now and the rest of your life.”

It was a week later that Jenny’s mother received another phone call from Sis. Trenton, “We’re on our way to the hospital,” she said with tears. “James, our son, has been very ill yesterday and today. At first we thought that it was just a stomach flu, but he has been getting worse and worse. James is very weak and terribly dehydrated. So we are taking him to the hospital. Please pray, and get everyone you know to pray for him! It is going to take a miracle. We tried everything we knew to do, and then called our family doctor. The doctor said to take him to the hospital immediately.”
“I will call the prayer chain coordinator at our church immediately. We will be praying.”
“I better go now,” Sis. Trenton said, “I need to get to the hospital.”
“All right. Keep us posted.” Mother said. Immediately after Mother called the prayer coordinator, then Mother and the children knelt down in their living room and prayed. Each of them took turns praying.
“Dear Jesus, please help James right now,” Jenny prayed, “Please give the doctors wisdom to know what to do, and what is wrong with him. Please have Your way through his sickness, that You would be glorified.” Jenny had heard her mother pray with these words repeatedly for different people and as Jen prayed she meant them with all her heart. “Please help all of his family as they go to the hospital. Help them all to trust you. Please help Terri,” Jenny paused, contemplating how she should pray, “to trust you, and to realize how much she needs to serve you. Thank you for being with your people, even in hard times. In Jesus name, Amen.”

Terri went with her mother to the hospital to see James after he was out of the emergency room and into a private room. He was so weak that he was only allowed visitors for 10 minutes at a time. Terri was scared to go in the room, but she really wanted to see James. He was lying so still on the bed, and he was so pale. He had a tube coming out of his nose going to a suction device; it was making sucking noises. He had an IV in his arm and Band-Aids where he had been poked several times. It had been hard to get an IV started because of his dehydration. She touched his hand and he did not respond. She watched to make sure he was still breathing. She found he was still breathing, to her relief. She gave her mother a sad look. Mother looked sad too.
“Is he going to be okay?” Terri asked.
“We don’t know yet,” Mother answered. “The doctors did a lot of tests, and there will be more tests tomorrow, to find out what is wrong with him.”
“Why doesn’t he wake up with us here?”
“I think the doctor gave him something to help him sleep because of all the procedures he had had done,” her dad answered. He had stayed in the ER with James while Mother had gone home with Terri.
Terri’s mother decided to stay at the hospital during the night in case she was needed. Terri and her father went home. He made phone calls to update the prayer chains and Terri went to her room to cry.

Thirty minutes later, he found her on her bed, still crying uncontrollably. He sat on her bed and patted her back. “Do you want to talk about it, Terri?” he asked sympathetically.
“I am so worried about James! What if he dies? What if he has cancer or some other awful disease?”
Her dad replied, “I am concerned too, Terri. James could die, or he could have cancer, or something else just as bad. Job said in the Bible, ‘Shall we accept good from the Lord, and not evil?’ Bad things happen even to good people. Bad things happen to children sometimes. God will be with us to give us the grace we need as we need it. He won’t give us that grace until we do need it. But whatever is wrong with James, it is hardest for him to go through—not us. We need to pray for the Lord’s presence to be near him.”
Terri started crying again. “But Daddy, God won’t listen to me when I pray because I am not a Christian. I have been so mean to James, when he tried to help me. I have been nice only when I was getting my way with him. When he wanted to do something I didn’t want to, I fussed and acted awful and said mean things! Why did I ever act that way to him?! I am so sorry now. I see how awful I have been. I don’t deserve to have a nice brother like James. I have treated him worse than anybody.”
“Not only have you treated James badly, but also Mother and Daddy, and most of all, Jesus, Terri. Your selfishness has hurt Jesus the most, because He loves you so much and He died for your sins, yet you have turned Him away. Mother and I have been very grieved about your anger and rebellious ways. But now that you realize the state of your heart, it is time to get right with God!”
Terri got down by her bed. “I do want to get saved, Daddy. Please help me.”
Her daddy said, “It is important that you confess every wrong thing you can remember to God and be really sorry for each one. Think about how you have hurt others and made them feel so badly. Think about how much you have hurt Jesus and be so sorry for all of your sins, so sorry that you never want to do them again, with God’s help.”
Terri began confessing her sins to God, all her meanness, selfishness, her conniving ways, her lies about her brother, her cheating at school, her pretending to be a Christian when she was not, her disobedience to her parents, her sneaking and stealing candy when she didn’t have permission… Her heart was broken with her sin and she realized how it was her sin that caused Jesus to have to die on the cross. When she couldn’t think of any more specific sins, she told God, “You know all the other wrongs I have done that I can’t think of right now. I am sorry for all I have done against you and against my family and people I know. I want you to forgive me and wash away all my sins with the blood you shed on the cross. I want you to clean me out and live in my heart and make me a new girl who can be a good sister, daughter, and friend. I want to give my life to you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus.” Terri felt clean and new inside!
“Jesus did it, Daddy! He forgave me and came inside my heart!! I am so happy to have that load of bricks out of my heart!”
Her daddy was so happy, too. He had prayed for this day for 10 years! He suggested, “Let’s call Mother on her cell phone and let her know this wonderful news.”
They did. Mother was so happy. She was having another 10 minutes with James, and he was awake. She put the phone to his ear and let him hear the news.
Terri said, “James, I have been such a mean sister to you, but I am a new girl now. Will you forgive me for the awful way I have treated you?”
James was glad to forgive her. Terri told him that she loved him and wanted him to get well.
James’ tests came back the next day with the news that he had had food poisoning and he would recover! He needed the IV fluids for two days, and then he was able to come home. He was weak, but so happy to be home and to have a sister who now loved him and Jesus! He even said it was worth being sick if it brought his sister to realize her need of the Lord.
When Terri’s mother called Jenny’s mother and told her all the news, Jenny’s family rejoiced with them. There was rejoicing in heaven too, that another sinner had gotten right with God!
Copyright GGN


Jenny Story Age 10 – Merilee B.

Dear Diary,
I am so happy. Grace Elizabeth was born today. She weighed 6 lbs. and 3 oz. She is 18 inches long and has black hair and almost black eyes. She was born at 7:30 this morning.
I am so happy because I have prayed for a baby sister for a long time. It’s neat because I was born on Grandma’s birthday, Gordon (now 12) was born on Easter day, Jordon (now 3) was born on Christmas day, and now Grace is born on Thanksgiving day.
This is the best Thanksgiving I have ever had. I have so much to be thankful for.
With love, Jenny (10)
Copyright GGN