THE ARROW OF REJECTION

“I had an arrow in my heart this week.”  Marisela’s comment surprised me. Our Sunday School lesson was about the poisonous “arrows” that Satan uses to attack our hearts: pride, anger, rejection, shame, fear, and depression. These are tough concepts for an eight-year-old girl to grasp, especially a girl from an Eastern European immigrant family with little or no Christian background.

“What happened?” I asked Marisela gently. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Rejected

“My best friend at school said she was going to sit with me, and then she didn’t sit with me,” Marisela continued, her voice full of injury. “She didn’t sit with me all week. And she acted like she wasn’t my friend. But she’s my best friend!”

“How did that make you feel?” I prodded.

Marisela didn’t hesitate. “Rejected.”

“What did you do about it?”

“I acted like I didn’t care.” Her voice betrayed her resignation.

“But it did hurt, didn’t it?” I asked. She nodded silently, and my heart went out to this sensitive young girl who’d been wounded by a careless friend.

Guard Your Heart…

Using the booklet Is My Heart A Happy Heart? I shared with Marisela and the rest of the class how God wants to remove those arrows in our hearts. We began the process of identifying the one who’s hurt us and describing how it affected our hearts.  I explained that in the next few weeks we’d learn about pouring out our hearts to the Lord, releasing the pain to Him, and finally being able to forgive that other person.

Marisela listened attentively, her round brown eyes fixed on mine. When I gave them time to begin writing in their booklets, she worked intently and seriously. Later as we recited the month’s memory verse, Marisela joined the other children with a joyful smile. I know that God is at work in this little girl’s heart, and I’m confident that the arrow of rejection is coming out!

“Above all else,” the students chorused, “Guard your hearts! For it is the WELLSPRING of LIFE! Proverbs 4:23!”

Going vertical!
MJ