JUNIOR KING’S BUSINESS
LOVE THY NEIGHBOR
by Sandra Harms
J EANNIE RAN INTO HER HOUSE, so ex c ited that she could scarcely wait to tell her mother the wonderful news. “Mom!” she shouted. “Guess what Mrs. Barker gave me?” Jeannie’s mother turned to smile at her daughter. “Candy,” she guessed. “No, Mom, try again,” said Jeannie, her face dimpling with laughter. “ I guess I’m just about out of guesses, honey. Tell me what it is.” Jeannie held up what she had concealed behind her: a pair of roller skates; “ Look!” she cried, “Mrs. Barker said her kids were too old to use them so she gave them to me.” Her mother bent down and kissed the happy face. “Go out side and try them out, honey. Just be sure not to go farther than this block, O.K.?” “O.K., Mom!” Jeannie turned and sped out of the room, pausing only at the porch to put on the skates. With a clatter of wheels on the pavement, she started skating down the block. S u rp r is in g ly , however, five minutes later, Jeannie returned to the house. Her mother saw that she was unhappy, and gently asked:
“What happened, Jeannie?” “ That — that — mean old Mr. Gardner won’t let me skate in front of his house because I’m too noisy and he can’t sleep. Who wants to sleep in the daytime, anyway?” “Come here, Jeannie,” said her mother. “ Sit over there on the divan. I want to tell you some thing.” Unfastening the skates, Jeannie did what her m other asked. “You see, Jeannie, Mr. Gardner is getting old and sick, and sometimes he’s so tired that he needs to rest during the day. When you skate past his house, you make a lot of noise and he can’t sleep.” “ I see, Mom. But why did he yell at me and get so mad ?” “Well, Mr. Gardner never had any little girls of his own, and he didn’t know how unhappy it would make you. After all, he is our neighbor. Do you remember what the Bible says about our neighbor?” Jeannie looked up at her moth er, her forehead puckered with concentration. Suddenly she ex claimed, “ I know, Mom! The Bible says to love our neighbor like ourself!” “That’s right. Do you think you can do it?” “ Sure, Mom. I’ll just remember
that he doesn’t have any little girls of his own and that’s why he gets so mad sometimes.” Her m other sm iled. “Why don’t you take Mr. Gardner some fresh fruit? I’m sure that he’d like it. I’ll fix up a basket.” “ Sure. Then he’ll know that I don’t hate him.” Jeannie looked up at her mother, her happy ex pression returning. “Good girl.” Five minutes later, Jeannie came back, but this time her lit tle face was wreathed in smiles. “You know something, Mom, Mr. Gardner likes me? He said I can skate in the morning or later in the afternoon because at noon he takes his nap. He said he never had any little girls, and if he had one, he’d like her to be like me. Wasn’t that nice?” Her mother smiled. “Not mean old Mr. Gardner!?” “Of course not!” Jeannie looked up at her mother and smiled. “ The Bible is right. We really should love our neighbors. And you know what else, Mom? I think that means we should love everybody.” “That’s right, Jeannie. If ev eryone would remember that, we’d have a pretty nice world in which to live.” *Photo Courtesy of Chase Associates
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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