“Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:31-32).

Jeanette was near the end of her life. She had no friends. She had pushed her family away from her. She harbored bitterness and anger for decades and was a lonely, miserable old woman. It was quite a sight the day that Maggie Patterson and her six-year-old twin daughters, Lucy and Linda, brought cookies to their next door neighbor. After Jeanette hollered at them and ordered them off her porch, you will remember that Lucy blurted out that the neighbors were right, Jeanette was a cranky old woman. In fact, you may remember that Lucy called her “an old witch.” Mom disciplined her little girl but confessed to her husband that Lucy probably had pretty well accurately described her. What Maggie didn’t know was that Jeanette could not get away from the words of little Lucy, “The neighbors are right. She is cranky old Jeanette. She sounds like a wicked witch.” Jeanette tried to eat her supper that night, but Lucy’s words reverberated. Jeanette tried to watch her favorite television program that night, but Lucy’s words pierced her heart. She tried to go to sleep and would change positions often, but sleep escaped her because Lucy’s words accurately described her. Early the next morning Jeanette stepped into the room where from beneath a stack of books and magazines she pulled out her Bible. It’d been well over thirty years since Jeanette had opened God’s Word. Wouldn’t you know it? As she leafed through the New Testament, she stopped at Ephesians chapter 4. Her eyes came to the Scripture that we read today. God used a little girl to speak to the heart of an old woman who really needed Him. Jeanette was in for a great change. More tomorrow about this!

For today: I hope your Bible isn’t buried under a stack of other things!