Timothy’s Thoughts

Timothy Kahl opened his eyes. The sun was shining in the window so brightly that he had to blink. It was not raining as it had been all week, so he would be able to play in the backyard today!

“Timothy,” his mother said, “I want you to watch Josh this morning. I have a lot of canning to do.”

Timothy didn’t say anything. He did not like to take care of Josh. Josh was a lot of trouble. He was always starting to do things that he shouldn’t do. Then he would cry when Timothy wouldn’t let him do them. Timothy almost wished that it were raining again. Then maybe he wouldn’t have to take care of Josh.

Slowly Timothy followed Josh out to the swing set. Josh pulled on the chains of the swing. He wanted Timothy to lift him up. Josh was heavy! Finally Timothy got him in the swing.

“Push,” said Josh.

Timothy sighed. He pushed Josh a little bit.

“More,” said Josh.

Then a thought came to Timothy. If he pushed Josh very hard, Josh might get scared. He would cry. He would want to go to Mother. And Timothy could play by himself!

Then another thought came to Timothy. He remembered how he had prayed to Jesus, asking Him to forgive him for being mean to his little brother. He remembered how mean he used to be to Josh about his broken airplane. Jesus had forgiven Timothy, and he had prayed that he would always be good.

I want to be good for Jesus, thought Timothy. So he carefully pushed Josh just a little harder.

The swing went forward, and Josh laughed with enjoyment. Then the swing came back and CRASH! Timothy was lying flat on his back! Josh had fallen on him and was crying loudly. Timothy felt like crying, too.

“What happened?” Mother was saying. “Are you all right?”

Timothy’s back hurt. A place above his eye was bleeding where a chain from the swing had hit him. But Josh was hugging him. “All right?” Josh was saying. “Tim-ee, all right?”

In his heart Timothy felt good, really good. He was all right. He smiled at Mommy who was looking at him carefully. As Mother washed and put a band-aid on the cut above his eye, he told her about the thought that had told him to push Josh very hard. He was so glad, so very glad that he had not.

“That was the devil, Timothy,” Mother said. “The devil comes and tells us to do bad things. But the Lord comes and tells us to do the right thing.”

“The devil talked to me by the swing set?” exclaimed Timothy. His eyes were big.

“Yes, and the Lord talked to you as well,” Mother replied.

Timothy was so glad that he had listened to the Lord, and not to the devil.