Anna was born into a good Christian home in a small country town. She had two younger sisters, whom she loved very much. Her father was the Pastor of their local church. When she was young, there were not many people in church and Anna and her sisters longed for the company of other children. As time went on, the Lord blessed the work of Anna’s father and the little church grew and more children attended. Anna learned to love Jesus and she loved to go to church every Sabbath. She helped out in every way that she could in her honest childlike ways. Every time a new visitor came, Anna was the first to get up and greet them and introduce them to all her friends and the other adults. She was very bubbly and outgoing. Her favorite Bible character was the Apostle Paul and she wanted to be just like him, telling everyone about Jesus and His love.
In those early years, Anna and her sisters were being home-schooled by their mother. This gave much opportunity for their mother to teach her three young girls about the love of God and to include the gospel in each of their lessons, from science, to geography, to math. Anna loved being taught by her mother and she loved and respected her mother very much. She was also quite helpful in the home and tried to help her mother as much as she could.
Soon some of the other parents in the church saw the importance of home-schooling their children. Anna enjoyed spending Sabbaths with her new friends and her mother made opportunities to visit with some of the other families in the church during the week.
Everything was going well and Anna could not imagine that life could be any better.
One day, though, when Anna was 13 years old, things changed. It was at evening worship that Anna’s father announced to the girls that he had been transferred to work at another church far away, in a big city. The church was small, like their church had been 10 years earlier and would require much patient effort to build up the church. But he felt confident that the Lord would bless his efforts as He had blessed them there. Another pastor would be taking over his duties in that small country church.
Anna was shocked at first. Disappointed. She felt a little resentment and frustration. That night she prayed like she had never prayed before. She did not want to move. Why did they have to move? She would go where she had no friends and would have to start all over. That night she cried herself to sleep.
But Anna’s love for the Lord was strong and she trusted that if this is what the Lord wanted from her and her family, that He would bless them.
It was not long before they made the move. The city was big. There were a lot of people, a lot of noise and a lot of big buildings. Anna did not like it. And the church had only a few old people there. Anna did her best to be happy and kind to the older folks as she prayed for more young people in the church. She helped out as she had done before and soon enough she was accepting this as God’s will.
They had moved during the summer time and now as the new school year approached, mother told the girls that she could not home school them this year as she had to take up a full-time job to help to pay for the bills. Living in the city was much more expensive and her father’s salary was not quite enough to cover their bills.
Anna had never been to a public school before and at first was a little nervous. She was in high school while her sisters were in elementary school so she did not see them until the evening time. Anna was alone and spoke to no one for the first while. She simply watched the other young people and kept to herself. She saw the popular girls hanging out together. They sometimes made fun of others who were not as popular. Anna also
began to notice the difference. She dressed differently. She wore skirts while all the others wore pants. They had fancy hair styles, wore make up and she was plain and simple.
As much as she tried to avoid them, she did feel a little envious as she missed having friends. She was outgoing by nature, and felt like she was trapped in a box. She had tried to talk to some about Jesus, but they just made fun of her so she remained quiet. Sometimes they would make remarks about her odd clothing and simple appearance. Oh how Anna wanted to be like the other girls.
One day she decided to secretly dress like them and try putting on make-up while at school, and talk and act like them. Maybe they would stop teasing her and accept her as one of them. Is that how to win people, she told herself to soothe her conscience? You have to come down to their level for a while?
So Anna brought some pants in her backpack, and some make-up that she had used her allowance to buy, and as soon as she got to school she changed her clothing and put on some make-up. She did this day-after-day and started to hang out with the popular girls. They started to notice her and accept her. Their conversation was far from Christian and it bothered Anna when they used swear words and gossiped a lot, but she kept silent. She was now being accepted. Maybe one day she would tell them about Jesus, but not now. She was becoming popular and she had friends. They liked her and liked being around her. Anna was always helping the others with their school work also and this made her even more popular because Anna was quite smart.
As time went on, though, Anna’s conscience bothered her. Being popular was not as glamourous as she had thought. It was just no fun pretending to be who she was not. She did not like the conversation, and the bullying that these girls did. She did not like to make fun of people and push them around just because of their looks and because they were not popular.
One day when Anna and one of her new friends went to the washroom, Anna heard crying in one of the stalls. This was one of the girls who was not popular and who had been teased a lot. Anna said nothing. She did feel bad though. The other girl was making fun of her and telling her to go cry somewhere else. As time went on Anna realized more and more that things are not always as good as they seemed. Did she want to finish out the rest of her school days being someone she was not?
One day after school Anna was just sad. She had hated who she had become. Was she a bully too? Had she become someone she did not like? She could not stop thinking about the girl in the stall.
That night she prayed for a very long time. She confessed her sin and asked the Lord to help her be strong and faithful.
The next day she went to school with no pants or make-up in her backpack. She kept her skirt on all day. Slowly her new friends no longer wanted to be her friend any longer, but that was ok. Anna had decided that Jesus is the best friend to have. She then went and found the girl who had been crying in the stall and the two of them became best of friends. They had each other and did not care what the others said to them or how they teased them. Anna told her about the love of Jesus and that when you are feeling alone, Jesus is your best friend.
Soon her new friend learned to love Jesus also. She had been telling her parents everything that Anna had been telling her. Anna’s new friend soon came to church with her parents and, after receiving Bible studies, they were the first family to be baptized and join the church in the big city from the labours of Anna and her family. And the best part for Anna was that her new friend’s mother was a school teacher and the following school year, the church opened up a small private school so that the girls no longer needed to attend the large public school. It was not long after that, that the little school grew and many more students attended as more parents were seeing the positive results that come from a Christian education.
Yes, Anna had to agree. It was God’s will that they came to this big city. She would never question His leading again.
Anna and her friend had learned that it is not about how popular you are. It is about how you treat people and what kind of person you choose to be. You are never too young to be a missionary for Jesus. Just pray that the Lord will help you to find someone to share the faith with or to simply help out and be a friend also. You may not have an opportunity to preach, but how you live and dress and how you treat others can be a witness to others of your faith. “Ye are My witnesses, saith the LORD, and My servant whom I have chosen.” Isaiah 43:10