A SECRET IN HER HANDS

This is a story about a little girl who had a secret in her hand. She had known about it for several weeks but had never told anyone what it was, yet the secret was helping her to love Jesus more and more each day.

Betty discovered the lovely secret quite by accident. One day she and her brother had been having an unhappy time. He had taken her doll in anger and had thrown it on the floor. This made Betty very cross and she raised her hand to hit him, but as she did so she saw the secret in the palm of her hand. She had never noticed it before and it reminded her of a verse she had learned in Sunday School: "Be not angry with thy brother." It was something Jesus had said and she had forgotten it until she suddenly saw something in her hand that made her remember it.

To her brother's surprise, instead of continuing being angry, Betty dropped her hand and said, "I love you, Bobby." This remark took away the anger from Bobby's heart and before he realized what he was doing he picked up the doll and handed it back to his sister. "I love you, too," he said, "and I'm sorry I threw your doll on the floor."

Another time the secret helped was when Betty had a bad cold and had to stay in bed. She felt very unhappy and lonely and wished her mother would stop what she was doing in the kitchen and come and read to her. She was about to whine and get her mother's attention when quite suddenly she opened her hand so that the secret showed very plainly. What she saw reminded her of another Bible verse she had learned, "Lo, I am with you always." Betty said the Bible verse out loud and gazed at her little secret. "I am never alone," she thought as she began to turn the pages of a picture book. Now she had a happy warm feeling knowing Jesus was with her.

Another time the secret helped was when her mother asked her to stop looking at television and go to bed. "It's not good for your eyes to sit up late watching television," her mother had said. Betty had been about to remark that other children are allowed to sit up when suddenly she looked down and saw the secret in her hand. "I will be obedient," she thought, "because that is what Jesus wants me to be."

Bobby suspected after awhile that Betty had a secret and he wondered what it was. Betty's mother and father wondered too because they had often seen Betty looking at her hand. They felt it had something to do with Betty being a Christian.

One day Betty and Bobby were coloring and Bobby snatched a crayon from her because it had a nicer point than the one he was using. Betty did not say anything but opened her hand and stared at something on the palm.

"Tell me, Betty, please, what do you have in your hand that keeps you from being angry?"

Betty did not want to tell, but she felt her secret might help her brother. "It's this, Bobby," she said. Holding her palm out straight she showed Bobby a perfect cross . . . to make it even plainer she traced it with the pointed crayon. "That's what helps me," she said. "When I look at it I think of Christ who died for my sins on the cross. When I get to thinking about that, I don't want to be naughty."

Bobby's face fell. "I wish I had a cross in my hand, too," he said.

"But you do have," said Betty. "Let's find it."

Bobby held out his hand and Betty showed him a little cross which she marked with the crayon.

That is how Betty shared her secret with her brother and now you know the secret too. Why don't you mark your cross and remember to look at it when you are angry? It will remind you of what Jesus did for you on the cross.