Wendy slid into her seat in her Sabbath school room. Here, at least, was one place where she could get Josh Mans off her mind! She relaxed back into her seat as the teacher came into the room.

“Happy Sabbath!” Miss Hannah, their teacher, grinned. “Let’s hear about all of your weeks.”

They went around the circle. Wendy told about what she’d done that week, conveniently leaving out the details of Josh. Everyone was excited to hear how her history trip had gone, so she focused on the good points of that.

“Did you, like, meet the president?” a girl asked.

Wendy laughed. “Everyone keeps asking me that! No, but I saw the White House.”

“Maybe you can tutor me in history,” another boy quipped. “I’m only failing, nothing too bad. How soon can you get over to my house to teach me?”

“In the next twenty, maybe thirty, years,” Wendy, who was in a good mood, joked back.

The boy nodded, a silly grin on his face. “Sounds cool. I’ll still be in 7th grade by then.”

Everyone laughed.

“Alright,” Miss Hannah said, “did I miss anyone? No? OK, well, our lesson today is from Luke 6, but there is one particular verse I want to focus on.”

Miss Hannah turned in her seat and clicked a slide onto the screen at the back of the room. The verse seemed to jump out at Wendy.

“Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you.”

God, she prayed, do you want me to pray for that a jerk like Josh?

They had a whole discussion on the verse, but, when it was all said and done, Wendy didn’t hear any of it. She had been fighting a battle inside herself. Did God want her to pray for Josh Mans?

She thought about that all the rest of the day. Finally, when she was in bed and wrapped like a burrito in a comforter, she gave in.

“Fine, God,” she hissed bitterly to the darkness. “Please help Josh Mans. Amen. Good night.”

In the morning, she couldn’t push away the feeling that she was supposed to do more for Josh. But she was already praying! Wasn’t that enough for God?

She prayed for him every night, but no change was evident. He still bullied people around.

“God,” she finally said at night, “can’t You just make him stop hurting people? Why doesn’t someone just go and help him get out of whatever’s eating him up? He’s got a screw loose, tell me he doesn’t!”

She prayed for two weeks. It occupied her mind almost all the time. It started to eat her up. She became irritated whenever anything that her mind registered as JOSH-RELATED came up. Wendy was just getting into her swimsuit to go to practice when Lucy called.

“Hey,” she said.

“Hey,” Lucy replied. “Do you know what’s up with Josh?”

“No,” Wendy said, slightly annoyed. “He’s just as obnoxious as ever. Why?”

“Well, we were in school together yesterday, and he seemed a little , , , I don’t know, off,” Lucy admitted.

“Off? Lucy, Josh is always off in one way or another. Whether he’s saying something or playing the wrong note,” Wendy said sourly.

“No, I mean, like, off,” Lucy said. “Like, he was super quiet and anytime someone went near him he snapped and he never spoke to anyone. He was too preoccupied to even bully that kid that always brings his little sister’s cupcakes to lunch. You know, the ones with the pink frosting and the goofy, sentimental messages written on them?”

Wendy actually did know the cupcakes. The boy didn’t want to bring them, but his mother made him. In her opinion, they looked a lot better than they tasted

“Yeah. I’m honestly a little worried. Don’t you have swim with him today?” Lucy asked.

“Unfortunately,” Wendy said, pulling up the other strap of her swimsuit.

“Well, maybe you could find out what’s wrong,” Lucy suggested. “If he’s going through something tough, he doesn’t have God like we do, you know? And besides, you guys are OK friends, right?”

Wendy scowled. “In the words of DeeDee, ‘Friends? That’s what you call this?’”

“Wendy!” Mrs. Jonson called. “Are you coming or are you too busy?”

“Oop, gotta go!” she said quickly. “I might ask. Ciao.”

“Bye,” Lucy said, and Wendy hung up.

Wendy bounded down the stairs, shoved her feet into her flip-flops, and rushed out into the backseat of the car. Her mom held up a finger from the front seat, phone pressed to ear. She was on a business call.

Soon they were pulling out of the driveway. Wendy watched the trees whizz by as she leaned her head against the window of the car. Was Josh really being abnormal? Was something really wrong?

God, she prayed as tears sprang to her eyes, please help me help Josh. I’m willing, God. I haven’t been, but I am now. I didn’t want You to tell me to be the one to reach out to my enemy. I wanted someone else to do it. But now I want to, God. If You have someone else in mind, that’s OK. But if You can use me, please use me. Like Lucy said, he doesn’t have You like we do. What if I could be all the difference? LOL, no pressure, right? Please help me, God. Give me the words to say. I’ll take Maddie’s advice and face up to my destiny. But I can only do so with Your help. Amen.

When they arrived at the pool, Wendy had no idea what she was gonna say.