“No! Betty, don't jump!” Mother called sharply as she noticed her little six-year-old daughter balancing on the porch rail.
“Just this once—-” Betty answered, giving a little spring. As she jumped the hem of her dress caught on the knob of a chair behind her and threw her forward. Landing on the ground in a little heap she felt a sharp pain in her left arm that made her cry out.
When the doctor came he said it was broken. After a few painful moments Betty found her arm bandaged firmly and resting in a sling.
It was hard to play, hard to dress and undress, and even hard to sleep sometimes! How Betty looked forward to the day the doctor would take the bandages away. Then one day the doctor took his shiny scissors and cut right through the bandages. There was her arm, just as it had been before, only it felt so strange and sort of brand new!
The next day Betty was visiting Aunt Nell. After supper she was playing with a bean bag out on the side walk when Aunt Nell came to the door and called, “It's time to come in now!”
But Betty answered, “Oh, not yet! I want to play a while!” and she threw her bean bag high in the air again. Then as she ran to catch it, it happened! Her toe caught in a crack, and down she fell on her left arm. She felt it snap, and then came the sharp pain again!
Yes, it was broken again, and this time the doctor shook his head as he had to put it into a cast which was to be kept on for a whole month! Poor little disobedient Betty. How well she knew that her arm would not have been broken either time if only she had been obedient!
The month seemed so long, and by the time it was over she had learned that it was best to obey, even though it did not always please her to. Mother explained carefully from God's Word that sin must always be punished. If we grow up with hearts that want their own disobedient way, and do not receive the Savior, God cannot take us into heaven to be with Himself. He will have to allow us to go to hell, the place of everlasting punishment.
But how wonderful to know that Jesus died and took God's punishment for the sins of even boys and girls so that they might be forgiven! Won't you thank Him right now?