The silly girls I live with...wouldn't trade them for anything. :)
"Julia! Can I come visit you?" Wi asked, opening my door before sound could leave my mouth.
"Ooh, your room is hot too." Wi said, as she came in. "What are you doing?"
"Translating a Bible story to teach the children at church on Sunday."
"Can I read too?"
"Sure." I responded, handing her the teacher's book of stories.
We sat on my bed, fans blowing the hot air around the room and flapping the pages of our books. Wi read story after story out loud but to herself, insisting I get my work done and only occasionally stopping to ask how to pronounce a word or its meaning. I occasionally did the same, asking the difference between two verbs that seemed interchangeable or the correct phrasing for a sentence.
After a while, Wi turned to another story. "This one is from Genesis 26." She stated. "What's a 'well' and why were Isaac's ne-i-ber-s...a-r-gu-ing?" She asked, but quickly followed with, "I'll read and find out."
Soft murmuring came from the other side of my bed. Her petite finger ran across the lines of the story, brow intermittently wrinkling under her short, black bangs as she stopped to examine a word.
"Hmmm."
I looked up, noticing Wi was finished with the story. "So, why were Isaac's neighbors arguing?" I inquired.
"They wanted Isaac's well. But Isaac didn't want to ar-gue, so he built another one and then another one. He wanted to be their friend."
We sat quietly for a moment.
"I'm going to go now." Wi stated, rather abruptly. She paused, seeming to think about the stories she had been reading. "God encouraged me to not argue with my friends."
"Good." I said, marveling at the way God just used a kid's bible story and my prep time to remind us of a lesson we often forget, even as adults.
The door closed, and I was left alone to translate the rest of the story for Sunday school.
"Ar-gue?" Wi called back, checking to make sure she was remembering her new word.
"Argue." I confirmed, smile widening across my face.
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