“Sarah’s Shoes,” Friend, May 2011, 18–19
Sarah’s Shoes
Be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath (James 1:19).
Adah looked up at the indoor playground. The multicolored tunnels wound upward toward the ceiling. Adah couldn’t wait to jump into the tunnels and slide and climb with the other children.
Her sister Sarah couldn’t either. She ran toward the playground without taking off her shoes.
“Wait, Sarah!” Mom called. “Don’t forget to take off your shoes.”
Adah and Sarah put their shoes in the shoe cubby, then hurried toward the playground.
They played in the tunnels until all the other children had left. “Girls, time to go!” Adah heard Mom call. She slid down the slide one last time and ran to the shoe cubby.
Adah put on her shoes, but then she noticed that Sarah’s shoes weren’t in the cubby. Where were they? Her family looked all over the playground but couldn’t find them.
Finally Dad said, “Somebody must have taken them.” He picked up Sarah and carried her to the car.
“I want my shoes!” Sarah cried.
Adah wanted to cry too. She couldn’t believe someone had stolen Sarah’s shoes! She wondered which one of the people there had taken the shoes. “Maybe it was the girl with pigtails,” she said. “Or that girl who pushed me down the slide!”
“We don’t know who did it, and we need to be careful about accusing others,” Mom said. “Heavenly Father wants us to think kind things about other people.”
The whole night seemed ruined as they drove home and Adah went to her room. How could she think kind thoughts about the person who stole her sister’s shoes? She whispered a prayer and asked Heavenly Father to help her. But she still felt angry inside. She plopped down on her bed with a sigh.
She landed on something hard. “Ouch!” It was her favorite pink pony. Adah tossed the pony across the room and it landed under the dresser. Then she remembered the pony had been lost for a week until she found it at her friend Meri’s house. She didn’t want to lose it again, so she knelt down and reached under the dresser.
Adah pulled out two pink ponies that looked exactly the same. She looked at them in surprise. Her pony had been under the dresser the whole time—she had taken Meri’s pony by mistake! Adah felt bad that she had taken Meri’s pony by accident. And then she had an idea.
“Mom!” she called, running to the kitchen. “I think I know what happened to Sarah’s shoes. I bet somebody had shoes just like Sarah’s at home, and she thought Sarah’s shoes were her shoes, so she took them by mistake. She didn’t mean to steal after all!”
“What a good thought,” Mom said with a smile. Adah smiled too.
The next day, Mom took Sarah to buy new shoes. Adah went with them. They stopped at Meri’s so Adah could give back the pony.
“I took this by mistake,” Adah told her friend. “I thought it was mine. I’m sorry.”
Adah’s mom told Meri’s mom that they were going to buy shoes for Sarah. Meri’s mom went downstairs and came back with two pairs of shoes that looked almost new.
“These are Meri’s old shoes that don’t fit her anymore,” she said. “Why don’t you take them for Sarah?”
Sarah laughed and danced in her new shoes. Adah was glad she had found a way to think kindly about the person who took Sarah’s shoes.
Illustrations by Brad Teare