Heart Hope by Olga

The little tyke had a smirk on his face as he grabbed the bag of Sun Chips on his way into Subway, as if to say look at how clever I am. However the look quickly faded as he ran to his dad holding up the bag and asked, “Can I have these?” and was told no. I waited anxiously to see what his response would be and was amazed to see him turn and obediently return the chips to the stand alongside all of the others.  Being pleasantly surprised, I wondered if perhaps it was a test by the dad, because once the order had been placed he sent both boys over to get their chips. The son’s original obedience of being denied what he wanted was ultimately rewarded with getting what he wanted. I believe that sometimes God tests us too. Maybe he answers our prayer with a no or a wait answer, just to see how we will respond. If obedient like the child to his father, God our Father will give us what we want or perhaps something even better. However if we choose to have our little tem...

It was almost 7:30 PM and I had been gone from my house for nearly 12 hours. I had just finished ringing up and paying for $26.60 worth of groceries. I was tired and still had to go home and prepare the purchased items for an event the next morning. When gathering up the groceries and my purse to leave the store, I realized that I had not rung up the small yellow onion hiding in the back of my cart.  Thoughts began going through my mind—it’s only one little onion, I could just throw it in the bag and be out of here. No one would know—no one except me and God of course. So I unloaded my arms and rang up the $.37 onion then dug in the bottom of my purse for the correct change to deposit into the coin receiver. There was no applause or fanfare; no congratulations for making the right choice. It would have been much easier just to have tossed the onion in the bag, but it would have been wrong.  Everyday I encourage people to do the right thing, to be obedient to God and to ma...