Though they plan evil against you, though they devise mischief, they will not succeed. Psalm 21:11, ESV

He came with a warning. Not the normal sort. Not the “beware-this-one-will-push-all-your-buttons” kind of warning. This warning was a “handle-with-care-needs-lots-of-love” kind of warning. My mother had been his teacher before he came to me and she made sure I was ready to love the guts out of this boy. He had been through a lot and needed a lot of unconditional love.

So, of course, I loved on this kid as much as he would let me. Understandably so, he was resistant because of his background. He came from a Christian family that had quite literally fallen down around him, leaving him to bear the weight of his siblings. He was resistant to any belief in God, to say the least.

As all of my kids do, he knew I was a Christian. This knowledge stems from the fact that I am the adviser to our middle school’s First Priority club. Of course, this made it even more difficult for him to accept the love from the Father that I tried to display to him.

One day, he came up to my desk during a reading period. He laid a piece of notebook paper down in front of me that had obviously been meticulously studied. He was literally drumming his fingers together from tip to tip like a villain in a movie. Picture Jafar from Aladdin.

On the paper was a long list of Scriptures.

He said to me, “Read through these and tell me this God you serve is a good God.”

Every Scripture was about women’s submission to men, slavery, and all sorts of other things he thought would disprove the love of the Father. I could tell he was sure this would break my faith.

I calmly read through the Scriptures as he grinned maniacally down at me as I sat at my desk. I prayed feverishly that the Lord would grant me words of kindness and love to speak to this hurting child. God was faithful to remind me of a conversation from my women’s small group just a few days prior. We were commenting on many of these same Scriptures and how we could see that they would challenge people who had not studied the context of Scripture.

“It’s so funny you bring these scriptures up to me. I was just having a conversation about this with my women’s small group a few days ago. We had the same questions as I’m sure you do!”

Then, I went on to express to him that some of the views of Christianity seem antiquated and countercultural, but that I still believe in them. I also made the point that it was incredibly important to study the context of Scripture before just pulling random verses out of the books of the Bible in order to understand their full meaning.

Then, I encouraged him to keep studying these things, not necessarily because he believes them to be true, but because he believes them to be untrue. I also pointed out to him that it is just as important to understand what you don’t believe in order to fully understand what you do believe.

I can’t say that this boy who came with such an important and heartbreaking warning came to faith that year, or even that he has now. However, I can most assuredly tell you that our relationship changed for the better from that point forward. God’s faithful wisdom allowed me to speak into this hurt, broken heart, paving the way for a respectful relationship and this student’s ability to see that I loved him even despite our differences.

Today, I ask you to lean into that very practice. In moments of adversity, ask the Lord how He would have you respond, and then pray He gives you the patience and strength to do so.

Lord, we thank you for the times when people challenge our beliefs. We thank You that this adversity causes us to understand what we believe about You and Your Word. Let us respond to these situations with Your wisdom and love. In Jesus’ Name, we pray, Amen.

Copyright Morgan Preston.

Morgan is a former middle school language arts and social studies teacher. She is currently Christian Educators’ Marketing and Communications Coordinator and serves her middle school students and teachers through First Priority.