A Not So Genius Idea

I was playing Monopoly with my friend, Lauren, when the subject first came up, “We might move,” she said.

“What are you gonna do? Buy park place? Get a life, will you take your turn now?” I said sarcastically.

“No, I mean my dad’s job might make us move,” Lauren said a little annoyed at my disbelief.

“Whatever,” I brushed it off because I thought it might just be an off season April Fools trick. If that was possible. I mean, come on now, it couldn’t be true. We had been best friends since kinder garden and she had always lived right across the street.
A few weeks passed and they confirmed they were moving. I called Lauren up and said, “You can’t move! You’re like, my only friend.”

“I know, but think how I’m gonna feel,” she replied.

“Oh, I got to go,” I said. “See ya later, I hope.” After I said that, I hoped Lauren would take it okay.

I called her Saturday and she would come over at noon.

Then when I got off the phone, my mom walked in. “Kelsey, I don’t know that telling Lauren about your anger is helping. Last night she got mad at her parents, started screaming, and refused to go with them when they moved,”
“I can’t blame her,” I said snapped back. I was so mad at my mom. Was she on Lauren’s parents’ side? How could she? Anyway I had better things to do than to sit around letting my mom lecture about my friend moving away. It’s depressing enough just thinking about it much less talking about it.

Ding! Dong! “YES!” I thought. Lauren’s here. Actually it was her mom. “Lauren won’t be able to come due to disobedience,” she said.

“Fine.” I said gloomily. I went up to my room to think. A few minutes later I was crawling out my window. I thought to myself, “Due to genius ideas, I will be seeing Lauren in a few short minutes. Ha Ha.” When I had successfully climbed out of the window, I started across the yard. Just when I hit the road, her dad drove up the drive way. “Oh, no.” I thought. Quickly I dove into one of our prickly bushes next to the road. I kind of had mixed feelings of, “Ouch! I hate these bushes.” and, “That was a close one, good thing we have these bushes.”

Once I had unpricked myself I made my way to her window. Hopefully mom wouldn’t notice the red prick marks. I tapped on her window gently. Lauren open the curtains with a bat in her hands. “Don’t hurt me!” I said scared out of my wits.

“Opps! Sorry, I didn’t know it was you, I thought maybe it was an intruder. She said. She opened the window.

“Finally,” I said. “You better be thankful I’m here for what I’ve been through.”

“Okay, I’m thankful. What were you going to say?”

“Oh, yeah. My mom told me you got mad last night. Maybe if they see haw upset you are they won’t make you move.” I told her.

“Do you really think its okay? Well I am upset so… I just can’t believe that God’s doing this to me.”

“Us.” I said

“Us. Why do you think?” She said.

“I don’t know. I have to leave, but I’ll see you tomorrow at church.”

The rest of the day, my mind mulled over the subject. Her words rang in my ears, “Why is God doing this to us?” I didn’t know. I knew just as much as she did, Zippo. “Well,” I thought, “I can’t do anything about it now.” I then went to sleep.

The next morning I got ready for church without any arguing or anything. Now that’s miraculous. But, I was thinking about Lauren. Would she be able to come over today so we could talk? Maybe go to the mall? “Kell-seyy! COME ON!” yelled my mom.

“O-kaayy.” I yelled back.

After Church we went out to eat with Lauren and her family. At lunch her mom said we could play. We decided to not worry about the moving thing today.

As time went by, Lauren and I kept getting more and more anxious. We didn’t know what to do. Lauren at one point wanted to run away. She almost did, but I told her that it’s basically like moving. She then saw what I meant and stayed here. Thank goodness.
When it was moving close to the time of their move, we just sat up in my room and cried. Lauren got into the habit of yelling and screaming every time her mom or dad tried to talk to her. One day I had a plan. “Maybe if you try to reason with them they would let you come and stay with us until they decide to move back, or maybe just every once in a while, like ummmm… every Christmas and summer.”

“I doubt they would even let me stay with you three weeks. Anyway, when they want to move back, I’ll probably be in college.” she said.

“Come on now, were only eleven.”

“I know, that’s my point.” she replied.

“Oh, well, it’s worth a try,” I said.

“That’s what you said last time.”

“I know, but just do it, for me?” I said pitifully.

“Fine.” she said.

She tried reasoning and it didn’t work.

One night at youth group, the youth minister, Mr. Bob, was talking about friends moving away. And, it was only a few weeks away that Lauren was moving. “I think God’s trying to tell us something,” Lauren said.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s probably just your head. You’re tired.” I said totally not expecting anything.

Throughout the evening God kept giving little hints. But, we ignored them. Then something Mr. Bob said struck us powerfully. “In Proverbs 16:9 it says: ‘The mind of a man plans his way, But the Lord directs his steps.’ You may think it’s your parents fault for moving, but it’s not. God has a purpose for everything. You may want to stay were you are, but there is something great in store for you. You just have to listen to God and what he wants you to do.” He said. “Now if any of you want to talk, I will be in my office with ice cream, as usual.”

“Do you think we should go?” I asked Lauren. “I think God is trying to get our attention.”

“Me too. Anyway the ice cream sounds good, hee hee. Let’s go.” She replied.

So afterwards, we spent one hour talking it over and felt so much better afterwards.

When we got back to my house, I told Lauren I thought she should talk to her parents, no screaming. She did. She said she was really sorry and told her mom and dad she would move when and where they wanted as long as it was were God wanted them to go. Her parents were very forgiving and told Lauren that they would see what they could do so she could see me.

My mom was also very nice about it. She accepted my apology. I told her about everything including the window incident. She said she could tell that I was very sorry, but I would have some consequences. I just said, “Okay.” My mom was shocked! She saw I learned my lesson and laid of on the consequences part. I was really happy!

The next day Lauren barged right in to my house, and I could tell she was really happy. “Kelsey, Kelsey!” she yelled.

“Yes?” I said a little shocked.

“Guess what? I can come see you in the summer, and at Christmas!” She spat out.

“Really?” I said in disbelief.

“Yes, and that’s not all, were moving back in two years!”

I was so very happy. That night Lauren slept over for fun. When we got in bed, Lauren asked me what I thought prompted her parents to do that. I said in full faith to Lauren, “God did it, Lauren. God did it.”