“A Crayon Mistake,” Friend, March 2022
A Crayon Mistake
“Hi, Valerie!” Lucy said. She ran across the gym to meet her friend. She and Valerie got to play while their moms met at church.
Lucy found some crayons. She chose a pink one. But she didn’t have any paper to draw on. So she drew a pink line on a chair instead. The line looked bright and pretty on the metal. Lucy looked at Valerie and giggled.
Valerie chose a purple crayon. She drew a squiggly shape on another chair. Lucy and Valerie covered both chairs with bright marks.
Soon Mom came over and saw the scribbles. “Lucy!” Mom said. “You know we only color on paper!”
Lucy looked down at the ground. She knew that crayons were only for paper. But once she started coloring, she just sort of … forgot.
She looked at the chair now. A few weeks ago, her family had helped clean the church. She liked taking care of Jesus’s house. She felt sorry for making a mess today.
“Come on, girls. Let’s clean it up,” Mom said. She got some paper towels. They were wet and soapy.
Valerie and Lucy scrubbed the crayon marks. Slowly they started to come off.
“This is hard,” Lucy groaned.
Mom patted her back. “Yes, but we can do it!”
Together they scrubbed the chairs. Finally the metal was clean and shiny.
Lucy looked at the clean chairs and smiled. She was sorry she had made a mess. But she was happy that she could make things better.
Illustration by Mark Robison