One day, as 9 year old Margaret came in late for recess, her teacher, Mrs. Cooper, lost all her patience with her. 

“Margaret, she said, “You never listen.  So today, I’m going to teach you a lesson you will never forget.”

And so, Mrs. Cooper ordered Margaret to the front of the classroom and then she asked all 25 of her classmates to come up front and write something they did not like about Margaret on the chalk board.

And so, the kids began to write… each word… wounding Margaret’s soul.

“Margaret is selfish.  Margaret is stupid.  Margaret is ugly.  Margaret is fat.”

Each word - piercing her heart like a spear, each word - like a punch to the stomach. 

Forty years later, as Margaret reflected on that experience, she realized that she had lived up to that list on the board.  Those painful words went in so deep that she embraced them as an identity, and it ruined her life.

40 years later, Margaret is in her counselor’s office.  It has taken 2 years of intensive work with this counselor for Margaret to begin to write a new story.  The counselor asks her to recount her experience one last time.  She does, remembering every detail as if it were yesterday. 

But now, the counselor says, ”There is one more person in the room that you forgot.” 

A man in the back of the room walks up to the board and erases everything else on the board and begins to write: 

‘Margaret is loved.  Margaret is beautiful.  Margaret is precious.  Margaret has so much to give.  Margaret is mine.’ 

That man is Jesus. 

He embraces Martha and tells her that he will never leave her or forsake her.  Tears of joy pour down Martha’s face as she embraces her new life with her Savior.