The Mysterious Missing Clothing

<p>Three items: one dress, one skirt, one jumpsuit. These were the pieces I wanted to sell at a consignment shop. If they sold, the store owner would earn a profit, and I would also walk away with some cash.</p><p>.</p><p>I located a consignment store and arranged to sell my items there. Then I called the store once a week to check if they had sold. Each time, I learned they hadn’t. After a few weeks, nobody answered my calls. I finally spoke to the manager, who I’ll call “Iris,” and she informed me that she had decided to cut back on store hours because profits were low. I didn’t understand but agreed to contact Iris later about whether the clothes had been purchased.</p><p>.</p><p>After a couple more weeks, I passed by the shopping center, only to discover that the store was shut down and completely bare. I don’t know what happened to the clothes I tried to sell, but I never saw them again. I was frustrated and didn’t know how to fix the problem. Though I might have wanted to make Iris pay for what she’d done, I also wanted to consider how God would have me approach the situation.</p><p>.</p><p>Having a relationship with God is possible through Jesus. He died and rose again so that we could be forgiven from all our sins. I had put my faith in Jesus, and that meant He had something to say about my mindset in these circumstances. Jesus taught His followers to be merciful and to pray for those who mistreat us, as God is merciful to us even though we all do wrong against Him. As His children, we have been set free to forgive others and let offenses go because God has forgiven us, and we can trust Him to carry out perfect justice. In the end, I chose to let those pieces of clothing go, acknowledging that God was still good even in this loss.</p><p>.</p><p>As God’s children, we can trust Him to show us His kindness even when people mistreat us. As we follow our merciful Savior, He helps us be merciful to others. • Allison Wilson Lee</p><p>.</p><p>•How could remembering that God has shown us mercy make it easier for u