October 26

Overreaction

Words to Treasure

He also looked for a way to destroy all Mordecai’s people. They were Jews. He wanted to kill all of them everywhere in the kingdom of Xerxes.

Esther 3:6

Mary stomped up to Ms. Richards and pulled her by the hand over to where Jody was eating her lunch. “I don’t think that Jody is respecting me enough as the lead and star of this play,” Mary complained. “Either she apologizes for what she said, or I want her off the play.”

Jody sipped her juice box. “Everybody knows your mother made Ms. Richards pick you as the lead.”

“Girls!” Ms. Richards wasn’t very happy. “Jody, Mary is the star of this play, and that’s not an easy job. So be supportive. Mary, you can’t fire people off this play. The best actors are humble. We all have to work together. That’s what makes a play great.”

Mary’s head was going into overreaction mode because her pride was running the show. Wanting bad things for other people because you want them to treat you a certain way is not a good thing — ever. Pride can make small things seem way too important.

Did You Know?

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Haman was very angry because Queen Esther’s cousin Mordecai wasn’t honoring him enough. So he decided to kill Mordecai and all the Jews in the kingdom. Now that’s overreacting and incredibly evil. But what Haman didn’t know — because it was a secret — was that Queen Esther was a Jew herself. Even King Xerxes didn’t know that about his royal wife. (See Esther 2:20.)