A couple weeks ago I did the children’s sermon at church.

At that time, I shared one of my secrets with the children as well as the adults in the congregation. When I was in treatment for breast cancer, I had to lay very still for many of the tests. I told the children that I repeated Bible verses and favorite hymns during the treatment.

During the process, one of the technicians asked me how I stayed so still. He was amazed. I told him about repeating Bible verses and hymns to keep me still. That provided the perfect opportunity to share my faith with him.

It is always great when you get to share your faith with someone. I find it helps me as much or even more than it helps the person I share with.

That day I gave the children homework. I had received a bookmark from Franklin Graham. It had a bible verse for every letter of the alphabet. He told how his parents encouraged him to memorize scripture. I challenged the children to find a verse for every letter. I gave them each a notebook and directions as to when to have it finished. I expected it to take five weeks – doing five verses per week with six that last week.

By the time the service ended several of the children came up to me with their notebooks. They had already filled in some verses.

The next week I went prepared to check notebooks. None of the children were there. Someone accused me of keeping them away by giving homework. Really, I was not prepared for the enthusiasm they showed. I later found out they were not there because they had COVID. We missed you, kids. Hope to see you next week.

If they continued the way they started I expected some of them to be nearly finished. Depending on what I find, we may finish this project early. To finish up I plan to ask each child to memorize one verse and tell the congregation what that verse means to them. I plan to begin.

If this sounds interesting, let me challenge you to do what I called “The Alphabet Treasure Hunt”. It was really fun to find all of the verses. Of course, some of them were more difficult than others. Hint: for x you may use something like eXperience, eXtra, eXact.

It was a collection of verses that led to my book about grief. As I watched a church program I kept collecting verses. I have a full page of Bible verses that I have never used. This was in the early years after I lost my first husband. One night as I watched the program my project came to me. The Lord wanted me to use these verses to help others by writing a book.

As I put the book together, I included the verse, told how it influenced me, and my personal thoughts. I told how it helped me cope with my husband’s death – for in death everyone does it differently but all have the same emotions. I think the book had a cathartic effect on me. As I wrote, I could see the verses helping me. My thoughts were organized. I allowed myself to grieve.

For me, faith was an important component of the grieving process. I knew the Lord had plans for my life. I needed to let go, and let God fulfill his plans.

Ann Swanson writes from her home in Russell. Contact her at hickoryheights1@verizon.net.