My Heart

Some members brought poor children on a bus to the church where my dad was the pastor. I was ten then, and it made me feel sad to see their clothes wrinkled and torn, their shoes worn out, and their faces dirty. My mother kept our clothes clean and mended, and she was a stickler for daily baths for the four of us children. I got new shoes as I needed them, even though Dad said I wore them out quicker than anyone he knew. I wondered about their home situations.

That day when we got home after church, Dad told me he needed to talk to me. He said that Mrs. Phillips had come to him to say she saw me stick my tongue out at those little poor children. He did not ask me if I'd done that. He just said he had told her she had to be mistaken at what she thought she saw because he knew his little girl's heart, and she would never do that. I have never forgotten the joy I felt that my father had defended me because he knew my heart.