True Beauty, page 4

Erikah watched as one of the boys stuck his foot out and tripped another boy, causing him to drop his books and school papers. The bully and several others began to laugh, but Amberly and her friends glared at them until they got up and helped him gather his things.

Right before math, Erikah noticed three boys offering to carry a girl’s books for her. “Why do they like her so much?” She asked Daina. “That’s Lillian.” She said. “She is considered the prettiest girl in school, because she’s always smiling. That’s what’s different about this school. When you focus on people’s hearts instead of what’s on the outside, you learn what true beauty is. I mean really, why would anyone want to be like them?” She nodded towards a group of boys who were playing catch with the pencil case that they had taken from Amberly. Erikah shuffled her feet uneasily. “The world would be a better place is everyone saw people the way God does.”

That night when Erikah read her Bible, she came across a verse that stuck out to her. It was 1st Samuel 16:7. “…For the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” She was gradually beginning to realize that she was seeing things all wrong. If God only cared about the way people acted, and not how they looked, then that must be the way He intended things to be. Tears rolled down Erikah’s cheeks as she thought of the way she had treated Bridget and laughed at Carl and the others. “But that’s all about to change.” She thought determinedly.