Investment Prayers - written by Alfred (a short story for kids)

Once upon a time in a a Christian boarding school somewhere in America there lived a guy named James. He and everybody that where in the same school house he was in were in a very anxious place right now. Their house director was to be replaced and what bothered them was the question; would the replacement be strict & forceful or would he be more of a laid back character?   

All their anxieties where put to rest when the replacement was introduced two days later. After a few weeks of him being their house director, it was clear that he certainly wasn’t the laid back type.   One of the changes that the house director brought about was a radical increase in the mandatory prayer time.   

James and his fellow house mates protested the increase in prayer time. It’s not like they didn’t like prayer. It was that they had never had to pray for an entire hour before. They told the house director that by then they would have already prayed for all they needed to pray for and there would be nothing else to pray for.   

The house director told them that when they run out of things to pray for, they should pray for their futures – they should pray for the unknown – they should pray that whatever they want to see in their tomorrows is what they would see when tomorrow comes.   

James and his fellow house mates had never heard of the idea of praying prayers to create your tomorrow – prayers that advert bad things before they even had a chance to begin to take form. The idea had a certain quality to it. They soon nick-named this type of prayers, Investment Prayers. Even though they prayed the prayers, they still didn’t like the increase in their compulsory prayer time.   Nobody seemed to hate the increase in prayer time more than James especially as it took away from his play time.   

Like a mutiny on the high seas in progress, James gathered his fellow house mates together and cooked up a plot to get rid of their house director.   

Using the school’s rules that said a few things about what could get house director dismissed, James submitted a petition to the principal along with the signatures of everyone in the house that strongly indicated that they did not like their new house director.   James knew that, that would not be enough to get rid of the house director so he utilized the skills of a fellow house mate who could forge just about anybody’s handwriting, and he had a letter drawn up that was sure to get the house director out of the school entirely if the school principal saw it.   

James planted the letter where the principal was sure to find it but yet put in a location that it was logical for it to be and where the house director can keep something so delicate that he expects the school principal not to find it.   

After James finished with that he went to the cafeteria to eat but then a friend from another house in the school mentioned an observation, he said that ever since their new house director showed up James had never had to struggle or had any issues with the school authorities. It was like if his life had gotten smoother.   

That was when it hit James. It was the Investment Prayers.James stood up and rushed out of the cafeteria to stop his plan which was already in motion, but it was too late. The school principal had already seen the note that was planted.   

The house director got kicked out of the school and even though James was viewed as a hero by his fellow house mates, he knew in his heart what he had cost them all. Who knows whatever beneficial thing that the house director was yet to teach them?   

He had cost a good man his job. The quilt ate away at James and kept getting stronger until the point where he could not take it anymore. He confessed and got expelled. But at least he had gotten that weight of his chest. But if there is one thing he didn’t let go, it is the lessons that he had learnt. 

THE END.