Dear Reader:

When this jar popped up the other day on-line, I immediately wrote ” Blessing” for my positive word addition that started with the first letter of my name.

This entry took me back down memory lane to a summer Bible School one week when I was in the sixth grade. We got stuck with Miss Marble for our teacher volunteer. She was the loudest voice in the church choir and it never got softer… even in the church classroom.

To our horror and disbelief she assigned “homework ” the first day of Bible School. We were to bring in a line of scripture that started with the first letter of our names.

Suddenly I remembered the Beatitudes! I punched Billy Stoddard giving him the thumbs up for our good luck! We could ” Blessed” our way through the whole week.

Unfortunately Miss Marble overheard the conversation and quickly added that each verse must be spread out between the Old and New Testaments!

Billy and I looked at each other and in unison came up with another ” B” word – “BUMMER!”

But actually we were still better off than our classmate-Zeke! The next morning he was in a panic-had forgotten the assignment… after all he explained pitifully… WHO gives homework assignments in Summer Bible School???

We were all frantically trying to help Zeke think of a ” Z” when Mary Margaret calmly said ” zealot. It’s in the Bible because grandmother was reading scripture yesterday and told my daddy he was no better than a ” zealot ” by watching football all the time!

” But what does ” zealot ” mean?” asked Zeke. Mary Margaret said she wasn’t sure but thought it was some kind of cheerleader -since her daddy did a lot of clapping and cheering while watching football.

When it was Zeke’s turn to share a ” z” word he, too, fell back on the Beatitudes-quoting ” Blessed are the Zealots for cheering others.”

Miss Marble stared at Zeke in shock and then a slow smile crossed her face… ” and a zealot is what Zeke?”

Red-faced Zeke mumbled” … a cheerleader.” Now it was Miss Marble’s turn to flush while trying not to laugh. ” I suppose you could call a zealot a cheerleader… with an attitude!”

The next day Zeke redeemed himself by proclaiming ” Zechariah was John the Baptist’s daddy.”

***So until tomorrow… Do you know those are still the only two ” Z”‘s I can remember from scripture?

” Today is my favorite day” Winnie the Pooh