The Most Important Decision

“Amazing love… oh, how could it be? That you my King would die for me? Amazing love,” Jenny sang along with the Christian radio station on her way home from the youth fellowship that evening. She felt a warmth in her heart, a joy that she could hardly believe was real.

Jenny was a girl who had everything, a loving family who was not quite wealthy, but had enough to provide. And yet Jenny felt the pressures that every girl goes through in high school. She did not seem to fit in and that hurt her. In spite of the pressure, she could not bring herself to be like the other girls. She had always felt something tugging at her heart, but she could not quite explain it, or at least no one would understand her. Even her own parents did not know she was going to church. And she did not quite know how to go about telling them. But her graduation from high school would come soon, and so would the opportunity to go to college. And this was an opportunity Jenny thought her parent’s would not forgive her if she missed out on.

Parking her car in the long driveway just under the large Oak Tree, Jenny turned off the radio, then the ignition and grabbed her purse. Seeing that the lights were still on inside her home, she tucked her small Gideon’s Bible under the front seat where it would be out of sight.

“You’re late,” Jenny’s mother scolded when the girl came inside the house moments later. Dressed in a flowery robe and with dark circles under her eyes, Katherine Smithers sat in the kitchen sipping from a coffee cup.

“I’m sorry. I-,” Jenny said.

“Who is he?”

Jenny gave her mother a blank stare, “Who?”

“The boy you were with. Why else would you be out this late?”

“Lindsay and I saw a movie. It ran over,” Jenny lied. “Mom, I never do anything to make you not trust me. I’m a straight A student. You know I-“

“I know, Jenny,” Katherine nodded. “It’s just that your father and I have to put in a lot of hours at work and we worry about you.”

Opening the fridge door, Jenny pulled out a can of Coke and popped the tab, then sipped it slowly.

“You got some mail today,” her mother said, motioning to a small box on the table.

Jenny put the pop can down and grabbed the box. Then she pulled a paring knife from the kitchen drawer and cut through the layer of tape that held the box closed. Inside was a video tape and an invitation to Notre Dame College .

“Well?” her mother smiled knowingly.

“It’s from Notre Dame,” she said uninterestedly. “Would you put it with the others? Maybe I’ll watch them this weekend if I have time.”

“What?” Katherine said in disbelief. “I would expect a little more enthusiasm.”

“I guess I’m just tired. G’night, Mom. Love you. See you tomorrow.” The girl headed up the staircase.

---

The following day, Jenny met with her best friend Lindsay in the cafeteria at school for lunch. She had purchased a single slice of pizza, a chocolate shake and some Lays potato chips.

“Well, did you tell them?” asked Lindsay, twirling her red hair around her finger excitedly.

“No… I-“ Jenny broke off trying to think of an excuse.

Lindsay shook her head. “I just don’t get it, Jen. What’s there to be ashamed of? You have the maker of the entire universe living inside your heart, and you want to serve him. What’s wrong with that?”

“Nothing, I-“

“Then what?” she questioned. “Your folks aren’t atheists. I was at your house for Christmas last year.”

“There you go!” Jenny said as though it were a revelation.

“What?” asked Lindsay, puzzled.

“Christmas! We exchange gifts. We pig out. But we don’t talk about God. My folks don’t get the real meaning of Christmas. Christmas is a joke in my house.”

“That’s not a nice thing to say.”

“It’s not nice, but it’s a fact,” said Jenny, picking the round circles of meat off of her pizza. “I hate their pepperoni. It’s nasty.”

“Then why do you order it?” Lindsay replied, digging into her salad with a spork. The lettuce stubbornly slid off. She was just as dissatisfied with her plastic utensil as Jenny was with the pepperoni.

“It’s the only pizza they have.”

“Why don’t you order a salad like me?”

“Maybe because I don’t want everyone to hear my stomach growling in History Class two hours from now.”

Lindsay dropped that end of the conversation. Somehow, she sensed she had lost. She was actually quiet for a few seconds leaving Jenny surprised. But the silence was soon broken.

“You really should tell your parents you want to become a missionary… soon.”

Jenny shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know how they will react.”

“You won’t know until you find out.”

“You should have seen the look on my mom’s face last night all because I wasn’t anxious to watch the tape Notre Dame sent. I mean she acts like it’s a crime because I don’t want to go to college. Both my parents think that just because I get good grades, I should continue my education. They wouldn’t understand if I told them I wanted to go to Ethiopia or India for that matter.”

“But it’s what’s in your heart. They should care about what you want, not just what they want for you.”

“Should, but don’t,” Jenny said doubtfully, and finished her last mouthful of pizza.

---

When Jenny arrived home that afternoon, she was surprised to find both her parents home, waiting for her in the living room. Katherine was sitting on the couch with her arms folded across her chest.

“Jenn, honey. Your father and I need to talk to you.”

Jenny nodded, taking off her backpack and hanging it on the oak hall tree. She knew that the inevitable had come.

Her father, Richard, stepped forward and handed her an opened package, like the one she had received the day before. On the return address it read, “Overseas Missionary Foundation.”

Jenny’s heart began to race and she swallowed as her father gave her a blank stare.

“I don’t get it,” he said, loosening his neck tie. “Did you actually send away for that?”

“Where did you hear of it anyway?” asked Katherine.

“At church,” Jenny said matter-of-factly.

“What church?” Richard demanded. “We don’t go to church.”

“That’s not my decision,” Jenny shot back defensively.

“Jennifer, don’t talk back to your father,” Katherine scolded, getting up from her seat on the couch. “You have a stack of video tapes in your bedroom from colleges who are interested in you because of what you have achieved. Please, baby. Please don’t tell me you’re willing to throw those chances away.”

“To serve the Lord, maybe!”

“The Lord?” Richard scoffed. “Sweetheart, you won’t be able to support yourself let alone some poor-“

“You don’t understand it, Dad. You don’t understand me!” Jenny screamed while praying in her mind. Please, God. If this is your will, I need your strength. Please tell me what to say.

“I don’t care about money,” the words tumbled out of her mouth quickly. “I’m not worried. He will provide for me if I choose to do His will.”

Katherine rolled her eyes and Richard scratched his head nervously. Neither of them seemed to know how to respond.

Jenny felt the tears that wanted to escape from her own eyelids. “I know you don’t understand what’s come over me lately. But I’ve never felt more strongly about wanting to do anything in my life. Please say you’ll try to understand.”

Richard and Katherine exchanged looks.

“Come to church with me on Sunday,” Jenny coaxed.

Her father smiled. “Sweetheart, I golf on Sundays.”

“Just one Sunday,” Jenny begged giving them a sad puppy dog face and clasping her hands together in a beggar’s stance.

“Oh, all right,” he sighed.

The girl hugged her father, and then her mother. They attended church as a family the following Sunday. After that, Jenny’s mother attended regularly, while her father came every once in a while, like on a rainy day, or a holiday. But on one special day he watched as his wife and daughter were baptized. Jenny became a missionary and continued to pray for her father but it would be years before he would seek the Lord himself.