God made you special – with Layla.
Written by Rebecca Holsapple

As she woke up that morning, Layla had a feeling this day was going to be special. It was her first day at Vacation Bible School and she would get to be a helper in the 3-4 year old class. What a fun thing for her to get to do. She was the youngest helper, at 11, but Sister Patience had recommended her to Sister Honor because she was so mature for her age. Layla was beaming with pride when they told her she could help a couple weeks ago.  Today was the day and her fervent prayer was that God would use her to bless the little ones.

Layla sat in the passenger seat while her dad drover her over.

“So what are you going to be teaching the kids about?”

"The theme of the week is “God made you special.”… I am not sure what the lessons are going to be about but I know we are going to do lots of crafts and games.  Samantha’s little brother and sister are going to be in the class I am helping with."

“That sounds like a lot of fun, honey! I am sure you are going to be a great helper! God certainly made you special! You are such a sweet, helpful and mature young lady. Your mom and I are really proud of you!”

Layla started to blush. She leaned over and kissed her dad on the cheek “Thanks daddy! It means a lot to hear you say that!”

The car stopped, she stepped out and waved goodbye to her dad.

The place was full of kids. Layla could feel the excitement! Everybody was ready to have some fun. She quietly prayed that they would all learn something new about the Lord today.  A wide smile spread across her tan face as she spotted Sister Honor. 

“There’s my helper!! How are you today Layla? Ready to have some fun and help me teach the youngsters about God?”

“I sure am!” said Layla. This was one of the most exciting things she had gotten to do in a long time. She felt so grown up being a helper.

She was handed a badge with a big smiley face on it with her name, Layla Chacon and the word Helper written below it.  She proudly pinned it on her bright yellow shirt.

A whistle blew and the whole group grew silent and gathered around Brother Luke. He told them where each age group would gather every morning and gave everybody instructions as to how they were expected to behave. He said all of it in such a fun way, it didn’t even feel like rules and the whole group was giggling at his antics. He got the message across!

Sis Honor and Layla gathered all the 3 and 4 year olds and walked toward the big tree in the middle of the yard. That was their spot for the week.  They sang some songs, all the kids favorites :”Jesus loves me”, “Jesus loves the little children”, “ I’m in the Lords’ army” and many others.  Layla loved every minute of it, doing motions and giggling with the little ones. 

Then Sis Honor told them about the theme of the week and asked each of them if they were special.  The answers they got were almost enough to roll on the floor laughing. Most of the children talked about things they owned or physical characteristics.

A few minutes later they sat in a circle and drew pictures of themselves.  Around noon, everybody went to lunch and the rest of the afternoon was spent playing games, catch the flag, dodge ball, swinging and sliding.  It was a lot of fun!

Layla’s dad got there right after clean-up time and she was about to get in the car when Sister  Honor ran up to her.

“Layla, hey, sorry to catch you in so short notice, I just got a phone call. My grand-father just got admitted in the hospital and he is 3 hours away. I have to go see him and I won’t be able to be here tomorrow. I was wondering if you would be comfortable taking over tomorrow’s lesson?"

“Sure!” said Layla with a wide smile.

“Here are all the notes, the lesson is about Queen Esther. Read it over, simplify it tonight to make sure you can explain it to the children without using the notes too much. Do you think one of your friends could be your helper tomorrow?”

“I’ll call Samantha and ask her, since her brother and sister are there, she would probably like to.”

“Perfect! Sorry again! You were great today and I am sure you will do just fine tomorrow!”

Layla got in the car, with the notebook on her lap. 

“Wait until your mom hears you have been promoted from helper to teacher in a day! She won’t believe it! You certainly make us proud Layla!” said dad.

“Thanks dad!” Layla’s mind was already on the lesson. She couldn’t wait to read all the notes she had on her lap right now.

When they got home, they sat together at the dinner table over a delicious Mexican meal and she told her mom and dad all about her day.

“Don’t worry about helping with the dishes tonight, sweetie. Go read that lesson so you can be ready for tomorrow!” mom said to Layla.

“Thanks mom! I am so excited about this!!” said Layla as she gave her mom a hug.

She ran up to her room, closed the door and lay on her bed with the notebook.  She opened it and there was a post-it on the first page reading: “Here is the lesson, Layla. Read it and make sure you understand it and retell it to the children on their level. Thank you so much for doing this for me! You are the best! Sis Honor.”

Layla started reading right away…

God has a plan for your life.

"God created you and me. He tells us in His Word that He knit us together while we were inside our mother’s wombs. (Psalm 139:13-15) He knows every little detail about us. He knows how many hairs we have on our heads. (Matthew 10:30) He knows what we like and what we don’t like. He made each of unique and there is no one created exactly like us in the whole world.

We live in a world that sometimes makes us think that we aren’t special because we are not popular, pretty, athletic, or as smart as others. Our value to God isn’t based on any of those things. He loves us because He created us and placed us in this world for a purpose. His purpose for placing each one of us on this earth is to glorify Him and enjoy Him forever. We glorify God when we live a life that pleases Him and points others to Him. When we live that kind of life we will enjoy God and all the blessings that come from Him.

Because God’s purpose is for each of us to glorify Him and enjoy Him forever, He has given us gifts or talents that we can use to help others see that God exists and wants them to be a part of His family too.

Sometimes we know clearly what our gifts/talents are and how God wants to use us in this life. Other times we may not know what our gift and purpose is in this life. (If possible take a gift-wrapped box out of a bag and set on your lap.) Our lives are like this unopened present. We have received a present but we don’t know exactly what is inside until we take the wrapping paper off the present. As each of us walk with God by faith day by day, obeying His Word He begins to prepare us for what is inside that present. In God’s perfect time He allows the wrapping on the gift we have to come off and He allows us to see what the talent/ability for serving Him will be. Whether we know what gift God has given us or not, we are to live a faithful and obedient life that pleases God. Because even though we might not feel like we have a purpose and are not useful to God, He sees all that is going on around us. He knows how your life will affect the people around you.

We all influence the lives of others around us. Whether it’s your brother/sister or your classmates there is someone who is affected by the way you live your life. The question we need to think about this morning is: are you influencing people to want to know God and live for Him, or are you influencing people to disobey and rebel against God?

The Bible story for today is found in the Book of Esther.
The king over the country Persia at this time was named Xerxes. He was a very rich king and had very fancy parties that lasted for days and days. One night King Xerxes commanded that his wife Queen Vashti come. She refused to do what the King commanded. This made Xerxes furious that his wife didn’t do what he commanded. The king’s helpers said, “This woman must go! We can’t have her setting a bad example for the other wives in your kingdom!” Xerxes followed their advice and did not allow Vashti to be queen anymore.

Xerxes must have felt better that he had punished the queen for her disobedience but soon after she left his palace he began to miss having a wife. King Xerxes’ helpers came up with an idea. They told the king that he should bring all the beautiful young, pure women who have never been married to the city of Shushan and have a beauty contest. The woman who the king would choose would be the new queen.

The king thought this was a great idea. He had the beautiful young women from the cities in his kingdom brought to the city of Shushan so they could prepare for this beauty contest.

Esther a young Jewish woman lived in Shushan. She was beautiful so she was chosen to be taken with the other young women to take part in the contest to become queen. This may not have been something that Esther wanted anything to do with. Maybe the thought of being Xerxes wife was not something she wanted to do at all. Not knowing what Esther’s feelings on this were we know that she obeyed and went where she was asked to go. She may not have understood but she chose to obey. God has a plan for His children and He places them exactly where He wants them so He can use them for His plan.
After all the women went before the King, he liked Esther best of all. He chose her to be his Queen. It must have been scary for Esther. King Xerxes didn’t always behave in a nice way. She must have heard the story of how Queen Vashti was fired. What kind of husband would Xerxes be? Even though Esther may not have understood why she was chosen to be queen, God did. He had a plan and as we listen we will see how God uses Esther for His plan.

Before Esther became Queen. Mordecai, he cousin, told her it was important to not tell anyone that she was a Jew. The Bible doesn’t tell us why Mordecai asked this of her, but he did. Esther obeyed Mordecai because he was like a father to her and she knew that God would want her to honor and obey the man who was as a father to her.

Mordecai loved Esther very much and he sat at the king’s gate to be near to where Esther lived. One time while he was sitting by the gate he overheard two men planning to kill King Xerxes. He passed this information along to Ether and she told the King. The two men were put to death and Mordecai’s information about this plot was written down in the King’s history books.
The king had a helper who was wicked and cruel. He thought he was a very important man because he worked for the king. His name was Haman. King Xerxes promoted Haman to a position higher than the other officials in his kingdom. The king made a command that everyone should kneel and honor Haman when he was present.

One day as he walked by Mordecai he expected to bow down and honor him. Mordecai knew it was against God’s commandments to bow down to anyone but Him. He would not bow down to honor Haman. This angered Haman and caused him to hate Mordecai. He knew that Mordecai was a Jew so that made Haman hate all Jews.

Because Haman hated all the Jews he went to King Xerxes and asked the king to make a law that all the Jews to be killed. When he asked the king he didn’t mention the Jews by name but said, “There are certain people who live in your land who do not obey the king’s laws. The king listened to Haman and made a law that in the month of Adar all the Jews, men, women, and children would be destroyed.

This was terrible news! God’s people the Jews were going to be destroyed because of wicked Haman’s plan. Haman was having every Jew killed because he hated them so much.

God loves His children and protects them from evil. He does not want His children destroyed. Mordecai found out about this terrible news that the Jews were going to be destroyed. The news broke his heart and caused him to cry. He had messengers go and tell Esther that she had to do something to stop this wicked plan.

When Esther heard this news she was afraid. She knew that if she went to the king without being invited she could be killed right on the spot. Only people who were invited by the king could come and stand before his throne. Mordecai encouraged Esther and told her that it was for this time in her life that God had a plan to use her for His purposes.

Even though Esther might die, she decided that she would have others pray and fast with her. She would go to the king and tell him of this wicked plan to destroy her people. This took courage. God gave courage to Esther to go before the king. God gives courage to His children so that they can do the work He has for them.
After Esther and her people prayed and fasted for three days she went before the king. As she stood in the outer courts and King Xerxes saw her, she must have trembled on the inside. When she looked up at the king she saw a smile on his face and him holding out his scepter for her to touch. This was what a king did to show a person it was ok to come into the room where he was.

Queen Esther was trusting God to show her what to do so when the King asked her what she wanted, she invited him and Haman to a banquet. At the banquet she invited the king and Haman to attend another banquet the next night.

Because Esther trusted God and His timing she didn’t rush to tell Xerxes about Haman’s wicked plan. Because she waited and acted only when the time was right, God was able to work in other events that would bring together His plan for this situation.

Meanwhile the night before Esther’s banquet, the king could not sleep and he asked his servant to bring him a history book for him to read.. As he read in this book he reads about the account of Mordecai overhearing the plot to have him killed. King Xerxes realized that Mordecai had not been honored and rewarded for saving his life so as he was planning how he could reward Mordecai.

As Haman enters the King’s presence the king asks him, “What should be done for the man the king delights to honor?”

Pride is an ugly thing. Pride blinds us to the true sinful person that we are. Haman was blinded by pride. He assumed the king wanted to honor him so he came up with the best way he would want to be honored. Imagine his horror when King Xerxes tells him to go and do to Mordecai all that he said about how to be honored!

It was now time for the banquet. Esther knew it was God’s time to tell the King that she and her people were going to be killed. She told the king that she was a Jew and there was a law that her people were going to be killed. The king was furious! “Who would dare to think about killing you?” The king loved his wife and the thought of her being killed made him angry. Esther pointed at Haman and said the enemy who wants to destroy the Jews is this wicked Haman!”

King Xerxes had Haman put to death. God had used Mordecai and Esther to save His people from destruction. Esther went to Xerxes and pleaded with him to write a new law that would save her people. He agreed and made a new law that said on the day that the Jews were to be attacked that they could protect themselves from those who were going to attack them.

The Jews lives were saved because Esther was faithful and obeyed in the circumstance she was in. Many lives were positively affected because of her influence.

We have been placed on this earth at this time in history for God’s plans and purposes. He knows all that is going on around us and He will use us to be a Godly influence in the lives of others around us if we choose to follow and obey Him.

God has made you special and unique, and you need to use your gifts and talents for God’s glory!"

Layla finished reading with tears in her eyes. She had heard the story of Esther before, but it really hit home. God had made her special and put her where she was for a purpose and she wanted to make sure she used all of it for God’s glory.

She prayed that He would help her to do just that.

She made notes to explain the story more on the little kids level but was so glad Sister Honor had given it to her this way. It was a lesson she needed to be reminded of.

The End.

*Portions of the text about Queen Esther were taken from the internet.