My name is Amber Nicole Snyder. I’m in the fifth grade at Bluesky Elementary school. My teacher, Mr. Eller, asked our class to write about an important lesson we learned. This is my story.

Last year my friends and I started a group to help at the senior center. We called our group the Happy Helpers. I liked helping people and it was fun getting to know the seniors. We did what we were supposed to do at the senior center, but things kept going wrong. We were getting blamed for things we didn’t do. I thought it was because of the boys who also helped at the senior center. I thought they were making it look like we messed up. I started doing things to make them look bad. What I learned was that the things I did hurt the seniors I wanted to help. But that’s not the most important lesson I learned.

The people at the senior center gave me a second chance to do the right thing. They forgave me for what I did. I learned that people forgive each other because of love. I learned that God forgives us too because he loves us so much. But that is not the most important lesson  I learned.

Even though I was given a second chance, I still felt bad about what I did. My dad said that I had to forgive myself. That was what God wanted me to do. Everybody else forgave me and God forgave me, but I still had to forgive myself. Otherwise, that was like saying to my friends, “I don’t accept your forgiveness.” It was like saying to God, “I don’t accept your forgiveness.” That’s why I forgave myself and went back to being a helper at the senior center. That was the most important lesson I learned.

The Handy Helpers book series is available at Amazon