Memory Verse

For the Lord is good, and His love endures forever; His faithfulness endures through all generations!—Psalm 100:5

Dear Grandchildren,

After I left the choir tryouts, I reached the bus to go home from Kobryn. And would you believe it? Miss Jankovska was on the same bus! She didn’t look very happy. She was mad. She was told that her voice was excellent for solo singing, but not for that particular choir. So she was not accepted into the choir either.

She was so broken-hearted about being rejected by the judges, that for a long time she could not compose herself. Since I didn’t make it either, she wasn’t trying to put me down so much anymore. I even began to feel sorry for her.

I was charitable to her, but at the same time I thought I learned a new lesson: “Never count your chickens before they hatch.” Miss Jankovska was so positive that she was going to be accepted into the choir that she bragged too much about it. Now she had to face all of her friends (and also some enemies) and she had to explain a few things.

Two weeks passed from the time when we returned home from the convention. Then one day a telegram was delivered to me at my mother’s address. The telegram read, “Come back to Kobryn and try for the choir again.”

Can you imagine how excited I was? I knew that this time I would be included in the choir, because my voice had returned to me. This time I was inspired to sing like a bird. I didn’t waste any time at all and decided to leave for Kobryn the next day.

My mother believed that since I was asked to try for the choir a second time, it was sure that I would get in. Before I left she told me how very happy she was about my going to America. Then she told me something else, a story that she had never told anyone.

When my mother was a young girl, in her early teens, she joined a convent. (A convent is a Catholic or Orthodox place for nuns, women who do not marry but commit to serve the church.) While she was there, she had a very strange dream. In her dream, she was standing with many, many other people in a very large hall. In the center of that large hall stood a long table, and an old man was seated at each end of the table. The people present would come to one of these men and receive an award for something that they did during their lifetime.

When my mother approached to receive her award, someone asked the man at the other end of the table what kind of award she should receive for her beautiful singing. The older man replied, “She will receive no reward at all, but her second generation will be blessed.”

My mother said to me, “Nadzia, I believe that you are the second generation that is meant to receive the blessing.” She told me that after waking up from her dream that day so long ago that she could not understand the meaning of the dream and it shook her up. She was in a convent, never intending to get married! How could that man say that her second generation would be blessed? But of course she did marry, and had me.

Her telling me about her dream of long ago helped to reinforce my belief that I would be going to America with the choir for certain!

–Grandma Nadzia

Questions

1. What does “Never count your chickens before they hatch” mean?

2. Can you think of a time when you made this mistake? What happened?

3. God blessed Nadzia through her mother. How does God bless you through your parents? See Exodus 20:6.