Jayden Passes the Test

Jayden glanced at his New Year’s resolutions taped to the mirror. With his eyes closed, he mentally read through the list. “Yes! Memorized at last,” he congratulated himself. As he had done every morning since New Year’s, Jayden repeated, “I can keep my resolutions for at least today,” while walking to the kitchen.

“Encyclopedia?” Father asked, after handing Jayden a plate filled with pancakes and sausage.

Jayden confidently recited, “E-N-C-Y-C-L-O-P-E-D-I-A.”

Father ruffled Jayden’s hair. “Good job, son. I’m proud of you for studying so hard. I wouldn’t be surprised if you could spell every one of your spelling words backwards if you wanted.”

Jayden smiled. He had been tempted to not study when his father had told him to, but resolution number 10, “Obey my parents,” had helped him make the right choice.

David, slid into the bus seat next to Jayden. “Are you still studying for the big spelling test?” he asked.

Jayden shut the book. “I’ve studied for about a jillion hours. How ’bout you?”

David shook his head. “I don’t need to study. Spelling’s easy for me!”

“Number your papers from 1 to 50,” Mrs. Thompson told the class. She then began the test, “Number one, junction. There was a junction in the road. Two, temperature. The temperature was ten degrees below zero…”

Jayden smiled when the spelling of each word seemed to jump out of his head and onto the paper.

“…Fifty-nine, encyclopedia. The encyclopedia is a good resource book.”

Jayden quickly wrote down his answer. David wrote down “E-N-C,” but wasn’t sure if the next letter was a ‘Y’ or an ‘I.’ After making sure Mrs. Thompson wasn’t looking, he poked Jayden in the back and whispered, “Move your head so I can see your answer.”

Jayden looked up to see if Mrs. Thompson was watching, but she seemed to be absorbed in the spelling book. Jayden turned to his best friend’s pleading eyes. He really wanted to help David and Mrs. Thompson wouldn’t even know, but then he pictured his list of resolutions. Number 6. “I will not cheat.”

Jayden kept his paper blocked from David’s view and slowly shook his head “no.”

Just before the bell rang, Mrs. Thompson asked David and Jayden to stay after class. Jayden felt sick. She knew. “What if she doesn’t believe me?” he thought. Then a peaceful feeling came over him. “It’s going to be okay. I didn’t do anything wrong.”

After excusing the other students Mrs. Thompson approached their desks. “I know what took place
during the spelling test,” she said. “You’re very lucky Jayden is such a good friend, David!”

David looked puzzled. “A good friend would of let me copy his paper,” he thought.

“Because Jayden was a good enough friend to not let you cheat,” she explained, “I’m not going to give you an ‘F’ on the spelling test.”

David’s face turned red and the anger he felt towards Jayden melted away.

“But, it had better not happen again,” Mrs. Thompson warned.

After dinner, Jayden told his parents what had happened during the test and about the good feeling he felt inside. “Doing what’s right really does make you happy! Doesn’t it?”

“It always works for me!” Father exclaimed.

Mother gave Jayden a big hug and whispered in his ear, “I want you to always remember that when you’re doing what’s right, it not only makes you happy, it makes Daddy, me and Heavenly Father happy too.”

That night Jayden knelt beside his bed. “Thank you, Heavenly Father,” he prayed, “for helping me keep my New Year’s resolutions for one more day.”

by Margie Nauta Lee