By Linda Porter Carlyle
Trevor Paul Monroe read his memory verse a second time. He frowned. He still didn’t like what it said. If he wanted to be a great man, he was supposed to be a servant!
Trevor rolled over on his back and stared at the ceiling. He liked the idea of being a great man. A great man who rode to work every day in a long black limousine with dark, tinted windows. Of course, he didn’t actually know anybody who rode to work in a limousine. But he had seen one cruising majestically through the traffic on Main Street last week. It definitely had looked like something a great man would ride in!
Shouts from the hallway interrupted Trevor’s thoughts. “Hurry up! I’m not going to have time to take a shower!” Brad hollered as he banged on the bathroom door.
Trevor grinned to himself. His big twin brothers hated getting up early for school, so they buried their heads under their pillows and stayed in bed as long as they possibly could. And Mom said she was tired of the hassle of rousing them out of bed every morning. So the new rule was that Brad and Ben had to set their alarm clock and get up by themselves. If they got up late and were late for school, then they would just have to suffer the consequences. This was the third day of school since Christmas vacation, and the twins had been late twice.
Trevor heard scuffling in the hall as the bathroom door opened and Brad and Ben passed each other in the doorway. Trevor was glad his school started half an hour later than the high school his brothers attended. That meant he did not have to get caught in the middle of their early morning rush.
Trevor picked up his Primary Treasure and read the memory verse again. It still said the same thing. He was pretty sure it always would—even if he read it a hundred times. So it looked like if he really did want to be a great man someday, he would have to be a servant too. Just like Jesus. But what did that really mean? What could he do to be a servant?
Trevor heard Brad and Ben pound down the hallway toward the kitchen. He kicked his covers off and jumped out of bed, grabbed his jeans and pulled them on. Then he paused, remembering something Pastor Chuck always said. Pastor Chuck said that the Holy Spirit spoke to people through the words of the Bible. Trevor suddenly wondered if the Holy Spirit was trying to tell him something through his memory verse. Was the Holy Spirit trying to give him an idea about how to be a servant?
Trevor stood still. Who could he be a servant to? He supposed his family could be a place to start. Mom and Dad. Brad and Ben. No! Not Brad and Ben! Trevor thought. Who wanted to be a servant to his big brothers? Trevor felt a little nudge in his brain. Why not Brad and Ben?
Trevor plopped back down on his bed. He took a deep breath. OK. If that was what the Holy Spirit wanted him to do, he would try. What could he do to be a servant to his brothers?
Trevor’s eyes fell on his rumpled quilt. He had been trying hard to remember to make his bed every morning before he left for school. It made Mom think he was becoming responsible—and that was a good thing! Brad and Ben never took time in the morning to make their beds. Sometimes they threw their bedspreads up over the blankets, but not often. That’s what he could do to be a servant! He could make Brad’s and Ben’s beds.
Trevor stuck his head out his bedroom door. He could hear conversation in the kitchen. Mom’s soft voice. Brad’s loud laugh.
Trevor tiptoed down the hall. He stopped in the doorway of his brothers’ room. What a mess. Blankets spilled off the bed onto the floor. Brad’s math book balanced on the edge of the dry aquarium where his lizards sleepily warmed themselves under their heat lamp.
Trevor hurried to Brad’s bed. He pulled up the sheet and blankets and straightened them. He fluffed the pillow. He rescued the bedspread from the floor and smoothed it out. There. That hadn’t taken long.
Trevor turned his attention to Ben’s bed and made it quickly too. Then he zipped back to his own room to put on his shoes and socks.
Brad and Ben jostled each other down the hall to collect their school books and backpacks from their room. “Hey!” Brad exclaimed. “What happened to our beds?”
“Whoa!” Ben shouted. “Did we make our beds in our sleep?”
Trevor laughed softly. Maybe he would enjoy being a servant.
