But it’s at the end of the story, at Little Red’s shrill squawking: You didn’t help me plant the wheat! You didn’t help me grind the grain! when I’m most ashamed to find that chicken roosting in my coop. I am Little Red, mentally pecking at the people who come to the party and skip the prayer meeting.

Editor’s Note: With this first blog (from Megan) The Aquila Report welcomes the wife and daughter of RPCES/PCA Teaching Elder, long time pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Coventry (PCA) in Coventry, CT www.presbyterianchurchofcoventry.org

Wife Patsy Evans has a B.A. in Journalism from Penn State University. They have two grown children: Megan Hill and Brent Evans (who pastors Momence Orthodox Presbyterian Church OPC www.momenceopc.org in Momence, IL.

Daughter Megan Evans Hill has a B.A. in English from Grove City College. She is married to Rob Hill who is pastor of St. Paul Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Jackson, MS www.stpaulpres.org. They have two preschool-aged sons and live in Clinton, MS.

One night several years ago, my brother and I had a banned movie night. He was a college student, I was a teacher, and we decided to watch the films we weren’t allowed to see as kids. I don’t even remember what we watched—Gremlins and Ghostbusters stick in my mind—but I remember thinking: these movies were inappropriate for small children, but, to discerning grown-ups, they pose little moral threat.

However, I have learned that some stories can do harm to child and adult alike. Heading my life-long banned list is the story of The Little Red Hen.

(You remember: she’s the bird who is denied bread-making help by her lazy friends and, in return, she denies them bread-eating pleasure.)

Unfortunately, no matter how diligently I ban Little Red from my home, I can’t seem to get her out of my heart. In many ways, her story could be a story of ministry life.

Little Red is doing a noble task: baking bread from grow-her-own-organic-grains scratch. What a hard worker! What a worthy idea! And I can also relate to her experience with her barnyard friends. They have starred in my life as the family who drops out of church life but suddenly reappears, demanding my husband’s time and emotional energy for family counseling. Or those guests, more than ten years ago, who complained that my coffee was tardy, cold, and weak. (It’s shameful evidence of the Little Red in my heart that I keep this record of wrongs. Down, girl!)

But it’s at the end of the story, at Little Red’s shrill squawking: You didn’t help me plant the wheat! You didn’t help me grind the grain! when I’m most ashamed to find that chicken roosting in my coop. I am Little Red, mentally pecking at the people who come to the party and skip the prayer meeting.

At such times, I must censor the folk tales and read The Book. Christ, the hero of that book, is the anti-Little Red Hen, and He calls me to be, too.

Christ says: “Give to everyone who begs from you, and from the one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them. If you love those that love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.” (Luke 6:30-33, 36)

It is Christ in me who can take Little Red to the chopping block; He who says in John 6:51: “the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

Patsy and Megan blog at www.sundaywomen.com/ where this article first appeared, it is used with permission.