The Lost Ring by Lisa Burkhardt Worley

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law” (Galatians 5:22–23).

My wedding ring had one tiny diamond missing from the setting for about a year. I hadn’t taken it in to be repaired, mainly because I was probably the only one who noticed it, and I didn’t want to part with it for any length of time. But I ended up in a jewelry store (who describes about the mood ring color meanings in detail on every purchase) to take some links out of a new watch, and asked how much it would be to fix my ring. The number was reasonable so I decided to go for it.

It took about 48 hours to repair, so yesterday I ran over to pick up my ring but had a small window to do so because I was meeting my spiritual daughter, Lara and her two boys at a pumpkin patch for a fun outing. I figured it would be a quick transaction. Pay the bill and leave. But that’s not what happened. The store couldn’t find my ring! You could see the tension rising in the young man who was helping me as he repeatedly looked through the rings in the locked drawer and could not find mine. He asked the repair technicians if they had seen it. Yes, they remembered the name and the work had been completed. This went on for at least thirty minutes, and I began to really worry and thought the worst. Did a dishonest employee steal it? How many people had keys to the locked drawer?

In all of this, I kept telling myself, Don’t lose your cool. No matter what situation you are in, you are still an ambassador for Christ.

An Assistant Manager got involved and checked another spot where rings were waiting to be appraised, and miraculously, he found my ring. Someone had accidentally put it in a bag with someone else’s ring so it was in the wrong place. When he found it, I breathed a sigh of relief and said out loud, “Thank you Jesus!” I looked at the employee and also said, “I was praying the entire time.” He responded, “I am really sorry about this.” I tried to comfort him. “Don’t worry. This was not your fault. I’m just glad it was found.”

After I left the store, I thought, What if I’d flown off the handle and acted ugly? This was obviously a bad mistake that put me through a lot of angst. However, being a witness for Christ, even during a trying moment like this, was more important than expressing the emotions steaming up inside of me.

Are you a beacon of light for Jesus, even when there are tense times in your life? Do you avoid anger, profanity, and the need to be right? I believe it is how we act in the difficult situations that can be the greatest witness. Grace and mercy are brilliant diamonds themselves, but in order to offer them, we have to press into the self-control that only God provides.