To Sabbath School teachers: This story is for Sabbath, April 11.

By Andrew McChesney, Adventist Mission

Little Åsne Bergland tumbled out of bed at 8 a.m. After a shower, she got dressed and carefully brushed out her long blond hair. She remembered that she had to keep her hair neat all day. So, she had two choices: Put on a headband, or ask Mother or Father to tie her hair into a ponytail in the back.

Åsne didn’t want a ponytail. She liked her hair to be open and free.

“Where is my favorite pink headband with two pink roses on top?” she wondered.

Åsne looked around the bathroom. Some clothes lay on a white wooden bench beside the shower. But there was no sign of the headband with two pink roses.

A wave of worry washed over Åsne. Maybe she had lost her headband. She didn’t want to lose it. If she lost it, Mother or Father would have to tie her hair into a ponytail. She didn’t want a ponytail. She wanted her hair to be free and open.

Suddenly, Åsne remembered that she might have left the headband on the sofa in the living room. She went to the living room and looked at the sofa. Nothing.

Now she was very worried. She really didn’t want her hair to be tied into a ponytail.

Then an idea sprang into Åsne’s mind.

“I can pray,” she thought.

Ever since she was a baby, she had prayed with her parents in the morning, in the evening, and before meals. Father and Mother had told her that she could pray to God anytime and about anything — even for small things.

Åsne knew that God answers prayers. She had prayed for sick friends, and they had gotten well. Once Father had lost his keys and found them after praying.

Åsne looked at the sofa one more time and returned to the bathroom. Standing near the white wooden bench, she folded her hands and closed her eyes.

“Dear Jesus,” she prayed. “Help me to find my pink headband with two pink roses on top. Amen.”

Opening her eyes, she decided to return to the sofa.

Back in the living room, she walked over to the sofa and looked again. There lay the pink headband with two pink roses! It was resting in plain sight on a cushion in the middle of the sofa.

Åsne was overjoyed! With a big smile on her face, she grabbed the headband and slipped it over her hair. She didn’t know how it had ended up on the sofa. She didn’t remember putting it there. But God had answered her prayer in an amazing way. Now she wouldn’t have to tie her hair into a ponytail. Her long blond hair would be open and free.

Åsne is 6 and attending first grade in Sortland, a small island town far north of the Arctic Circle in Norway. She has no doubt that God answers prayers — even about small things.

“I know God hears our prayers because he answered my prayer,” she said.

Part of this quarter’s Thirteenth Sabbath Offering will help open a youth community center in Åsne’s hometown, Sortland, so people can learn about the amazing God who answers prayers generous offering. Åsne’s father is Kenneth Bergland, pastor of the Seventh-day Adventist church of 16 regular worshippers in Sortland, Norway. He also will help oversee the Thirteenth Sabbath Offering-funded youth community center.