Inside Story for Friday 17th of April 2026

Part of last quarter’s Thirteenth Sabbath Offering, also known as the Quarterly Mission Project Offering, went to open a church at Pernambuco Adventist Academy in Brazil’s state of Pernambuco, where Iolanda lives. Thank you for planning a generous offering for this quarter’s projects. Watch a YouTube video of Iolanda at bit.ly/Iolanda-IS.

A mother with three little girls walked up the path to Iolanda’s home in Belo Jaridin, a Brazilian city of 80,000 people.

Iolanda saw them coming. She was standing at the door, giving rice and beans to a stranger who had stopped by to ask for food. Her house was located on a busy street, and people regularly came to the door to ask for help. She was sure that the approaching visitors also needed a hand, so she waited after the stranger left.

When the mother and girls reached the door, Iolanda’s eyes fell on the children’s feet.

“Why are your children barefoot?” she asked.

The woman explained that her eight-year-old daughter’s sandals had broken, so she had asked her four- and six-year-old daughters to remove their sandals so their older sister wouldn’t feel ashamed.

“I’ll get a pair of sandals and some food,” Iolanda said.

She disappeared into the house and returned a moment later with sandals for the eight-year-old girl and a snack of plain crackers, plain cookies, and cold water.

The little girls beamed with joy. “Can we call you Grandma?” one asked.

The mother was surprised at Iolanda’s kindness.

“Why are you doing this?” she asked.

“I’m a Christian from the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and we like to help people,” Iolanda said. “I sew clothes for children, and church members bring me many donations. So, I have lots of sandals and clothes.”

“I want to be part of this church,” the mother said. “I want to study the Bible with you.”

A year later, the mother was baptized and joined the Adventist Church.

Iolanda Xavier, an 86-year-old great-grandmother, believes that nothing is more important than obeying Jesus’ command, “ ‘Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you’ ” (Matthew 28:19-20; NKJV).

“Mission is really important,” she said. “All of us were born of God to be missionaries.”

Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/26b-03-inside-story-we-like-to-help/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=26b-03-inside-story-we-like-to-help

Daily Lesson for Friday 17th of April 2026
Further Thought:

“The nearer we come to Jesus and the more clearly we discern the purity of His character, the more clearly we shall discern the exceeding sinfulness of sin and the less we shall feel like exalting ourselves.

Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com

Those whom heaven recognizes as holy ones are the last to parade their own goodness.”—Ellen G. White, Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 160.

“Before honor is humility. To fill a high place before men, Heaven chooses the worker who, like John the Baptist, takes a lowly place before God. The most childlike disciple is the most efficient in labor for God. The heavenly intelligences can co-operate with him who is seeking, not to exalt self, but to save souls. . . .

“When men exalt themselves, feeling that they are a necessity for the success of God’s great plan, the Lord causes them to be set aside. . . .

“It was not enough for the disciples of Jesus to be instructed as to the nature of His kingdom. What they needed was a change of heart that would bring them into harmony with its principles. . . . The simplicity, the self-forgetfulness, and the confiding love of a little child are the attributes that Heaven values. These are the characteristics of real greatness. . . .

“The sincere, contrite soul is precious in the sight of God. He places His own signet upon men, not by their rank, not by their wealth, not by their intellectual greatness, but by their oneness with Christ.”—Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, Pages 436, 437.

Discussion Questions:

Summary: Pride can be one of the greatest blocks to growing in a relationship with God. If we feel self-sufficient and don’t realize our need of this relationship, we simply won’t pursue it. In contrast, Jesus was the humblest Man on earth and the most perfect example of how to have a close relationship with God.

<–Thursday

Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/26b-03-further-thought-pride-versus-humility/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=26b-03-further-thought-pride-versus-humility