Esther

   Before Xerxes, king of Persia, could fight a war, he had a feast, and when he was having the feast, he told Vashti, queen of Persia, to come to him to show off her beauty. Vashti refused to come, so Xerxes dismissed her from being queen of Persia.

   After he came back from the war, he decided to choose a new queen so he had all the beautiful girls come into the palace and get ready. Well, one girl whose name was Hadassah, a Jewish lady, was raised by her cousin, Mordecai, was brought into the palace to get ready. Because Hadassah was a Jewish name, Mordecai changed her name to Esther. It took her a year to get ready!

   When the day came for Xerxes to chose his bride, all the girls were brought before him. He chose Esther to be the queen and married her.

   Haman was a descendant of King Agag and extremely hated the Jews. When Haman found out that Mordecai wasn't giving him the respect he thought he should be given, he wanted to kill all the Jews. He made a decree with the king that all Jews were to be killed on a specific day; however, he didn't say what kind of people it was. When Mordecai heard of the decree he went to Esther and asked her if she would ask the king to take the decree back. With courage, she went into the place the king was and asked him to have dinner with her. The king accepted and after the dinner was over, she asked him to have another dinner with her next week. He again accepted and on that night, Esther revealed Haman's plan to kill all the Jews. After she told of the plot, Xerxes was furious and had Haman and his entire family executed.

   Xerxes also made a second decree that said that the Jews could fight back and defend themselves against the Persians. He also gave them weapons and on the day the Jews were supposed to be killed, the Jews won the battle. In honor of her courageous act, the king held a feast called Purim and Mordecai got promoted in Haman's place.

   Esther did a great thing in saving the Jews. It took a lot of courage to go talk to the king. Do you think she did a courageous act?