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Album: 24: Risks and Rewards

Episode: 313

Lesson/Theme: Unhealthy competition; putting God first.

Bible Verse: Jeremiah 9:23-24

Characters:

Writer: Marshal Younger

Sound Designer: Bob Luttrell

Original Air Date: May 6, 1995

Last Air Date: April 6, 2009

Description:
Courtney’s cousin, Hannah, has moved into town. Suddenly, Courtney is acting strange. She’s much more competitive than usual, mainly because Hannah is much more competitive with Courtney. The two cousins have been rivals for a long time. Hannah always feels she needs to top Courtney, which makes Courtney feel that she needs to top Hannah. Things get even worse when Hannah visits Courtney’s Sunday school class. When Hannah learns that Courtney is in charge of a bake sale fund-raiser for the church youth camp, Hannah immediately springs into action. She comes up with an alternate idea, a car wash. Both ideas work well, but that’s not good enough for either girl. Soon they are both involved in a flurry of fund-raising ideas, everything from door-to-door gardening to five-mile runs to softball marathons. Courtney and Hannah aren’t the only ones doing marathons, though. When Cryin’ Bryan Dern’s radio station decides to become a 24-hour, all-polka channel, Dern goes nuts. He takes over the place, doing a marathon session to save the station! Dern nearly kills himself on the air. But to no one’s surpise, the station’s change to polka and Dern’s on-air marathon are revealed to be publicity stunts, thought up by Cryin’ Bryan! The stunts work. The station manager thinks Dern is a genius. But Bryan is nearly dead with exhaustion! Meanwhile, Jack tells Courtney that this constant competition with Hannah isn’t doing either of them any good. Courtney agrees, but isn’t sure how to stop it. Jack suggests a novel approach, let Hannah win. Courtney tries Jack’s idea. It seems to work, and instead of being constant rivals, they turn into fast friends.

Questions:
Why were Courtney and Hannah so competitive with each other? Have you ever felt that way about someone? How did you handle the situation? Jack suggested that the way for Courtney to stop the competition would be to let Hannah win. Can you think of another way?