Some time ago I visited some friends of mine. The little daughter, Emma, was a very self-willed child. If any one contradicted her in anyway, she would all at once, become furiously angry, and remain for hours sitting in a corner grumbling. Every effort that the parents made to correct her of this stubbornness, appeared to be fruitless.
Emma had to learn every day a small portion out of the Bible. While I was staying there, she did it generally in my presence. One morning she came as usual and sat down next to me. By her half-uttered words I perceived that she was learning the 23rd Psalm. After a half-hour had passed, she asked me to hear her repeat it. I did so, but soon perceived that she did not know it as well as she thought she did, and so I said,
“You don’t know your Psalm very well yet; I should like so much for you to know it without one mistake, by the time your mother comes back.”
Emma’s parents had gone out, but promised that they would soon return.
“Yes, yes,” she said “I must know it by heart before mother returns, so that I can recite it for her.”
I knew that this would cost her some trouble, as she learned with difficulty, and had a poor memory.
She began to repeat the Psalm in a low voice, but always made the same mistakes in the fourth verse. This, as the most of my readers will know, reads as follows, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.”
“Emma,” I said, “you must repeat the fourth verse over and over, until you can say it without a mistake.”
When she had repeated it three times, but always with the same mistakes, she ceased, and said in a tone that showed me that she was in earnest, “Now, I won’t repeat it any more, I cannot learn this verse, and I don’t have to.”
Without paying any attention to her words, I told her to repeat it once more. She looked at me angrily, and cried out, “I told you that I will not say it over again; I won’t do it, and I won’t learn it by heart.”
With these words, the little face, that a moment before was bright at the thought of reciting the Psalm perfectly to her mother, had such an angry expression, that I was shocked at it. I saw with pain that Emma had one of her Fts of anger, and for that reason asked her very gently to repeat the verse once more. She refused, however, obstitely to do so.
As I saw that for the present it was quite useless to go on with the subject, and knew too the difficulty of handling in the right way a case of obstinancy and self-will, I thought it better to direct her thoughts into another channel, and then afterward when her anger was over, to take up the matter again. I had said that she was to repeat the verse again and again, until she could say it without a mistake, and I felt that I must insist on this, although I was aware that I needed the help of a higher power to break this strong will.
I was silent for a little while, praying to the Lord to show me what I must do and say. At last I said, “Emma, can you tell me, what the Lord Jesus did, when He was on earth, and the devil came to Him, and tempted Him to do what was not right, and which would have dishonored God?”
“No,” she answered.
“Shall I tell you?”
“Yes.”
Then I told her in a few words, how the Lord Jesus had been tempted of the devil, and how at last He had sent him away with the words, “Get thee behind Me, Satan!”
My story seemed to impress her, for by degrees the angry expression faded from the little girl’s sweet face, and full of expectation she looked at me.
“Does the Lord Jesus wish us to be like Himself?” I now asked her. “Yes,” she answered.
“Yes,” I repeated, “it is God’s wish that we should be like His Son in every way. He is busy with that all day; and everything, even the smallest, that God’s children go through down here on earth, serves to make us more and more like Him. That is God’s desire for all who have been washed in the blood of Jesus.”
“If the devil came to me,” I continued, “and tempted me to be very angry, and I should say to him, ‘Get thee behind me, Satan!’ do you think that he would leave me?” She looked at me thoughtfully for some time, and then said: “Yes, I believe he would, for God Himself would command him to go.” With these words she turned away, folded her little hands and bent her head.
She had understood me. With great joy I saw that her lips were moving in prayer. But what was my joy in comparison with the joy of God over this little girl of not yet six years of age. that had by the power of the Holy Spirit conquered her evil passion.
A moment later Emma looked up, and said with tears in her eyes: “I will learn my verse; I will repeat it, just as often as you wish, until—until I know it quite well.”
The victory was won; the child was happy, and God was glorified. Quietly I thanked the Lord, that He had revealed Himself so powerfully to this little one, and that His word had not returned to Him void. I felt, that this hour for Emma, as well as for myself, had contained a good lesson, that we would not easily forget.
ML 12/09/1945