The Child and It's Toy

 •  1 min. read  •  grade level: 18
 
SHE would not go to bed without it, and on the nurse attempting to take it from her she burst into a storm of grief, and would not be pacified or settle down to rest until she had it in her possession again. A few minutes afterward, however, she was found quiet, fast asleep, the little object of her most ardent desire loosed from the passionate grasp of her little fingers, and, carelessly cast aside as a thing in which she found no pleasure. And in our eager and importunate grasping after certain things, which to us for a time appear to be so indispensable, but which to the eye of God must often be vain and small indeed, how often do we fill ourselves with the most passionate sorrow, rebel against God, and while dishonoring His wisdom and love, rob ourselves at the same time of our true happiness and peace! And yet how frequently, when the things that we have thus so earnestly pursued, at the risk of so much discomfort and loss, become ours, like fickle and unreasoning children we cast them away from us, having proved that, after all our anxiety to possess them, they have but little or no power to minister to our real wants or to realize our anticipated joys! And should not this sinful perverseness of spirit teach us increasingly to distrust ourselves, to moderate our desires, and to seek and ask for everything in submission to the will of our Father in heaven? W. P. B.