Lucy's Struggle

"I wish I was good!" said she. "I wish I was a Christian! I wish I could help "being fretful and selfish. Oh! I do wish I could be a Christian! But. it's no use. The more I try to be good, the worse I am. I do hate so to sew and to work; and I do love so to read and to study! Mother says the children are growing older; but so am I growing older, and not learning any thing, hardly. But it is wicked to fret about it, I know. Oh! I do wish I was a Christian!"

[Later Lucy shared her struggles with her father, who responded with godly counsel and assurances.]

She had long been groping about in the dark, wrapped in a reserve painful to both her parents and herself; and now the ice was broken. She would gladly have opened her heart more fully, but this was needless. One glance had sufficed to show to her father that the struggle against sin and the pursuit after God had begun; and he felt that he could safely leave her in His hands who giveth the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. He made her kneel once more by his side, while, in a few solemn words, he gave himself and her to God, to be His, and only His, for ever, and then retired for the night. Lucy returned to her room, greatly cheered and comforted. ~ From The Flower of the Family. A book for girls.

[Oh that all young girls would take such matters of the heart to their fathers, and that all fathers would respond as Lucy's did.]