Sue's New Motive | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 2, 1882

Sue's New Motive.

SUE GRAHAM stood in the south kitchen door, pinning on her great calico apron, with a very disconsolate look on her usually sunny face. Grace Dennis, so pretty and dainty in her fresh cambric, drove by in her basket phaeton, with little crippled Bessie McAllister. The frown deepened on Sue's face, and she gave her apron-strings an impatient twitch. Then she turned hastily from the doorway to the hot kitchen. It seemed hotter than ever, as she remembered how cool and fresh it looked out of doors. And there were the breakfast dishes to be washed, rooms to be swept and put to rights, cake and pudding to be made, and dinner to be prepared. She turned back to the door again, her brown eyes overflowing.

"What is it, Susie dear? asked her mother, stopping on her way to the pantry at the sight of Sue's woe-begone face; "what is it, dear?"

"Nothing much," responded Sue, trying to smile back, but succeeding in calling up only a very tearful one; "I'm so tired of all this, and discouraged," she said.

"Do you ever think of it as something your heavenly Father has given you to do for him, Sue?"

"Why, mother!" and Sue turned abruptly round. "You don't mean he cares or knows anything about all this work, do you?"

"Why not, dear? Doesn't he know when even a sparrow falls to the ground? 'Are ye not much better than they?' You are just where he put you, and if you do the duties he has given you to do, cheerfully and faithfully, even though they are small, I believe he sees and knows, and cares too, for the faithfulness of the service."

A minute after Sue heard her mother in the pantry preparing for baking. There was a grave, thoughtful look on Sue's face now, in place of the frown.

"Perhaps," she thought to herself, "perhaps I can serve Jesus just as truly as Grace Dennis. It isn't as pretty work, though," she thought, with a sigh. "It would be so nice to dress daintily and prettily as Grace always does, and have leisure to do graceful deeds of kindness as she does; but if this is what he gives me, I'll try and do it the best I know how. And cheerfully, too," she added, bravely. And then, without further delay, she went about the homely duties of the day. But how different they seemed to her, viewed in the new light. If she was doing them for him, they must be done with extra care. Every little nook and corner was thoroughly swept and dusted; there was a strong temptation to slight the out-of-the-way places sometimes. Every dish was washed and wiped with utmost care, and never was cake lighter or nicer than Sue's that day.

"Oh, mother, you don't know how much you helped me this morning!" said Sue that night.

"I think I do," answered her mother, "for I know what a difference it made in my life when I first believed that He knew and cared not only about the great things of life, but about the little, homely, every-day duties too. It is hard sometimes to accept his choice of work for us; but he knows best. If he wishes us to glorify him in home life and every-day service, let us do it as faithfully and as cheerfully as though he asked some greater thing of us. 'Content to fill a little space if thou be glorified.' Can you say that, Sue?"

"I'll try to," she said softly, as she stooped for a good-night kiss.—Sel.