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The Right Way to Begin

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The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 21, 1868

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 32, No. 5.

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The Right Way to Begin.

A LITTLE girl once said, “O Mother, How very hard it is to do right! I don’t believe I shall ever be able.”
“Have you really tried, my dear?”
“Oh! yes; I try every day. When I awake, before I get up, I say to myself, ‘I will be good all the day; I will be gentle and kind; I will obey my parents and teachers; I will not quarrel; I will always tell the truth.’ But then, mother, I don’t know how it is, I do so often forget. Then, when evening comes, I have to say, ‘There now! what is the use of trying? I have been in a passion; I have been disobedient;’ and once or twice, mother, you know, I have said what was not true.”
The dear child seemed very much ashamed while saying this, so her mother looked kindly at her, and only said,
“My dear, I do not think you have begun right.”
The little girl looked up wonderingly, and her parent went on:
“The first thing is to have a new heart; have you asked for this?”
“No, mother, I am afraid not.”
“Then, my child, do so at once. Good fruit, you know can only come from a good tree. If your heart is wrong, your conduct will be wrong. You cannot make it right yourself, with all your good resolutions; but ask God, for Christ’s sake, to help you. He will give you his Holy Spirit, and you will not find it any longer impossible to do right.”
My dear young reader, are you, in all things, trying to do right? And have you begun in the right way?