Don't Fret by A. Smith

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 13, 1874

Don't Fret.

By A. Smith

CHRISTIAN, don't fret! There is One who careth for you with all the solicitude of a fond parent, and who will suffer no affliction to come upon you except as a necessary correction for your errors, or, by the patience with which you endure, as a witness to the world of the transforming power of true religion, or as an example to those who are treading with you the narrow way to life. Close your eyes a moment to the eternal world, and ask yourself the question, Has my example in this respect always been what it should be? “Fret not thyself in any wise to do evil.”

Parents, don't fret, lest your peevishness be written as with a pen of iron upon the tablets of your children's hearts. Your manner, your tones of voice, will be faithfully copied by them, and will give character to all their after lives. Like drops of water or spray upon polished steel, your scolding and complaining will corrode their minds beyond redemption. I know that I use strong terms, but examples in nature all around us will bear me out in the allegation. Though a fruit tree has been neglected until it has attained a large growth, yet by pruning and careful management it may be brought into tolerable bearing condition, but nothing like what it would have been had it been properly trained when young. So the evil of early misrule over a child may, by the help of Heaven, be overcome; but the strength expended in combating early formed evil habits might have been exerted in attaining greater heights in Christian excellence.

Loveliness is associated in our minds with the terms wife and mother; but if we wished to form an idea of the torments of purgatory, we would associate with a family whose presiding spirit frowns and scolds.

Children, don't fret. Never wear a frown upon your face; it would mar your beauty, and sully your character; it will be communicated to your companions, who, in turn, will communicate it to others, and the evil will never stop.

A cow in a yard full of cattle, feeling cross, kicked one of the other cattle, which, in turn, kicked her neighbor, and she another, until they all got to kicking and hooking, and were generally unhappy. Don't be like that cross cow. A. SMITH.