The Sin of Fretting

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 5, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 22.

The Sin of Fretting.

THERE is one sin which it seems to me is everywhere and by everybody underestimated, and quite too much overlooked in valuations of character. It is the sin of fretting. It is as common as air, as speech—so common that unless it rises above its usual monotone, we do not even observe it. Watch any ordinary coming together of people, and see how many minutes it will be before somebody frets—that is, makes more or less complaining statements of something or other, which most probably every one in the room, or the car, or the street-corner, as it may be, knew before, and which most probably nobody can help. Why say anything about it? It is cold, it is hot, it is wet, it is dry; somebody has broken an appointment; ill-cooked meal; stupidity or bad faith somewhere has resulted in discomfort. There are always plenty of things to fret about. It is simply astonishing how much annoyance and discomfort may be found in the course of every day's living, even at the simplest, if one only keeps a sharp eye out on that side of things. Even Holy Writ says we are born to trouble as the sparks fly upward. But even to the sparks flying upward, in the blackest smoke, there is a blue sky above; and the less time they waste on the road, the sooner they will reach it. Fretting is all time wasted on the road.—Sel.