“WHAT A LOVELY DAY!”—A LESSON ON GRATITUDE

I have brought two plants, children, for you to see. One of them is a splendid great plant, all bright and green, with fresh leaves and lovely flowers. It is going to bear many seeds, too. The other, you see, is stunted and withered. Its leaves are shriveled up. It has no blossoms, and it will therefore have no fruit.

What made the difference between these two plants? I will tell you.

Both plants were cared for by the same gardener. Both were set out in the same sun and received the same rain. From both the gardener picked the hurtful insects with equal care. Both were kept well sprinkled in dry weather, and well shaded in hot weather. Both had rich soil about their roots.

But one of them kept complaining all the time. The sun was too hot. The rain was too warm. The earth was too moist. The screen over it was too thick. The gardener was too rough. The breeze was too strong. The butterflies were too familiar. Everything was “too” something or other. Do you wonder that this plant had no time to spare from her complaining for growing?

The other plant, on the contrary, was all the time saying to herself and to the birds and flowers around her: “What a lovely day! What a beautiful blue sky! How kind is the gardener, and how refreshing was the last shower! My roots are having such a good time in this rich earth, and the sunshine is fairly forcing my leaves to grow in spite of themselves; though, indeed, they want to grow to get out as fast as possible into this fine, fresh air.”

That was the way this plant talked, and do you wonder that it grew and bore fine leaves and flowers?

Now, children, God is a kind Gardener, and we are his plants. He gives all of us just exactly the same good care. The same sun shines on us all, and the same rain falls, and he guards us all from danger, and feeds us in all sorts of beautiful ways.

Are you like the thankful plant, or like the unthankful plant that I have been telling about? If you will receive all these good things in the right way, be sure, children, that you will grow strong and useful and beautiful, just like this fine and grateful plant that you see here.