Children are apt to murmur and complain when everything does not go exactly right with them, and against this spirit of discontent we wish to warn you now while you are young. It grows with your growth; and if there were no sin in so doing, nothing can be more disagreeable and odious than fretting and complaining.

You sit pouting over your slate, and say, "These sums won't come right!" Depend upon it, it is you who "won't come right," and not the sums. A little girl is sitting on the floor, crying and fretting because her shoe "won't come on." And indeed hardly a day passes in which we do not see some child distressing itself and its parents for nothing, and merely because it indulges in this fretful, discontented spirit.

Few people have everything they wish or everything to suit them, and even these are not the happiest persons. They are happiest who are most content with what they have. People do not always think how great a sin they are committing when they repine at the lot in which God has placed them; but the spirit of discontent is the spirit of rebellion, and the heart is disobedient to God, because it will not submit to what he orders.

Do not grumble about the weather, or your food, or your clothing, or about anything you are asked to do. Grumbling never helped anyone; and, if you will try, the next time you are asked to do a thing, which you usually fret over, to do it without fretting, you will see that your complaining has always been a sad hindrance. "Whatsoever thy hand finds to do, do it with thy might," cheerfully, actively, and readily; for half obedience is no obedience at all; and above all, do not fret.