Lesson #1 from Miss Alcott

Jo March is one of the four girls who are the main characters of this story. She is a tomboy who loves to write and who cannot control her temper (sounds like someone I know...intimately...). After a big fight with her littlest sister, Amy, Jo has a good conversation with her mother. Marmee (their mother) tells Jo that she also has a terrible temper, but in her forty years, has learned how to control it. Her husband, Jo's father who is away at war, has been a constant help to her. As he is gone, Marmee does not show her sadness even though it exists. She explains it to Jo like this:

I gave my best to the country I love, and kept my tears till he was gone. Why should I complain, when we both have merely done our duty, and will surely be the happier for it in the end? If I don't seem to need help , it is because I have a better friend even than Father to comfort and sustain me. My child, the troubles and temptations of your life are beginning, and may be many; but you can overcome and outlive them all if you learn to feel the strength and tenderness of your Heavenly Father as you do that of your earthly one. The more you love and trust him, the nearer you will feel to him, and the less you will depend on human power and wisdom. His love and care never tire or change, can never be taken from you, but may become the source of lifelong peace, happiness, and strength. Believe this heartily, and go to God with all your little cares, and hopes, and sins, and sorrows, as freely and confidingly as you come to your mother. (Alcott 111-112)

This gave me pause and served as an incredible reminder.

Praise be to God! His love never changes and is all encompassing.