Article May 21, 1932 Issue

[Written for Young People]

Open the Door

RUTH INGRAHAM

The baby girl had just found out that doors would shut, and that she could shut them with a merry bang. She had such a proud sense of having done something then—she felt so pleased and satisfied! For a while the family could not have a door standing open if they wanted to, for this little busybody would run as fast as her uncertain feet could go, and slam it tight shut. But after a while they made her understand that it was not always the best thing to be done. Indeed she found, for one thing, that while it was very easy to close a door, it was not at all easy to open it again. In fact, she could not so much as reach the knob; so unless someone came to open it for her, the door just stayed shut. And sometimes she was on the wrong side of it—outside in the hall, instead of in the nursery with her toys; or shut inside an empty room away from her mother. Then she began to see that this business of shutting doors needed to be thought out by deciding beforehand whether or not she really wanted the doors shut.

There are other ways of closing doors than by hand: thoughts and words and manners—but especially thoughts—close doors or open them. Do we ever wake up in the morning with what is known as a grouch? Let us not allow it to slam the door for us on a pleasant day, a day that has new, wonderful possibilities.

A young girl, upon leaving school, resolved to see no more of the friends she had made there, because they were girls of wealthy families, while she herself must make her own way. She declined their kind invitations and avoided meeting them, saying to herself, "I could never entertain them as they would me; I cannot accept more than I can return." Thus, through false pride, she closed the door on some very lovely offers of friendship which would have blessed her life. On the other hand, worldly ambition sometimes causes one to turn down humble friends and small opportunities, and thus close the door on delightful adventures in giving and serving which make life worth while.

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