Good girl

Lesley Clyne

Once there was a girl whose class in school was practicing handwriting. The teacher was coming round looking at the books, and she exclaimed, "None of you is writing neatly! What messy work you children are doing. You must all try much harder."

When they heard this, some of the children grumbled, but this girl didn't. She was "poor in spirit," and she thought, "God shows me how to do everything well." Then she started to write very carefully and patiently, trusting God. She was doing what the Psalmist did when he prayed, "Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation."^{See Ps. 25:5.}

The teacher stopped by this girl's table, smiled, and said, "That's much better—good girl!" She wrote "Good" and put a tick [mark] in her book, and the girl felt very happy. Trying to follow the beatitude "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven"^{Matt. 5:3.} made things work out well.