PROVERBS 18:14

A lovely story is told about a very poor family who had the faculty of making the best of everything. A rich woman was interested of helping them, and one day a neighbour of the poor family told her that they were imposing on her.

Said the neighbour, 'I often hear the children of that family talking about the good things they have to eat, luxuries that I can't afford at all.' The rich woman thereupon called on the poor family at noon, and as she stood outside the door she heard a little girl ask, "Will you have roast beef today?" Then another girl's voice answered, 'No, I guess I'll take cold chicken.'

Thereupon the rich woman rapped at the door and entered at once, finding the two girls seated at a table on which were a few slices of dry bread, two cold potatoes, a pitcher of water, and nothing else. In answer to her questions, the girls explained that they pretended their poor fare was all sorts of good things, and the play made really seem like a feast. "You don't know," said one, "how good bread tastes when you call it strawberry shortcake" But it tastes a lot better when you call it ice-cream," said the other little girl.

The rich woman went away with new ideas of contentment. She had discovered that happiness is not in things, but in thoughts. She had learned what Solomon said so long ago, that the spirit can be made to sustain infirmities; but when the spirit is broken, all is lost.

Ask not for our lot to be transformed; rather that we be transformed instead. Then we will see in our lot the blessings awaiting there for us.