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| HAPPINESS IS A STATE OF MIND Beatrice Eckelberry learned first-hand what sorrow and loss are all about. She wrote a friend following the death of her four-year-old in 1933. "Nineteen-twenty-seven had been a bad year for us, or at least we thought so then. We had invested money into a business which was not paying, and borrowed money after that... On New Year's Eve I remarked that I was glad to see the old year go....Fate hadn't shown so brightly upon us that year; we were down and worried and uncertain, but I well remember that I added: ' But we have much for which to be grateful; we have each other.' Each other at that time meant a son nearly four, a petite baby girl sixteen months, our Daddy and myself. We were in love; our family was ideal; we thought in a sense we were sitting on then top of the world. -- except financially. "On New Year's Day, in the evening our little boy grew desperately ill. Doctors and nurses came, worked, and advised, but in January third he died, and the bottom dropped out of our world. It was so sudden, so unexpected, so tragic we had so little time to prepare ourselves for such a shock. We were thrown up against God; there was no one else to whom we could turn. "As the weeks went by, many times with tears streaming down my face, I told our Lord that, though I was desperately lonely, I was happy to have our boy with Him. Sometimes I wonder if I wasn't lying to Him, but after a year or more my prayer of resignation to the Divine Will became a real truth. "We are facing uncertainty. But we love each other more now, much more than we ever did, and kisses are free. We still have our daughter and another son and a death to remember, but we've learned the real values of life and we're happy. We have no money in the bank; we're still paying debts, and our Daddy still works hours and hours weekly (much too many) just to get by. "I'm not sorry for myself, and I thank God from the bottom of my heart for all the good things He has given us." Those who have been tested by fire come forth refined, purified, and with a sense of value and understanding of life that can never be corrupted. Most of what we consider to be so important in life isn't really that important. When you face the fires of testing, be encouraged. God will bring you forth just as He did Beatrice Eckelberry -- as gold. "But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I shall come forth as gold." (Job 23:10) -- By Harold J. Sala |