Beautiful Girlhood compiled by Debra Maffett

manner. If this ambition is linked with a life wholly given to God — then all
her life will be indeed worthwhile!
Now we come to unrequited ambitions. We look upon those things that
have been desired and attempted — but never attained or accomplished. If
these disappointments could all be brought together into one great pile, the
mountain would fill all the earth!
Here is . . .
the girl who wanted to go to college — but had to begin teaching grade
school;
the boy who wanted to be a doctor — but was forced by circumstances to
keep right on at the farm work;
the man who in youth desired to be a great traveler — but who has never
been out of his home state;
the woman who wanted to be a great writer — but whose hands are busy
only with the cares of an unappreciative household.
Few there are indeed who have been able to accomplish all they desired,
and whose ambitions have been realized in life.
But this picture is not all dark. Youth is so short, and lacks so much in
experience, and is able to look only one way — and therefore is liable to
mistakes. The ambitions may be running in directions that are practically
impossible of accomplishment, or may be ambitions which, if realized,
would not be the best for the individual. So it is well that over us a wise
Providence guides and directs, suiting to each one of us the path that is
ours through life. It is only when ambition dies and we cease to care or try,
that our lives become useless.
Suppose the fire hidden away in the furnace should go out because it
cannot realize its ambition of setting the mill on fire! Or suppose
the mainspring of the watch should break because it cannot become the
hands or face. Mill and watch would stop; for these hidden forces held so
resolutely in check are what move them. And so the life that seems to be
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