Last Fall, my daughter Mackenzie joined the beginner band at school. She wanted to learn to play the flute, so we ordered one. When it arrived, she was thrilled. It was beautiful, and she practiced on it every day.
About a week later, I was waiting to pick her up after school, and I saw her coming out of the building with tears flowing down her cheeks. She told me that after her class took a break at the end of the day, she returned to her desk to find that her flute was missing. I comforted her and said that we could pray immediately. I told her that we didn't have to accept anything into our lives except what God causes, and that He causes only what's good. Mackenzie had prayed before and had been healed of illnesses, including earaches and the flu. So she knew that everything good comes from God and can't be taken away. As we prayed together, she stopped crying and became calm.
The next day at school, the band director gave Mackenzie a "loaner" flute. It was old and dented, and had lost a good bit of its shine. The real problem, though, was that because she was a beginner, she couldn't get it to make any sound. At first she tried hard, and then, day by day, she seemed to lose interest in practicing at all. She was very disappointed.
