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There was this pretty 8 year-old girl who was checking out at a store with her mother and saw a plastic pearl necklace. She wanted that necklace very badly and when she asked her mother if she would buy it for her, her mother said, "Well, it is a pretty necklace, but it costs an awful lot of money. I'll buy you the necklace provided when we get home you can clean up your room & your bed. Okay?"
She agreed and her mother bought the pearl necklace for her & when they went home the little girl kept her promise.
How she loved those pearls! She wore them everywhere - to school, bed, and even when she went out with her mother to run errands.
The only time she didn't wear them was in the shower - her mother had told her that they would turn her neck green.
She had a very loving daddy. When she went to bed, he would get up from his favorite chair every night and read her a nice story. *One night when he finished the story, he asked her, "Do you love me?"*
"Oh yes daddy! You know I love you," the little girl said.
"Well, then, give me your pearls!" Daddy said.
"Oh daddy! Please, not my pearls!" she said*. "But you can have this Barbie, my favorite doll. Remember her? You gave her to me last year for my birthday. And you can have her tea party set too. Okay?"
"Oh no, darling, that's okay." Her father brushed her cheek with a kiss. "Good night."
A week later, her father once again asked her after the story, "Do you love me?"
"Oh yes, daddy! You know I love you."
"Well, then give me your pearls."
"Oh, daddy, not my pearls! But you can have these colored Ribbons & another Barbie doll. Do you remember her? She's my favorite. Her hair is so soft, and you can play with it and braid it also. You can have both, daddy."
"No, that's okay," her father said and brushed her cheek again with a kiss. "God bless you. Sweet dreams."
Several days later, when her father came in to read her a story, she was sitting on her bed and her lips were trembling. "Here, daddy," she said, and held out her tiny hand. She opened it and her beloved pearl necklace was inside. She let it slip into her father's hand. "You can have the necklace Daddy." She said with tears in her eyes.
With one hand her father held the plastic pearls and with the other he pulled out of his pocket a blue velvet box. Inside the box were real, genuine, beautiful pearls & he gave them to her!!! The little girl was completely stunned at that beautiful pearl necklace & was overjoyed!
He had them all along. He was only waiting for her to give up the cheap stuff so he could give her the real thing!!!
So it is with our Heavenly Father. He is waiting for us to give up all the cheap things in our lives so that he can give us his beautiful treasure that he has all the time for us. But we've to give up our desires first.
Why are we holding onto things which God wants us to let go of? Are we holding onto harmful or unnecessary possessions which we have become so attached to that it seems impossible to let go?*
Sometimes it is so hard to see what God has in the other hand, but we must believe that God will never take away anything without giving us in return something precious in its place.*
"I will give you what you want so that one day you will want what I really want to give you…"
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