A pious woman got a job for her daughter as housemaid in a respectable family. When she said good-bye, the mother added: “Be sure to ask God every day to help you and make you prosper in your work.”

“I am not afraid,” the girl answered. “I can trust my own skill.”

The first morning of her work, she had to get up early and light the fires. Try as she might, however, she could not make the wood burn. When her mistress came downstairs, and saw that the fires were not yet lit, she rebuked the girl for not doing her job. But the girl excused herself by saying that the wood was damp.

The girl’s next task was to carry her master's breakfast across the street to his office. On the way, she slipped, and broke everything she was carrying. When she went back to the house, her mistress scolded her. But she excused herself, saying that there was ice on the stones that made them slippery.

Soon after she was sent down to the cellar to fetch a basket of eggs. As she picked up the basket, a mouse jumped out in front of her. She was so startled that she dropped the basket, and several eggs broke. When her mistress heard what had happened, she rebuked the girl very sharply. The poor mistress was already annoyed with the girl, and was really not in the mood to deal with yet another accident that day.

The next thing the girl had to do was to take a jug of milk back to the dairy, since it was not fresh enough for use. Just as she reached the dairy a large icicle fell from the roof and struck the jug in her hand. Half of the milk spilled out onto the ground. When the girl returned, she had to tell her mistress of the waste. But before she finished the story, the lady said that was enough - she could not keep such a clumsy, awkward girl in her service. She dismissed her immediately. The girl had lost her job on the first day of employment.

So the very next day, the humiliated girl returned home, and told her mother the whole story. On hearing of her daughter’s many misfortunes, the good mother pointed out to her, “There now, you see how necessary, how indispensable it is, to seek God's blessing on all we have to do.”

At first glance, it would seem that God purposefully caused all these accidents to teach the proud girl a lesson. But in looking at all the circumstances of that poor girl’s day - the damp wood, the slippery street, the mouse, and the icicle - we see that all this was just the natural course of the day. It took no special intervention of God to create all these obstacles - but it would take God’s special help to overcome them.

This girl didn’t think she needed God for simple tasks, and so God let her see what she could do on her own - very little - so that, for the rest of her life, she would be encouraged to call upon His help in everything, big and small.

Remember, as Jesus tells us, we can do no good thing without God. This goes for even the smallest things, like keeping our balance on ice, not dropping an object when we’re startled, and countless other day-to-day necessities that we take for granted. The thousand circumstances of daily life are beyond our control. We need God in every moment of our lives; and as the good and loving Father that He is, God is always there, ready, willing, and able, to help us.