Little beginnings in your hearts will lead to great ends.
I. The first thing I should mention is the little feeling that people have in their own hearts about their sin. Josiah was a very good boy. What is said about him? "Because thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God" (2 Chronicles 34:27). That was a sure beginning.
II. Sometimes we feel a battle in our hearts, a struggle, something good and something naughty. They seem to fight. At last we get the victory over something. That is a sure beginning when boys or girls begin to feel a struggle in their own hearts, because by nature people feel no struggle. So God said to Adam and Eve, "I will put enmity" a struggle. It is a sign for good.
III. Notice another thing beginning to feel an interest in good things. Some children do not like going to church, reading their Bibles they think stupid and dull, and they only do it because they must. When a boy or girl finds a pleasure in these things, then there is a good beginning.
IV. When you try to be useful, when you begin to be religious, you will want to do good things. Your small things will become great things; that is, your soft heart will get softer, till it becomes quite soft enough to take the impression of God's image. The struggle with sin will go on till you get a victory over your own sins and over Satan, and you will come forth more than conquerors. Your pleasure in good things will increase; you will go on and on in usefulness while you live, till finally you will go to that place where "His servants shall serve Him" throughout eternity.
J. Vaughan, Children's Sermons,1875, p. 82.
Reference: Job 8:7. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. vi., p. 311.