I thought this story was really cute and had some good lessons in it. It is taken from my younger sister’s 3rd grade reader (published by Christian Light) for school. I hope it’s not too long for you all to read! 
~Felecia
MOVING THE MOUNTAIN
“If ye have faith . . . ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done.” ~ Matthew 21:21
TWENTY LITTLE GIRLS had finished supper in an orphanage in India.
NOW THEY SAT on the floor clustered around the missionary. Sister Frances always read from the Bible and prayed with them before bedtime.
“GIRLS, LISTEN to these words of Jesus: ‘Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not . . . YE SHALL SAY UNTO THIS MOUNTAIN, BE THOU REMOVED, AND BE THOU CAST INTO THE SEA; it shall be done. And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.’”
MONA RAISED her hand.
“DOES THAT MEAN our mountain? If we tell it to be removed and cast into the sea, will God remove it like it says in that verse?”
ALL THE ORPHANS knew what Mona meant by “our” mountain.
THE ORPHANAGE WAS BUILT on the side of a mountain above the sea. “Our” mountain was really only a small peak on the top. But it rose so steeply west of the building that the sun disappeared behind it early in the afternoon. The orphanage lay in its cold shadow for hours before the day was actually over.
WARMTH FROM THE SUN all afternoon would mean so much to the orphanage. But there stood the mountain.
SISTER FRANCES looked at Mona.
“COULD GOD MOVE our mountain, Sister Frances?” asked the little girl again. “Isn’t that what Jesus said in that verse?”
“YES, THAT IS WHAT Jesus said, and God certainly can move our mountain,” the missionary assured her.
“WELL THEN, LET’S ALL PRAY that He will,” cried the girls. “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we had sunshine all day long?”
“INDEED IT WOULD,” agreed Sister Frances fervently. “But we do not know if it is God’s will for the mountain to be removed. We will ask Him to remove the mountain only if it is His will. Then we must be satisfied with what He decides.”
SO ALL THE GIRLS prayed and Sister Frances prayed.
“NOW IT IS bedtime, girls,” said the teacher.
THEN MONA SAID, “Wait. Jesus said we must TELL the mountain to be removed. Come, girls, we must tell it like it says in the verse.”
MONA WENT to the west window and opened it. The other girls clustered around her. Together they shouted out to the black wall of the mountain,
“BE THOU REMOVED, and be thou cast into the sea!”
THEN THEY CLOSED the window and went off to bed wondering if the mountain would be gone in the morning.
* * * * * * * *
“SISTER FRANCES, THE MOUNTAIN IS STILL THERE,” announced the girls at breakfast the next morning.
“YES, I NOTICED,” replied the missionary with a smile. “Does the verse say how SOON God would remove the mountain?”
“NO, IT DOESN’T. We must not doubt, but keep on praying. We must keep on telling it to move until it does,” the girls decided.
“IF IT IS God’s will,” reminded Sister Frances.
“YES, IF IT is His will,” agreed all the girls.
* * * * * * * *
THAT DAY, THE GIRLS decided to help answer their prayer.
THEY TOOK BUCKETS up the mountain and filled them with stones and dirt. Then they carried them down and emptied them over the high bank below the orphanage. They worked at this for about an hour and came in hot, dirty, and exhausted.
“SISTER FRANCES, all that work didn’t help a bit,” they reported. “God will have to remove the mountain ALL BY HIMSELF.”
SO THEY STOPPED trying to move the mountain. But they kept praying fervently every evening and morning.
AND EVERY NIGHT they clustered around the west window and called out to the mountain,
“BE THOU REMOVED, and be thou cast into the sea.”
THEN CAME THE EXCITEMENT of helping Sister Frances prepare to leave for a missionary conference at Bombay. She would be gone for almost a month. As they waved good-bye, they reminded her to keep praying about the mountain.
* * * * * * * *
A FEW DAYS AFTER SHE LEFT, there came a knock on the door of the orphanage.
THE MAN WHO STOOD THERE said, “I have come from the British government. The sea has been washing away the land on the other side of the mountain. A lot of the shore has washed away. We would like your permission to level off the mountain behind your orphanage and use the rocks to fill in the land and build up the shoreline. Would you give us permission to do that?”
IT DID NOT TAKE LONG for permission to be given and the necessary papers signed.
IN A FEW DAYS bulldozers arrived. Then the delighted girls heard blasting, and the drone of huge trucks and earth-moving machines.
DAY AFTER DAY, LONG LINES of trucks inched down the mountain carrying away tons of rocks and earth. Little by little the top of the mountain disappeared.
MONA AND HER FRIENDS no longer prayed for the mountain to be removed, for they could see God answering their prayer every day. Now they just fervently thank Him over and over.
BUT IN THE EVENING after prayer time they could not resist opening the window and shouting,
“BE THOU REMOVED, and be thou cast into the sea!”
* * * * * * * *
THEY COULD HARDLY WAIT until Sister Frances came back.
AT THE SAME TIME, they hoped she would not come before the mountain really was gone.
THE AFTERNOON SHE ARRIVED at the train station, they all went to meet her. After the glad greetings were over, Mona said, “We have a surprise, so you must be blindfolded until we reach home.”
OF COURSE, Sister Frances could not imagine what the surprise was.
AT THE ORPHANAGE they led her to the west window and removed the blindfold. Sister Frances blinked in astonishment in the warm sunshine.
“WHY – WHY – WHERE . . . THE MOUNTAIN!” she gasped. “It’s gone!”
THE GIRLS LAUGHED joyously. They clustered around her, all talking at once, trying to tell everything that had happened.
“WE TOLD THE MOUNTAIN to leave and be cast into the sea and that’s exactly what happened,” said one.
“AREN’T YOU GLAD it was God’s will?” said another.
“NOW WE GET the warm sunshine all afternoon,” said a third.
SISTER FRANCES was almost too astonished to say a word.
* * * * * * * *
THAT EVENING at devotions, Mona asked, “Sister Frances, would you please read that verse again?”
SO THE MISSIONARY READ,
“VERILY I SAY UNTO YOU, ‘If ye have faith, and doubt not . . . ye shall say unto this mountain, BE THOU REMOVED, AND BE THOU CAST INTO THE SEA; it shall be done. And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.”
THAT NIGHT no one talked to the mountain because it had truly been cast into the sea.
