Iowa City, Iowa, March 3, 1860
My Dear Henry and Edson,
It is almost dark. I can write but a few lines this evening. I wish
this to be put in the Office tomorrow. I was glad to learn that you had
been to visit Mrs. F., and that you enjoyed the visit.
Dear children, I am very anxious that you should form good char-
acters, that you should overcome obstacles, and obtain victories your-
selves. Study your own temperaments. Learn your own faults, and
what makes you feel unpleasantly and unhappily afterward, and then
shun the cause. Especially do I as a mother charge you to be kind and
forbearing, yielding to, and loving, one another. This will save you
many unhappy hours, many unpleasant reflections. You can be happy
if you choose. You must learn the important lesson of not always
having your own way, but of sacrificing your will and way to gratify
and make others happy.
I know a man that is now living, who in youth had his own way, was
not willing to yield his notions, and he grew up to want his own way,
and carry out his own will in everything. We have been acquainted
with him for quite a number of years, and he is, we think, a very
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unhappy man. He is irritated at once if every one does not do just as he
wishes to have them. When people first see him they think that he is a
good man, but when they become acquainted with him they change
their minds, become tired of him, and wish he was elsewhere. He is a
trial to everybody, is easily out of temper, and makes himself unhappy,
and every one around him.
Now, children, if you would not wish to be like this unhappy man,
you must learn to govern yourselves while young. Don’t give way to
fretful, unkind feelings; but remember that the Lord reads even the
thoughts of the heart, and nothing is concealed from his all-seeing eye.
Right acts, right thoughts, will be remembered in heaven, and every
victory you gain when tempted to do wrong, every temptation manfully
resisted, will be recorded in heaven. Don’t forget, dear children, that
evil deeds are faithfully recorded, and will bring their punishment
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