Home Atmosphere
143
your children your companionship, where you can teach them to learn
of God through His works and train them for lives of integrity and
usefulness.—
The Ministry of Healing, 366, 367
(1905).
Fine Furniture Does Not Make a Home—Four walls and costly
furniture, velvet carpets, elegant mirrors, and fine pictures do not make
a “home” if sympathy and love are wanting. That sacred word does
not belong to the glittering mansion where the joys of domestic life
are unknown....
In fact the comfort and welfare of the children are the last things
thought of in such a home. They are neglected by the mother, whose
whole time is devoted to keeping up appearances and meeting the
claims of fashionable society. Their minds are untrained; they acquire
bad habits and become restless and dissatisfied. Finding no pleasure
in their own homes, but only uncomfortable restrictions, they break
away from the family circle as soon as possible. They launch out into
the great world with little reluctance, unrestrained by home influence
and the tender counsel of the hearthstone.—
The Signs of the Times,
October 2, 1884
. (
The Adventist Home, 155
.)
Faultfinding Opens the Door for Satan—Fathers and mothers,
be on guard. Let your conversation in the home be pleasant and
encouraging. Always speak kindly, as if in the presence of Christ. Let
there be no faultfinding, no accusing. Words of this kind wound and
bruise the soul. It is natural for human beings to speak sharp words.
Those who yield to this inclination open the door for Satan to enter
their hearts and to make them quick to remember the mistakes and
errors of others. Their failings are dwelt upon, their deficiencies noted,
and words are spoken that cause a lack of confidence in one who is
doing his best to fulfill his duty as a laborer together with God. Often
the seeds of distrust are sown because one thinks that he ought to have
been favored but was not.—
Letter 169, 1904
.
[179]
The Influence of Parental Defects—It seems perfectly natural
for some men to be morose, selfish, exacting, and overbearing. They
have never learned the lesson of self-control and will not restrain their
unreasonable feelings, let the consequences be what they may. Such
men will be repaid by seeing their companions sickly and dispirited
and their children bearing the peculiarities of their own disagreeable
traits of character.—
Healthful Living, 36, 1865
(Part 2). (
Selected
Messages 2:430
.)