Missionaries in the Home
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these holy visitors to your dwelling, that they may assist you in your
efforts to make your family and your home what God would have them.
When you essay to independently fight your own way through, the
heavenly angels are repelled, and retire from your presence in grief,
leaving you to struggle on alone.
Your children have the stamp of character that their parents have
given them. How careful, then, should be your treatment of them; how
tenderly should you rebuke and correct their faults. You are too stern
and exacting, and have frequently dealt with them when you were
excited and angry. This has almost fretted away the golden cord of
love that binds their hearts to yours. You should ever impress upon
your children the fact that you love them; that you are laboring for
their interest; that their happiness is dear to you; and that you design
to do only that which is for their good.
You should gratify their little wants whenever you can reasonably
do so. Your present location affords but little variety or amusement to
their young and restless minds, and every year the difficulty increases.
In the fear of God, your first consideration should be for your children.
As a Christian mother, your obligations to them are neither light nor
small; and in order to fill them properly, you should lay down some of
your other burdens, and devote your time and energies to this work.
The home of your children should be the most desirable and happy
place in the world to them, and the mother’s presence should be the
greatest attraction.
The power of Satan over the youth of this age is fearful. Unless
their minds are firmly balanced by religious principle, their morals
will become corrupted by the vicious children with whom they come
in contact. You think you understand these things, but you fail to
fully comprehend the seducing power of evil upon youthful minds.
Their greatest danger is from a lack of proper training and discipline.
Indulgent parents do not teach their children self-denial. The very food
they place before their children is such as to irritate the tender coats of
the stomach. This excitement is communicated to the brain through
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the nerves, and the result is that the animal passions are roused and
control the moral powers. Reason is thus made a servant to the lower
qualities of the mind. Anything which is taken into the stomach and
converted into blood becomes a part of the being. Children should not
be allowed to eat gross articles of food, such as pork, sausage, spices,