Chapter 73—Our Social Needs
God Made Provision for Our Social Needs—In the arrange-
ments for the education of the chosen people it is made manifest
that a life centered in God is a life of completeness. Every want He
has implanted He provides to satisfy; every faculty imparted He seeks
to develop.
The Author of all beauty, Himself a lover of the beautiful, God pro-
vided to gratify in His children the love of beauty. He made provision
also for their social needs, for the kindly and helpful associations that
do so much to cultivate sympathy and to brighten and sweeten life
The Influence of Association—Everyone will find companions or
make them. And just in proportion to the strength of the friendship will
be the amount of influence which friends will exert over one another
for good or for evil. All will have associates and will influence and be
influenced in their turn
God’s word places great stress upon the influence of association,
even on men and women. How much greater is its power on the
developing mind and character of children and youth! The company
they keep, the principles they adopt, the habits they form, will decide
the question of their usefulness here and of their future destiny....
It is inevitable that the youth will have associates, and they will
necessarily feel their influence. There are mysterious links that bind
souls together so that the heart of one answers to the heart of an-
other. One catches the ideas, the sentiments, the spirit, of another.
This association may be a blessing or a curse. The youth may help
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and strengthen one another, improving in deportment, in disposition,
in knowledge; or, by permitting themselves to become careless and
unfaithful, they may exert an influence that is demoralizing
It has been truly said, “Show me your company, and I will show
you your character.” The youth fail to realize how sensibly both their
1
Education, 41
.
2
Testimonies For The Church 4, 587
.
3
Counsels to Teachers, Parents, and Students, 220
.
346