Happy, Successful Partnership
77
and feelings that originate only in her own perverted temperament;
if she has not discernment and nice discrimination to recognize his
love and appreciate it, but talks of neglect and lack of love because he
does not gratify every whim, she will almost inevitably bring about
the very state of things she seems to deplore; she will make all these
accusations realities
Characteristics of a Companionable Wife and Mother—
Instead of sinking into a mere household drudge, let the wife and
mother take time to read, to keep herself well informed, to be a com-
panion to her husband, and to keep in touch with the developing minds
of her children. Let her use wisely the opportunities now hers to influ-
ence her dear ones for the higher life. Let her take time to make the
dear Saviour a daily Companion and familiar Friend. Let her take time
for the study of His word, take time to go with the children into the
fields and learn of God through the beauty of His works.
Let her keep cheerful and buoyant. Instead of spending every
moment in endless sewing, make the evening a pleasant social season,
a family reunion after the day’s duties. Many a man would thus be led
to choose the society of his home before that of the clubhouse or the
saloon. Many a boy would be kept from the street or the corner grocery.
Many a girl would be saved from frivolous, misleading associations.
The influence of the home would be to parents and children what God
designed it should be, a lifelong blessing
Married life is not all romance; it has its real difficulties and its
homely details. The wife must not consider herself a doll, to be
tended, but a woman; one to put her shoulder under real, not imaginary,
burdens, and live an understanding, thoughtful life, considering that
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there are other things to be thought of than herself.... Real life has its
shadows and its sorrows. To every soul troubles must come. Satan is
constantly working to unsettle the faith and destroy the courage and
hope of every one
Counsel to an Unhappy Couple—Your married life has been
very much like a desert—but very few green spots to look back upon
with grateful remembrance. It need not have been thus.
14
Letter 10, 1889
.
15
The Ministry of Healing, 294
.
16
Letter 34, 1890
.