xxviii
Counsels for the Church
that the children might ever consider home the most desirable place to
be.
Ellen White was a careful buyer, and the Adventist neighbors were
happy when they could go shopping with her, for she knew values. Her
mother had been a very practical woman and had taught her daughters
many valuable lessons. She found that poorly made things were in the
long run much more expensive than good quality merchandise.
Sabbath was made the most pleasant day of the week for the chil-
dren. Of course the family would attend the church service, and if
Elder and Mrs. White were free from speaking responsibilities, the
family would sit together during the service. For dinner there would be
some choice dish not had on other days, and then, if it was a pleasant
day, Mrs. White would walk with the children in the woods or by
the river, and they would observe the beauties of nature and study
the created works of God. If the day was rainy or cold, she would
gather the children around the fire in the house and read to them, often
reading from materials she had gathered from here and there as she
made her journeys. Some of these stories were later printed in books
so other parents might have them to read to their children.
Mrs. White was not too well at this time, and she often fainted
during the day, but this did not deter her from going forward with her
work in the home as well as her work for the Lord. A few years later,
in 1863, she was given a vision concerning health and the care of the
sick. She was shown in vision the proper clothes to wear, the food to
eat, the necessity of proper exercise and rest, as well as the importance
of trust in God in order to maintain a strong, healthy body.
The light from God concerning diet, and the harmfulness of flesh
food, cut right across Mrs. White’s own personal opinion that flesh
[21]
meat was essential to health and strength. With the light of the vision
to illuminate her mind, she instructed the girl who assisted in preparing
the food for the family to put on the table only the wholesome, simple
foods made from grains, vegetables, nuts, milk, cream, and eggs.
There was an abundance of fruit. At that time the White family adopted
essentially a vegetarian diet. In the year 1894 Ellen White banished
meat from her table completely. The health reform was a great blessing
to the White family, as it has been to thousands of Adventist families
around the world.