180
Christian Education
Choosing a Home.—When Lot entered Sodom, he fully intended
to keep himself free from iniquity, and to command his household after
him. But he signally failed. The corrupting influences about him had
an effect upon his own faith, and his children’s connection with the
inhabitants of Sodom bound up his interest in a measure with theirs.
The result is before us.
Many are still making a similar mistake. In selecting a home
they look more to the temporal advantages they may gain than to
the moral and social influences that will surround themselves and
their families. They choose a beautiful and fertile country, or remove
to some flourishing city, in the hope of securing greater prosperity;
but their children are surrounded by temptation, and too often they
form associations that are unfavorable to the development of piety and
the formation of a right character. The atmosphere of lax morality,
of unbelief, of indifference to religious things, has a tendency to
counteract the influence of the parents. Examples of rebellion against
parental and divine authority are ever before the youth; many form
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attachments for infidels and unbelievers, and cast in their lot with the
enemies of God.
In choosing a home, God would have us consider, first of all, the
moral and religious influences that will surround us and our families.
We may be placed in trying positions, for many cannot have their
surroundings what they would; and wherever duty calls us, God will
enable us to stand uncorrupted, if we watch and pray, trusting in the
grace of Christ. But we should not needlessly expose ourselves to
influences that are unfavorable to the formation of Christian character.
When we voluntarily place ourselves in an atmosphere of worldliness
and unbelief, we displease God, and drive holy angels from our homes.
Those who secure for their children worldly wealth and honor at
the expense of their eternal interests, will find in the end that these
advantages are a terrible loss. Like Lot, many see their children ruined,
and barely save their own souls. Their life work is lost; their life is a
sad failure. Had they exercised true wisdom, their children might have
had less of worldly prosperity, but they would have made sure of a title
to the immortal inheritance.—
Patriarchs and Prophets, 168, 169
.
The Development of Character.—How was Joseph enabled to make
such a record of firmness of character, uprightness, and wisdom?—
In his early years he had consulted duty rather than inclination; and