Page 280 - The Ministry of Healing (1905)

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The Ministry of Healing
past, let the family unite in offering grateful prayer and raising the
song of praise, in acknowledgment of divine care during the day.
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Fathers and mothers, however pressing your business, do not fail
to gather your family around God’s altar. Ask for the guardianship
of holy angels in your home. Remember that your dear ones are
exposed to temptations. Daily annoyances beset the path of young
and old. Those who would live patient, loving, cheerful lives must
pray. Only by receiving constant help from God can we gain the
victory over self.
Home should be a place where cheerfulness, courtesy, and love
abide; and where these graces dwell, there will abide happiness and
peace. Troubles may invade, but these are the lot of humanity. Let
patience, gratitude, and love keep sunshine in the heart, though the
day may be ever so cloudy. In such homes angels of God abide.
Let the husband and wife study each other’s happiness, never
failing in the small courtesies and little kindly acts that cheer and
brighten the life. Perfect confidence should exist between husband
and wife. Together they should consider their responsibilities. To-
gether they should work for the highest good of their children. Never
should they in the presence of the children criticize each other’s
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plans or question each other’s judgment. Let the wife be careful not
to make the husband’s work for the children more difficult. Let the
husband hold up the hands of his wife, giving her wise counsel and
loving encouragement.
No barrier of coldness and reserve should be allowed to arise
between parents and children. Let parents become acquainted with
their children, seeking to understand their tastes and dispositions,
entering into their feelings, and drawing out what is in their hearts.
Parents, let your children see that you love them and will do all
in your power to make them happy. If you do so, your necessary
restrictions will have far greater weight in their young minds. Rule
your children with tenderness and compassion, remembering that
“their angels do always behold the face of My Father which is in
heaven.”
Matthew 18:10
. If you desire the angels to do for your
children the work given them of God, co-operate with them by doing
your part.
Brought up under the wise and loving guidance of a true home,
children will have no desire to wander away in search of pleasure and