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Practice Run for Heaven, October 6
Learn first to shew piety at home.
1 Timothy 5:4
.
It has become customary in many families, with parents as well as with
children, to be more pleasant when in the society of others than in their own
home. This is not the plan that God has devised for parents and children.
Save some of your smiles and praise and courtesy for the home circle. You
should strive to be tender, thoughtful, kind, to exercise Christian politeness in
the home. The gracious spirit of home religion is to be cultivated....
Christ never spoke a harsh or an unkind word. When tempted by His
associates to do wrong, He would sing from the Psalm, or by some word of
Scripture would discourage the enemy. Do not be ashamed to learn of Christ.
He invites you, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and
lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy,
and my burden is light” (
Matthew 11:29, 30
). When you feel provoked to
anger consider that in manifesting this spirit, you are not wearing the yoke of
Christ, which is one of obedience, restraint, service.
Parents and children, bear this in mind, that the true followers of Christ
will make their home as nearly as possible a symbol of the home above, for
in doing this they are coworkers with Christ to carry out the laws of His
kingdom. Read the prayer that Christ taught His disciples. Live that prayer. It
is a whole sermon for all who would practice it. We have something to ask of
Jesus. We have great wants and great necessities, which He alone can supply.
The prayer which Christ taught His disciples covers all these needs. We want
pardon, forgiveness; but we can have it only as we shall pardon and forgive
others.
Christ invites your confidence. Of yourself you can do nothing. You
cannot be kind, true, courteous, unselfish, without the Holy Spirit’s help....
Study the life of Christ, and practice in the home life those things which
you know will be required of you in the heavenly life, in the society of the
heavenly family. In the home circle here we may practice our manners for the
family above.—
Manuscript 125, October 6, 1898
, “Education in the Home.”
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