p. 13 | The Home Influence

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Dec 5, 1907

The Home Influence

But one word in the language strikes deeper into the heart of the average man or woman than “home,” and that word is “mother.” The two are so closely related that mother means home. Where she is, exists that wonderful something that Webster says is “the abiding-place of the domestic affections.” Home and mother are the first things we learn to know, and throughout our lives there exists a feeling of deep and sacred reverence for them. No matter to what heights we may rise, nor to what depths we may fall, our memory ever serves to carry us back to the innocence of youth when home was our refuge and mother our strength. Nothing was too great for mother to do, and, best of all, she always knew how to do it. Perhaps there were methods employed and decorations used which we by no means continue in our present establishments; but association has made dear the peacock feathers in the gaudy vase and the wax flowers under the glass dome. Even the rigid enforcement of the law of lines and angles, by which the parlor furniture was arranged, is enhanced by time, and the picture of Pocahontas and John Smith, still in memory, has power to charm.

It is in the home that our characters are molded. The home is the soil in which the seed is planted, and if the home is rich in good things, the fruit will be wholesome, unless some blight comes in after-life; but if the soil be barren, it is exceedingly hard to bring forth good fruit. We may well be sure that whatever is best in us is a survival of the home and mother training. How careful, then, should those of us who are making homes for those who will some day fight life’s battles, be in creating an atmosphere of love and right, and in making the home a living place for the boys and girls and their friends. How many homes, alas, have no place for the noise and fun of the children, and how many yearning hearts are on the streets because there is no place at home “to have fun.”

Let our homes be right, and in the heart of no child will there be room for deceit or falseness.—Home Herald.