The Mother's Burdens by MRS. N. A. JOHNSON

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 27, 1908

The Mother's Burdens

By MRS. N. A. JOHNSON

MRS. N. A. JOHNSON

“THE work of the mother is an important one.” This no one will doubt, for on her largely rests the care and training of the children. A mother’s work consists not alone in properly clothing the children and caring for them while they are growing, but their physical and moral well-being depends to a great degree on her. Her work should begin with the babe in her arms, by teaching it self-control and regularity. Regularity should be the rule in all the habits of children. By properly training the child while it is still a babe, much of the mother’s future burdens are lessened.

When there are several children, the work is more difficult, as no two can be treated exactly alike, and tact must be used to make things move smoothly. If the mother would succeed in this work, she must not allow fashions and customs of the world to hold her in bondage.

She should understand how to clothe her children for comfort, health, and freedom, and at the same time becomingly.

The preparation of healthful food is no small task for the mother. Much peevishness and irritability among children is caused by wrong habits of diet, irregular meals, and the habit of “piecing.”

Many mothers deplore the intemperance everywhere, but do not stop to think that by placing rich, highly seasoned food before their children and allowing them to indulge the appetite, they are opening the way for greater evils. It is every mother’s duty to provide good, plain, wholesome food for her family, for “children reared in a healthful way are much more easily controlled than those who are allowed to eat everything their appetites crave, and at all times.”

How earnestly the mother of Moses must have worked to instil in her boy the true meaning of life! Though she had but twelve years, she did a work that developed a mighty man to deliver Israel.

We also find the story of Hannah and her child Samuel. How early she must have taught him obedience; for when but a child in the home of Eli, he was by his master’s side at the first call. It was surely a grand thing to the child to have the Lord speak to him. Those who have been taught obedience when young are much more likely to hear and heed the voice of the Lord than those are who have not been thus taught, and it is the duty of the parents to expect obedience. This is sometimes easier for the father than for the mother, but still it is the mother’s work to command obedience.

During the first six or seven years of a child’s life the parents, especially the mother, should be the only teachers. This will make it necessary that she make “continual advancement in her own life, that she may lead her children to higher and still higher attainments.” Children will ask questions about the things they see and hear, and should be instructed patiently in the things of nature.

Even before the children can go to school, they can be learning to help with the duties at home. The mother must give this instruction. Small children may be taught to do many things to lighten the mother’s burdens. These small duties, faithfully done in the home in early life, help to develop a sense of responsibility.

The mother is responsible for the morals of her children. She should know the children with whom she allows them to associate, and should teach her children to confide in her. She must not repulse them when they tell her things they hear, but listen patiently, and then tell the true side of it, and if it is mere gossip, discourage their participation in it.

A mother’s burden is no light task, as she is called upon to give up many ambitions and pleasures; but it should be a stimulus to mothers to know that “the position of a woman in her family is more sacred than that of the king upon his throne.” Hers is not a work of time alone, but it is her privilege to enjoy through eternity the work and sacrifice of time here.

Grand Junction, Colo.