p. 15 | Teaching Girls How To Live by MRS. W. E. A. AUL

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 30, 1911

Teaching Girls How To Live

By MRS. W. E. A. AUL

MRS. W. E. A. AUL

The most valuable resource of a nation is its children; and there has never been a period in the world’s history when a girl was of more importance than she is just now. It is said that the first seven years of a child’s life are the most important ones. As tropical plants need for development a warm sun, a rich, genial soil, and moisture, so children should be brought up to think home is the happiest, sweetest spot on earth, the place for all kinds of innocent amusement. Whatever qualities are encouraged and brought out in childhood are likely to dominate the after-life.

On the other hand, overpraise and overindulgence are as harmful to a child as is utter neglect. The mental attitude given a child through its early discipline remains throughout life, and either adds to or detracts from its happiness.

By all means, teach your girls to be happy. I do not mean by this an exuberance of spirits, such as overjoyousness and gaiety. True happiness is a calmer frame of mind, more tranquil, more serene, and capable of endurance; for true happiness is not dependent upon circumstances. It is a state of mind that results from a high plane of living. Teach them that the first requisite for happiness is to think happy thoughts, for thoughts are of great importance in the making of character. As the work of the builder is preceded by the plans of the architect, so the deeds we do in life are preceded by the thoughts we think. It follows that an important part of the work and occupation of one’s early years should be to learn to have right thoughts, which later are to become right actions.

Every girl wishes to become accomplished, and every girl can become so if she will. An accomplishment is defined as “an acquirement or attainment that tends to perfect or equip in character, manners, or person.” It means that every girl who can sweep a room, read French, German, or English, bake a loaf of bread, darn a stocking, play the piano, write a neat, well-composed letter, make a bed, or do any of a thousand and one other things well, is accomplished. Housekeeping and home-making are absolutely necessary accomplishments in the life of every girl, whether she marries or not. Every woman wants a home somewhere, somehow, sometime; and she should know how to direct it with system and order.

Of all the accomplishments it is possible for a girl to acquire, that of being gracious and pleasant to those about her is the greatest and most desirable. The heart needs to be educated even more than the mind, for it is the heart that dominates and colors the whole of life, and gives to it character and meaning. Nothing is more restful and refreshing than a friendly glance or a kindly word in the midst of our daily rounds. Wise are they who sprinkle rest, kindness, and heartsease all through their daily tasks. They weave a bright thread of happiness through the warp and woof of life’s pattern.

The pleasant, helpful girl is most likely to become the pleasant, helpful woman. The seed sown in the spring-time of life determines the character of the harvest that must be reaped in the autumn. One’s disposition in childhood and youth is largely what inheritance and parental training make it; but girls should be taught that in after years, when they have awakened to the necessity of training their own dispositions, it is a matter of their own responsibility. A girl is not responsible for the disposition she inherits, but she is responsible for the disposition she acquires.

The girl who has formed the habit of wearing a pleasant face, of smiling honestly and cheerfully, and has the ability to speak a pleasant word to those she meets, has a good equipment for life. Every girl knows that the friends whom she loves best are those who are alive to the world about them, and who feel an enthusiasm in their duties and privileges.

Only they who find joy in their work can live the nobler life, for without work and work done joyously, life must remain dwarfed and undeveloped. They who work with their hearts as well as their hands, do not grow tired. A labor of love is a labor of growing delight.

(Concluded next week)

College View, Nebr.