Adjustment | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 27, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 33.

Adjustment.

WHY is it that women suffer so much from nervous irritation? Many women before they have lost the bloom of girlhood display decided wrinkles between the eyes, and have a harassed, worried look that is distressing to the observer. Women of the average condition in life are the greatest sufferers from nervous irritation, and it is largely due to themselves.

In beginning their married life they make plans for perfect housekeeping, according to their individual standards. As soon as they have begun their new life of responsibility they begin in a greater or less degree to worry because they are not succeeding as they had determined.

The servant will not prove amenable to all the rules and regulations of the young housekeeper; failures will occur in the experimental trials of the newest rules of cookery; the household machinery will not run smoothly; and the worry begins, because there has been no margin left in the housewife's plans for interruptions and disappointments. Women do not take up the business of housekeeping as their husbands do the business of bread-winning—expecting a certain amount of disappointment, defeat, and successful rivalry, and adapting themselves to them when they come, and accepting them as a part of their business life.

Then, too, the indulgent husbands are somewhat to blame for this state of affairs. When they are met by the worried face, and forced to listen to the tale of woe, they are very apt to agree with the narrator, that never woman suffered like this woman, and frequently help to develop a martyr who suffers from an imaginary cause.

Many women refuse to adapt themselves to the conditions surrounding them. Carry your housekeeping cares, and refuse to be pushed and shoved by them; when making plans, leave a margin for the inevitable interruptions and mishaps, and when these come you will find yourself meeting them calmly and making plans to mitigate the results. The secret of successful living, in any sphere, is the power to adapt ourselves to the circumstances and conditions that surround and meet us at every step.—Christian Union.