How to Promote Peace in a Family.
1. Remember that you will be likely to be crossed every day, so prepare for it. 2. Everybody in the house has an evil nature as well as ourselves, and therefore we are not to expect too much. 3. To learn the different temper and disposition of each individual. 4. To look on each member of the family as one for whom we should have a care. 5. When any good happens to any one, to rejoice at it. 6. When inclined to give an angry answer, to “overcome evil with good.” 7. If from sickness, pain, or infirmity we feel irritable, to keep a very strict watch over ourselves. 8. To observe when others are so suffering, to drop a word of kindness and sympathy suited to them. 9. To watch for little opportunities of pleasing, and to put little annoyances out of the way. 10. To take a cheerful view of everything, of the weather, and encourage hope. 11. To speak kindly of the servants, to praise them for little things when you can. 12. In all little pleasures which may occur, to put self last. 13. To try for “the soft answer that turneth away wrath.” 14. When we have been pained by an unkind word or deed, to ask ourselves: “Have I not often done the same and been forgiven?” 15. In conversation not to exalt ourselves, but to bring others forward. 16. To be very gentle to the young ones, and treat them with respect. 17. Never to judge one another harshly, but to attribute a good motive when we can.