The Family at Home by Susan Teall Perry

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 20, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 19.

The Family at Home.

By Susan Teall Perry

How very near to Heaven is the home that has the spirit of the Lord pervading it. How beautiful the sight of the family whose members love one another, and minister unselfishly to the wants of the loved ones who belong to it.

How blessed are the children whose parents fear the Lord and keep his commandments, and train their little ones to reverence and obey their Creator and Preserver. No matter how humble that home may be, it is a happy one.

Childhood quickly passes away, and our children grow into manhood and womanhood before we are aware of it. Many mothers think while their children are too young to take care of themselves, and need constant care and attention, that it will be a relief to have them grow up and able to take care of themselves; but remember, dear mothers, who are singing your little ones to sleep to-night, and putting them in their warm beds so near your own that you can look at them in the night-time and see that they are safe, that this is the happiest time and the safest time you will ever know.

"The happiest time in my whole life," said a very good mother, "were those years when I could hold all my children in my arms." This good mother was one of the mothers whose home had been broken up, and whose children had been scattered, some in the West, and others in the North, and one across the ocean. Temptations and dangers were continually about them, and she could not shield them as she did in the days of their childhood. "If I could not carry them to the Lord in prayer," she added, "now that they are away from me, I should be very unhappy. When I awake in the night and think of them, I lift my heart to God, and ask him to gather them together under his wings; and when I think of them in the day-time, and the fierce battle of life is going on, and I know they are in the thickest of the fight, and the enemy's arrows are flying all around them, so I plead with the Lord that he will keep them from temptation, and be their shield and buckler."

Make childhood so pleasant for the children that in their maturer years they may look back upon it as the happiest time in their lives. Deny them no pleasures that are proper and right for them to enjoy. Let them have their pets, their playthings, and their childish treasures unmolested. Respect the trust they repose in you; never betray their childish confidences which to them are subjects of great moment. Help them in their schemes and plans, if they are only "bubbles in the air." Don't be afraid of loving your children too well. Caress them and show them you love them. Gather them in your arms when they come to you in sorrow, and tell them how you sympathize with them, and show them a way out of their troubles. "As one whom his mother comforteth" is one of the most suggestive illustrations in the Bible. When all other friends fail, the mother's heart is always open for the child to come into; even if he has wandered into the path of sin, she receives him and commits his case to the mother's God.

Make the home the happiest spot on all the earth, then, while you have the opportunity to do so. Let each member do his and her part toward making it full of love and gladness. The influence of such a home atmosphere will go with the children all through life, and when they have homes of their own, they will build them on the same foundations.

Parents cannot be too choice of home and its inmates. Keep bright weather in it by always preserving a cheerful spirit; even among the trials and changes that may come to you.

May God bless us, and enable us to make our homes abodes of love and peace and good-will to all.—Susan Teall Perry, in Evangelist.