Influence of Example

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, Cal. · Aug 22, 1878

Influence of Example.

SAID a lively little boy to his mother, "I wish you would hire Sally again, I don't like to work so much." "And why not, my son? Work is good for us; work makes us happy." "It does not make me happy, and it does not make you happy," was the prompt reply. That mother saw her error. Tender and devoted as she was, she had often been grieved by the indifference which her children manifested when required to share with her those labors which her circumstances made it needful for her to perform. But the secret was now told; she had come herself with a disquieted mind to the performance of her task; and although she had not suffered her lips to utter the truth that labor was painful, the lineaments of her face, and the tones of her voice, had conveyed to their young minds this impression more deeply than any words she could have uttered. That children are good physiognomists, is a common remark; but few realize how well they read the mother in her eyes. Her looks make a deeper impression than her words—her spirit than her precepts; and when her instructions are neglected, her example is never forgotten. When all these are at variance, the quick eye of childhood detects the inconsistency; and true to the impulse of feeling, he at once decides that truth is falsehood, or that his mother is not sincere; and thus he early learns, either to despise the truth, or to reject that authority which he cannot respect. I believe many of our sons learn their first lessons in infidelity on their mother's lap; and far better had it been for those sons, had they learned those lessons in the school of Hume or Voltaire. Better put into our children's hands the writings of Paine, than fill their minds with objections to the truth derived from the inconsistency of parental example.

When mothers learn to bear the necessary toils and trials of life, not only with meekness and patience, but with cheerfulness and composure, they will meet in the bright eye and happy faces of those for whom they labor, the reward of whatever of self-denial or self-control it may have cost them. The man whose hands are red with the blood of his fellow-man, is called a hero; many speak his praise; but the word of wisdom tells us that he that ruleth his own spirit, is greater than he that taketh a city—and those who have achieved this triumph, find in their own experience, that curse from which they may not escape, converted into choicest blessings.—Advocate and Guardian.