CHURLISHNESS AT HOME

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Nov 20, 1893

CHURLISHNESS AT HOME.

"He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city."—Proverbs.

The fittest and most practicable place for the conquest of anger, selfishness, impatience, is a man's own home. Be a saint there; it does not matter so much what you are elsewhere.—P. C. Mozoomdar.

What peculiar psychological fact is it that is responsible for our churlishness at home? Is the statement too sweeping? To be more exact, why do so many of us find it harder to be gentle and courteous to those at home than to the stranger we meet on the street, or the friend in his parlor? It is not because we love our own less than strangers. It is due, no doubt, principally to thoughtlessness. We are, as it were, a little off our guard, resting on our oars while at home, and a bit careless. But home is, or should be, the place of all places to us, the pivot upon which our lives revolve; and why should we be careless there? Our conduct at home is more than likely, it is almost certain, to be a true reflection of our personalities. We generally are really what those at home find us, and it is there we exert our greatest influence. We see our friends once or twice a week, perhaps, our family every day, and our influence for good or evil will tell in just that proportion.

Then, again, our span of life is so brief at its longest that we have not time to be cross or selfish. Life is only just long enough to be pleasant in, and where better than in the home? The simplest little courtesies, "Good-night," "God guard the night," "Good-morning," "If you please," "Thank you," passing over one another's faults, and striving to always wear a cheerful countenance and say a kind word—these seem small matters, it may be, but, oh, how they brighten up the household! There is no lubricator that can set the domestic machinery running better and smoother than cheerfulness and unselfishness, while anger and impatience are the worst kind of rust on the wheels. A smile is an excellent specific for most household ills.

These habits of self-control and thoughtfulness cultivated at home will soon become parts of our nature, and when we go out among men, we will wear them, not as a nosegay put on for the occasion, but as the very garment of our souls.—The Voice.