Faultfinding

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jan 13, 1914

DON'T get in the habit of it. It's the easiest thing to do and the hardest thing to stop in the wide, wide world. It ruins your temper, and spoils the shape of your mouth. Try to see the good rather than the disagreeable in the people and your surroundings. You would not go to a friend's house and find fault with what she does, and with what she has, and her ways of living. What right have you, then, to find fault with those who are more than friends to you—the people of your own blood?

If there is a grace that we are all stingy with, it is that of giving praise, and yet it is one with which we ought to be lavish. Why should you tell your friend that her bonnet is becoming, when you have never said this to your sister? Why should you go out to luncheon and praise your neighbor's muffins, when you have forgotten to tell mother how good hers were? Why should you announce how much Mr. Wilson over the way knows, when father is a great deal better-informed man, and it has never entered your little head to whisper quietly to him how much you appreciate his wisdom? You keep your ability to discover faults for the home, while the eye that should look for virtues is closed tightly until you go out.

Don't wait till some one is gone from you, to tell their virtues. Don't wait until your sister is far away in another land to tell her how helpful, how pretty, or how courteous she is. And don't wait until the weary hands are crossed and the long sleep comes, before you make mother know what a beautiful blue are her eyes, how tender her heart, and how dearly you love her. Tell it all now—now, when the walk through life is hard, and the sunshine of praise is yearned for to brighten it, and to warm and encourage the pilgrim by the wayside.—Ladies' Home Journal.