Thoughtful Moments

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 6, Issue 51, 26 February 1943, Page 2

Thoughtful Moments

(Supplied by the WhakatP

LESSONS THAT STAY

"Teaching children how to meet life calls for all we have of ingen-

uity, Avis/loin and patience. Too often we. shirk the task. But it is a glorious investment, probab'.y the best we •shall ever make. is a challenge to the best we have in us.

So says a writer in the Digest. Thi t s will find a response in the heart of every mother who takes her responsibilities senousdy. And life is so many-sided.

. "L realise that up to date I've only, been playing at. - being a mother:

i:t is only of rccent years that I've started to bring up my family," said the mother of young children, one day recently. She was speaking about suitable 1 reading matter, and told me "The. girls in Elsie's class at school arc keen on cheap love stories. Fortunately they don't make a grea't appeal to Elsie, and I attri-

Bute it to the fact, that she had read ciiifc extensively good wholesome books. I'm sure it is a tremendous help. A'girl lent her several of these 'penny dreadful.' T looked over them, and found them unwholesome and far-fetched. T made her rc'turn them to the lender. unread .''

"Children can be- taught life,'' Corinne Wells' says, in the article, already quoted from the Digest. "Many of us have vivid recollections of the very hour and place when some adult revealed to us, dramatical'y or picturesquely, some .simple truth' that has stuck.

"When I was a youngster and quarrelled-with 1113* brothers or playmates, an elderly aunt would put her arm round me toward, evening and say, 'Never let the sun go down on your wrath, dearie.' Standing where we could watch, the fast setr ting sun, with her sweet old eyes smiling down at me, something cold and hard inside would melt, and IM race off to 'make up.' To this hour any sluuloav of misunderstanding or hurt must be cleared up before sunset blacks out the day for ever. "One man I know, a pillar of strength and courage to his family, friends and business associates, told me his secret rcccntly. When he was little more, than a baby, his wise mother taught him to smile at himself in the mirror whenever he got bumped or bruised by life. 'When anj r thing happened that hurt me, physically, or in heart or mind.

mother would hold me up in front of the. mirror, and from behind, me make faces at my tcary countenance, until I had to smile. Then she'd say, 'Well, that hurt's taken care of!' and. put me down, and I'd run to my room and grin at mj'older I found that I had developed the mirror habit, figuratively and literally. As a freckled-faced boy I'd runt o my room and grin at myself' in the mirror to wipe out some hurt or disappointment. You just can't take troubles very seriously then; you look so woebegone to start with, that you're funny to yourself. So your grin gets deeper until it reaches your spirit.' . . . "•When I was a child, my small brothers were expected to keep the vegetable garden weeded. Of 'Course they hated the job, put it off as long as possible, and usually had to spend their precious Saturdays doing it. An uncle who came to visit

ne Ministers' Association).

OUR SUNDAY MESSAGE

Amusing? Yes. AwkAvard? Yes Confusing to the child? Yes, very

us sauntered into the garden, and saw the. boys scowl ingly at Avork.

'Do you boys know why you are pulling those weeds?' he asked.

'Lt's because they're robbers, stealing nourishment that belongs to the vegetables. Do you know how to get the. best of them, and still have plenty of time to play? Just divide the garden into six farms, three apiece. (With sticks he marked out six plots). Now each of you clear just one little Tarm every second week-day afternoon, ft won't take long, you'll have Saturdays and Sundays free. What's more, you'll have the whole- garden so neat that you'll be proud of it.'

"The rest of the summer it really was a picture garden, and. the. boys wondered .Avhy Aveeding had seemed such -drudgery before.

"When 1 hear people say 'Nobody can teach young people to live their live-sr they must learn by experience,' T think of my understanding uncle and the Aveeds Invaluable lessons in the art of living can be taught children as definitely as Ave teach them arithmetic. My uncle taught the boys lessons that stayed Av.ith them all their lives."

The power of example, is stronger than most of 11s realise. A Avrit.er in a booklet, The Christian Home, says, "The little child, is strongly imitative. Tt dot's Avliat it sees its elders doing. A tiny child Avent its first message to the local store. When she returned she Avas asked Avhat the storekeeper had said to her, but 110 ansAver was given. In a -short time, howcA'er, the Avliole scene Avas re-enacted in a corner of the room, —looks, Avords, accent and all. The child is completely absorbed in Avhat it is doing, and Avhat it. sees and hearts is, unconsciously built into the fabric of its being ...

A little child of four had been to church, and the minister Avas speaking on the use of Sunday. With the sage look a little boy can give,. he said in the presence of his parents and the Minister, "Mr So-and-so, Daddy, cleaned the fowl-house out this morning."

How often might tlic children at Sunday School say, "My mummic did the washing, this morning?" or "My Daddy is digging the garden," or 'We are going for a picnic this'afternoon," while the teachers and the minister arc instructing, Sunday is God's Day. Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy."

It has. been said that the Chrisl- - home is the Church's foundation, and the nation's strength. The Rev. J. L. Robinson, when lie was moderator, said, "The Church of God needs the little ones. On their shoulders the burden of its future inevitably rests. The welfare of our nation depepds in the last resort on the Christian character of its. citizens, and it is too late, to leave the moulding of that character to adult years. The opportunity of Christian nurture is now—while the children arc prepared to give a ready welcome' to the. truths of Jesus Christ. Someone has said, 'Every child horn into the world ii a shut casket of possibilities.' 1 cannot conceive how any father or mother can leave the great, opportunity of leading their children in paths of righteousness to any other influence than their own.''