Thoughtful Moments

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 8, Issue 35, 22 December 1944, Page 2

Thoughtful Moments

(Supplied by the Whakatf><?.fc Minist e.js' Association).

HOME j Homeless L through life's gloomy ways Seeking I knew out what on land ' '* _ ' I or sea; Lonely and ('earing dreading future days, Thus travelled, till I. came to Calvary. There found 1 what my sin had done, too late; Pierced Him who lovca sought to give me ease He who for pity, camc to share my fate Was dead and with liim idled my hope of peacc. Then darkest nignr engulfed, darker yet, Till sorrow brougnt mc to His rockhewn grave; There wrestling with cespair, my vigil kept, Until, at dawn, He rose u<c aead to save. Now in ray heart He's mace liis home with me. And I the homeiess am at "ionic » ' for ave, ''So, lam with you always whispered He "Saviour and Friend, to ali eternity" —Wilfred S. Brooks Jamaica. z. THE DREAM HOME The speaker was Miss E. Maekay of Wellington. She took as the subject of her talk the possibility of a new and better world, built upon the home: a home founded on buttressed by faith and ceiled by prayer. "If this is to be possible" saw the speaker "the mothers of New Zealand must regain their inspiration and regain it now. Thinking back to the days of your courtship," she said, '"what were your dreams of home? A place of light and cheer and comfort; you the cheer and com-fort-maker?" A place of sympathy of Inspiration of attraction, a home where the home-maker could attract and ho id with cords of love,, and the pivot upon which the 'whole structure revolved, ami you preparer, to make saerilice that tue dream might conic true? But the dream to many has not come true. To many the Great. War followed by the depression, with this war "hard upon its heels, has brought sorrow sulfering, privation, hand work and drudgery, with stain of nerve and strength and temper which have well nigh blotted out the dream. In the case, too, of the younger married women this war has

OUR SUNDAY MESSAGE

brought not only the sorrow of parting, but has robbed many of the. joys of home-making and brougnt the need for Avar work, often accompanied by unnatural institution life and to some a seeking for unsatis-< lying excitement in leisure hours, while the possibility of earning large wages has dulled the sense of values. For many too, of our younger girls this war has brought a freedom, a superficiality, and a binding of pleasures away from the protection of the home, together with a craving for unnatural excitement, with money and time not always wisely spent. And what of the J-ime "when the Boys come home?" Will not that "dream home" be more necessary than ever. They have lived through terrible experiences with heart and nerve and body strained to breaking point, facing danger and death at every point. But they have met new peoples seen new visited new lands, and many have developed and grown older and enlarged their through their experiences. .Many of them, before leaving New Zealand, married in liastc j under a sense of strain sometimes knowing but little, of their chosen life-part-ner, and as they themselves have grown they have visualised a home with a partner who has grown also and this home has been embellished Hil it too, became a idream home. Wifli their return to this land will come the need for them to take up old tasks, possibly dull, and «omctimes monotonous, and life in a home which with all its love, may feel cramped and small in comparison with that of their thoughts in the idesert and on the battle held •and with money that will not always stretch to meet their numerous desires while the utfe for new scenes and old will conr tinue. Surely then there.■ need for us, women, to take stcßk of the whole position and put®fir house, in order, and, to do it Mdw! How can this be mefjp How can the dream home conic true? If the dream home and the new and better world built upon it is ever to come 1 J true, it must be through a renewed mind. Our sense of values must be recast. Do you remember those verses in Romans, Chapter 12: "Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your m'nds, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God" or again, "Whether, therefore, ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye. do do all to the of God!" That Avill change drudgery., that will make the scrubbing, the washing and mending and the potato peeling a different task, and the care and training of the little ones, whom God shall give, will not be a task to fear or to depress. "To the Glory of God!'—a God-given task! Surelv that will be true romance.