—Fundamentals of True Homemaking

The Most Attractive Place in the World —While there are

weighty responsibilities devolving upon the parents to guard care-

fully the future happiness and interests of their children, it is also

their duty to make home as attractive as possible. This is of far

greater consequence than to acquire estates and money.

Home must not lack sunshine. The home feeling should be kept alive in the

hearts of the children, that they may look back upon the home of

their childhood as a place of peace and happiness next to heaven.

Then as they come to maturity, they should in their turn try to be a

comfort and blessing to their parents.

1: The home should be to the children the most attractive place in the world, and the mother’s presence should be its greatest attraction.Children have sensitive, loving natures.they are easily pleased, and easily made unhappy. By gentle discipline, in loving words and acts,

mothers may bind their children to their hearts.

2:Clean, Neat, Orderly, Cleanliness, neatness, and order are

Indispensable to the proper management of the household.

But when the mother makes these the all-important duties of her life, and

devotes herself to them, to the neglect of the physical development

and the mental and moral training of her children, she makes a sad

mistake.

3:Believers should be taught that even though they may be poor,

they need not be unclean or untidy in their persons or in their homes.

Help must be given in this line to those who seem to have no sense

of the meaning and importance of cleanliness. They are to be taught

that those who are to represent the high and holy God must keep

their souls pure and clean, and that this purity must extend to their

dress and to everything in the home, so that the ministering angels

will have evidence that the truth has wrought a change in the life,

purifying the soul and refining the tastes. Those who, after receiv-

ing the truth, make no change in word or deportment, in dress or surroundings, are living to themselves, not to Christ. They have not

been created anew in Christ Jesus, unto purification and holiness….

While we are to guard against needless adornment and display,

we are in no case to be careless and indifferent in regard to outward

appearance. All about our persons and our homes is to be neat and

attractive. The youth are to be taught the importance of presenting

an appearance above criticism, an appearance that honors God and

the truth.

4: A neglect of cleanliness will induce disease. Sickness does not

come without a cause. Violent epidemics of fevers have occurred in

villages and cities that were considered perfectly healthful, and these

have resulted in death or broken constitutions. many instances

the premises of the very ones who fell victims to these epidemics

contained the agents of destruction which sent forth deadly poison

into the atmosphere, to be inhaled by the family and the neighbor-

hood. It is astonishing to witness the prevailing ignorance relative to

the effects which slackness and recklessness produce upon health.

5: Order Necessary for a Happy Home—God is displeased with disorder, slackness, and a lack of thoroughness in anyone. These

deficiencies are serious evils, and tend to wean the affections of

the husband from the wife when the husband loves order, well-

disciplined children, and a well-regulated house and mother

cannot make home agreeable and happy unless she possesses a

love for order, preserves her dignity, and has good government;

therefore all who fail on these points should begin at once to educate

themselves in this direction, and cultivate the very things wherein is

their greatest lack.

6:Vigilance and Diligence to Be Blended—When we give ourselves  unreservedly to the Lord, the simple, commonplace duties of

home life will be seen in their true importance, and we shall perform

them in accordance with the will of God. We are to be vigilant,

watching for the coming of the Son of man; and we must also be

diligent; working as well as waiting is required; there must be a

union of the two will balance the Christian character, making

it well developed, symmetrical. We should not feel that we are to

neglect everything else, and give ourselves up to meditation, study,

or prayer; neither are we to be full of bustle and hurry and work, to

the neglect of personal piety. Waiting and watching and working are to be blended. “Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving

the Lord.”

7:Provide Laborsaving Facilities—In many a home the wife and

mother has no time to read, to keep herself well informed, no time

to be a companion to her husband, no time to keep in touch with

the developing minds of her children. There is no time or place for

the precious Saviour to be a close, dear companion. Little by little

she sinks into a mere household drudge, her strength and time and

interest absorbed in the things that perish with the using. Too late

she awakes to find herself almost a stranger in her own home.

precious opportunities once hers to influence her dear ones for the

higher life, unimproved, have passed away forever.

Let the homemakers resolve to live on a wiser plan. Let it be

your first aim to make a pleasant home. Be sure to provide the

facilities that will lighten labor and promote health.

8:Even the Humblest Tasks Are the Work of God

All the work we do that is necessary to be done, be it washing dishes,

setting tables, waiting upon the sick, cooking, or washing, is of

moral importance…. The humble tasks before us are to be taken up

by someone; and those who do them should feel that they are doing

a necessary and honorable work, and that in their mission, humble

though it may be, they are doing the work of God just as surely as

was Gabriel when sent to the prophets.

All are working in their order in their respective spheres. Woman in her home, doing the simple duties of life that must be done, can and should exhibit faithfulness,obedience, and love, as sincere as angels in their sphere. Conformity to the will of God makes any work honorable that must be done amen.