Cheerful Homes will be a Light to Neighbors

We need more sunshiny parents and more sunshiny Christians. We are too much shut up within ourselves. Too often the kindly, encouraging word, the cheery smile, are withheld from our children and from the oppressed and discouraged.

Parents, upon you rests the responisbility of being light-bearers and light-givers. Shine as lights in the home, brightening the path that your children must travel. As you do this, your light will shine to those without.

Frome every Christian home a holy light should shine forth. Love should be revelaed in action. It should flow our in all home intercourse, showing itself in thoughtful kindness, in gentle, unselfish courtesy. There are homes where this principle is carried out – homes where God is worshiped and truest love reigns. From these homes morning and evening prayer ascends to God as sweet incense, and His mercies and blessings descend upon the suppliants like the morning dew.

- Ellen White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 144

Tips for Teaching Your Children to be More Thankful

As the mother of five children, I have realized that children are not always as thankful as they should be. In fact, children can be downright greedy at times and you may wonder how it was possible that you gave birth to such a selfish creature.

So, how do we, as moms, teach our children that life is not always easy and they should be thankful for all that they have and that they should appreciate what others have done for them or given them? Here are some easy ways you can incorporate being thankful in your everyday life.

1. Model Thankful Behavior. This may seem like an obvious one, but how often do you remember to say thank you when someone does something for you? How often do you tell your children how thankful you are that have a warm home, or a full fridge, or even a friendly pet? We should be thankful for all things in this life. Tonight as you sit together at the dinner table begin a new conversation with the words, “I am so thankful for …” even if all you can think to be thankful for is the fact that your family is together. And remember to be thankful all year round – not just during the holiday season!

2. Let Your Children Contribute. Kids like to feel they are contributing something worthwhile to others. Whether it be helping you set the table, or baking cookies for a neighbor, or raking leaves for an elderly person, children will be more thankful if they feel they are helpful to others. A good lesson can be learned from volunteering time at a local soup kitchen or other charity. It never hurts for children to realize there are others who are less fortunate than they are.

3. Don’t Bombard Children with Too Much Stuff. Kids are like sponges. They will grab up as much stuff as they can. Has your child ever had a case of the GIMMES? Once they get it, it can be a hard task to change their selfish attitude to one of thankfulness. One word: PURGE! Give excess to the needy.

4. Keep a Family Blessings Journal. Record happy events, fun memories and other notes on Friday evening after supper. From time to time reread the entries.

The Sweetest Type of Heaven

Home should be made all that the word implies. It shoulf be a little heaven upon earth, a place where the affections are cultivated instead of being studiously repressed. Our happiness depends upon this cultivation of love, sympathy, and true courtesy to one another.

The sweetest type of heaven is a home where the Spirit of the Lord presides. If the will of God is fulfilled, the husband and wife will respect each other and cultivate love and confidence.

– Signs of the Times, Ellen White, June 20, 1911

Home is the Heart of All Activity

Society is composed of families, and is what the heads of families make it. Out of the heart are “the issues of life”; and the heart of the community, of the church, and of the church, the prosperity of the nation, depend upon home influences.

The elevation or deterioration of the future of society will be determined bu the manners and morals of theyouth growing up around us. As the youth are educated, and as their characters are molded in the childhood to virtuous habits, self-control, and temperance, so will their influence be upon society. If they are left unenlightened and uncontrolled, and as the reult bcome self-willed, intemperate in appetite and passion, so will be their future influence in molding society. The company which the young now keep, the habits they now form, and the principles they now adopt are the index to the state of society for years to come.

– Ministry of Healing, Ellen White, p. 349