Teach your children from the very beginning to practice self-denial and self-control. Teach them to enjoy the beauties of nature and to exercise systematically in useful occupations all their corporal and intellectual faculties. Teach them so that they come to have a healthy constitution and good moral principles, a cheerful disposition and a gentle temper. Instill in their tender brain the truth that God has not created us to live merely for the present pleasures, but for our final good. Teach them that giving in to temptation is proof of weakness and wickedness, while resisting it denotes nobility and virility. These lessons will be like seed sown on fertile soil, and they will bear fruit that shall fill their heart with joy.
Above all, surround the parents to their children in an atmosphere of joy, courtesy and love. In a home where love inhabits and expresses itself in glances, words and acts, the Angels are pleased to manifest their presence.
Fathers, let your hearts enter the sunshine of Love, joviality and happy contentment, and allow your sweet and precious influence to penetrate your home. Manifest a kind and tolerant spirit; spread it also in your children, to cultivate all the graces that will enlighten your family life. The atmosphere thus created will be for the children the same way the air and the sun are for the vegetation and promote the health and vigor of the mind and body.
If we do all that, we will successfully pre
vent locks and exiles.
