MH page 393

Fathers and mothers, however pressing your business, do not fail to gather your family around God's altar. Ask for the guardianship of holy angels in your home. Remember that your dear ones are exposed to temptations. Daily annoyances beset the path of young and old. Those who would live patient, loving, cheerful lives must pray. Only by receiving constant help from God can we gain the victory over self.

Daily prayer and seeking divine help are necessary to overcome self and live patiently. The text presents a spiritual teaching regarding prayer, divine assistance, and personal moral victory.

Home should be a place where cheerfulness, courtesy, and love abide; and where these graces dwell, there will abide happiness and peace. Troubles may invade, but these are the lot of humanity. Let patience, gratitude, and love keep sunshine in the heart, though the day may be ever so cloudy. In such homes angels of God abide.

Home should be maintained as a place of cheerfulness, courtesy, and love despite common troubles. This paragraph offers ethical and relational encouragement for cultivating a positive home environment.

Let the husband and wife study each other's happiness, never failing in the small courtesies and little kindly acts that cheer and brighten the life. Perfect confidence should exist between husband and wife. Together they should consider their responsibilities. Together they should work for the highest good of their children. Never should they in the presence of the children criticize each other's plans or question each other's judgment. Let the wife be careful not to make the husband's work for the children more difficult. Let the husband hold up the hands of his wife, giving her wise counsel and loving encouragement.

Husband and wife should cultivate mutual happiness, confidence, cooperation, and unity in child-rearing without mutual criticism before the children. This paragraph offers ethical and relational guidance for married couples and parenting, focusing on mutual support and avoiding criticism in front of children.