he does just that. This same is true with any vice. Here is a father coming home from work. He slips into his lunch box something which belongs to the com- A BOY OR A GIRL Some folks pray for a boy, some for a golden haired little girl to come. Some claim to think there is more joy ■ wrapped up in the smile of a little boy; While others pretend that the soapy curls and plump pink cheeks of a little girl, Bring more of bliss to the old home place, than a small boy's queer .little freckled face. Now, which is better I couldn't say, if the Lord should ask me to choose today. If He should put in a call for me and say, "Now, what shall your order be, a boy or a girl? I have both in store, which of the two are you waiting for"? I'd say with one of my broadest grins, "Send either one if it can't be twins." I've heard it said to some people's shame, that they cried with grief when a small boy came, For they wanted a girl, and some folks I know who wanted a boy, just took on so when a girl was sent. But it seems to me that mothers and fathers should happy be, to think that when the baby has hurried ly come, That the Lord should bless them with either one. A boy or a girl, there can be no choice, there's something lovely in either voice. And all I ask of the Lord to do is to see that the mother comes safely through, And guard the baby and have it well, with perfect form and a healthy yell, A pair of eyes and a shock of hair, either boy or girl, and its dad won't care. pany. His son sees this and thinks, “If dad can get away with it, so can 23
Chapter Sixteen W ithout exception the greatest force in the world is the uncon scious influence of a life with another life. This is what makes us a part of society. This is why the pressures on the crowd of young people is enor mous. They are pushed, unthinkingly, into conformity. It is only human na ture not to want to be unlike other people. There are two kinds of influence giv en to every man. There is a positive influence such as a salesman might exert when he seeks to sell his wares. In a sense it is like the influence of a minister of the Gospel who seeks to preach so that men understand that apart from Christ our Saviour there is no salvation; that we need His power and His gracious love. This is the kind of influence that a teacher tries to ex ert on a pupil. When a parent tries to guide his child by appreciation and instruction, he is positively and actively trying to influence the young life. The other side of influence is unconscious and invol untary. It can be well said that “The parent is the child’s first copybook.” In the early years of life the child is influenced far more by the pattern of the parent’s life than by any other active instruction it receives. If you dear wives want your children to yell like fishwives, all you need to do is yell like a fishwife. If you want them to live in a certain manner of life, you walk like that and they will follow you. One of the greatest difficulties of life is that our children will follow us in the things we don’t want them to do. This includes bad habits and character traits. They see the evil in our lives far more readily than they do the good. Children will talk as well as walk like their fathers and mothers. Here is a father who is smoking.- He says to his son, “I don’t want you to smoke.” But the son sees the father and says, “I want to be like my dad.” And
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