Making Home A Happy and Peaceful Repose

A woman's best qualities do not reside in her intellect but in her affections. She gives refreshment by her sympathies, rather than by her knowledge. It is this characteristic sympathy of woman which gives to home its charm, and to home and childhood reminiscences a sacredness which causes such songs as "Home Sweet Home" and "The Old Oaken Bucket" to be the favorites of all classes.

The true wife, he says, should possess such qualities as will tend to make home as much as may be a place of repose. To this end, she should have sense enough or worth enough to exempt her husband as much as possible from the troubles of family management, and more especially from all possibility of debt.

The true wife takes a sympathy in her husband's pursuits. She cheers him, encourages him, and helps him. She enjoys his successes and his pleasure, and makes a little as possible over his vexations. If a wife cannot make her home bright and happy, so that it shall be the cleanest, sweetest, cheerfulest place that her husband can find refuge in--a retreat from the toils and troubles of the outer world--the heaven help the poor man, for he is virtually homeless!

--Passage from "Happy Homes And The Hearts That Make Them"

The Affection Of A Woman

The home is the woman's kindgom, her state, her world--where she governs by affection, by kindness, by the power of gentleness. There is nothing which so settles the turbulence of a man's nature as his union in life with a high-minded woman. There he finds rest, contentment, and happiness--rest of brain and peace of spirit. He will also often find in her his best counsellor, for her instinctive tact will usually lead him right when his own unaided reason might be apt to go wrong. The true wife is a staff to lean upon in times of trial and difficulty; and she is never wanting in sympathy and solace when distress occurs or fortune frowns. In the time of youth, she is a comfort and an ornamanet of man's life; and she remains a faitful helpmate in maturer years, when life has ceased to be an antipcation and we live in its realities.

What a happy man must Edmund Burke have been, when he could say of his home, "Every care vanishes the m oment I enter under my own roof!" And Luther, a man full of human affection, speaking of his wife, said, "I would not exchange my poverty with her for all the riches of Croesus without her!" Of marriage he observed: "The utmost blessing that God can confer on a man is the possession of a good and pious wife, with whom he may live in peace and tranquility--to whom he may confide his whole possessions, eve his life and welfare." And again he said, "To rise betimes, and to marry young, are what no man ever repentts of doing."

--Passage from Happy Homes And The Hearts That Make Them

Dear Friends,
One of the most beautiful and inspiring books I have ever had the pleasure of reading, and whose subject matter is so near and dear to my heart, is a lovely old book entitled "Happy Homes and The Hearts That Make Them." Written in 1883 by Mr. Samuel Smiles, this exceptional volume is filled with timeless wisdom and eloquently detailed descriptions of how to have a joyful and peaceful home and is truly a delight to read! Because we believe this book should be in every ladies book shelf, we will soon be offering this priceless volume in the coming months, but until then, we will begin posting some of our favorite passages for our dear friends to peruse and enjoy!

Blessings From Our House To Yours!
Mrs. Kari Wisdom

The Art of Living

The art of living deserves a place among the fine arts. Like literature, it may be ranked with the humanities. It is the art of turning the means of living to the best account--of making the best of everything. It is the art of extracting from life its highest enjoyment, and through it, of reaching its highest results.

To live happily, the exercise of no small degree of art is required. Like poetry and painting, the art of living comes chiefly by nature; but all can cultivate and develop it. It can be fostered by parents and teachers, and perfected by self-culture. Without intelligence, it cannot exist.

Happiness is not, like a large and beautiful gem, so uncommon and rare that all search for it is vain, all efforts to obtain it hopeless; but it consists of a series of smaller and commoner gemes, grouped and set together, forming a pleasing and graceful whole. Happiness consists in the enjoyment of little pleasures scattered along the common path of life, which in the eager serach for some great and exciting joy, we are apt to overlook. It finds delight in the performance of common duties, faithfully and honorably fulfilled.

The art of living is abundantly exemplified in actual life. Take two men of equal means, one of whom knows the art of living, and the other not. The one has the seeing eye and the intelligent mind. Nature is ever new to him, and full of beauty. He can live in the present, rehearse the past, or anticipate the glory of the future. With him life has a deep meaning, and requires the performance of duties which are satisfactory to his conscience, and there therefore pleasureable. He improves himself, acts upon his age, helps to elevate the depressed classes, and is active in every good work. His hand is never tired, his mind is never weary. He goes through life joyfully, helping others to its enjoyment. Intelligence, ever expanding, give him every day fresh insight into men and things. He lays down his life full of honor and blessing, and his greatest monument is the good deeds he has done, and the beneficient example he has set before his fellow-creatures.

--Passage from Happy Homes and The Hearts That Make Them