CURRENT SERIES TITLE
"Happy Homes & Happy Living"
Lesson #2

Serious Minds

Some time back in a bookstore I saw a volume entitled, "Things Which a Young Married Woman Should Know." I thought to myself that a long time before the author of that book was born, God wrote on the same subject. And, moreover, he bound upon the preacher of the gospel the necessity of teaching on these things. Paul the apostle wrote to the young preacher Titus and told him to Speak thou the things which become sound doctrine." Among those things which are sound, he enjoined that the aged women should teach the younger and Paul listed a catalog of things which young wives and mothers need to know. Since happiness in the home depends upon a knowledge of the Word of God, lets consider some of these characteristics.

In Titus 2 :4, the Book says, "That they may teach the young women to be sober." The word sober as used in this connection must not be limited to abstinence from intoxicating liquors alone. Certainly God would not want young women to be cocktail addicts or female barflies. I feel safe in saying that no woman ever became a better wife because she drank liquor with her husband. Neither has one ever become a better mother. In countless instances, women have wrecked their homes by their indulgence in drink. I was amazed to see the statistics on women drinkers in our daily paper recently. According to the report released, there are multiplied thousands of tipplers and drunken sots among the mothers and wives of our land. How sad to think about it!

A young married woman came to me recently to tell me that she had made a sad mistake in not following my advice as given a few years before. She was endeavoring to live a sincere Christian life when she first consulted with me, but her husband was not a member of the church. When she asked my advice I told her to go to church regularly regardless of what it cost. She felt that she ught to do that but she said too that she considered herself obligated to drink with her husbands friends when he brought them home and to play cards with them, even though they gambled. I tried to persuade her that she would gain nothing and would perhaps lose her soul for compromising with evil. Nevertheless, she pursued her chosen course. She mixed the drinks and served them and sat down with a cocktail of her own when her husband had business friends to entertain. Recently she felt that the time was ripe to speak to him about his soul. He only laughed at her. He said that she was a hypocrite. He told her that she was as bad off as he and that she would go to church on Sunday and then come home and mix drinks and partake of them and he further informed her that no Christian would act that way. I feel in my heart that even those who drink respect those who do not and who cling to their convictions regardless.

Wife, if you want to win your husband and have a happy Christian home do not compromise your faith. Stand firm.

In connection with this I want to read the advice of the apostle Peter as found in 1 Peter 3:1,2. "Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conduct of the wives: while they behold your pure lives coupled with reverence." You cannot win a husband to Christ by partaking of that which is evil. A Christian must be sober. Set an example in this regard.

But the word "sober" as used here means to be serious-minded, sound in judgment, using good common sense about all of the affairs of life. A great many homes have been broken up because the wife did not use good judgment. Many there are who have neglected their homes while they sat around and listened to radio serials or read the latest fiction. A husband persons a stir is caused every time some movie star comes out with a new style frock. With them the style of a life means nothing compared to the style of a dress. They read the fashion magazines and never look at the Bible; they visit the style shows more than they ever go to church.

Such persons can pass by a squalid tenement where the little children are hungry and starving without ever giving it a glance but they rave about a spoon or fork being out of place for the serving of one of their courses. They talk about fashion more than they mention the Savior of men who died that we might live.

Happiness consists not in outward dress. It is a quality that comes from within. If your heart is corrupt, following fashions of the day will not save you. Painting the pump will not cure the poison in the well. A lot of dressed-up individuals are like the cinnamon tree -- the bark is worth more than the body. Christian women know that true joy comes from following those things that are abiding, permanent and enduring. Listen to this instruction! "Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel, but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price" (1 Peter 3:3,4).

Think soberly for a moment! If you married purely because of the physical appeal of your partner, that love will cool. Some day that smooth creamy skin will be wrinkled with age; the hair will turn gray and fade to white; crow's-feet will go out from the cor­ners of the eyes hastened by the worries and labors of life. Will you love and be loved then when beauty has turned to ashes? Will your love be as strong in December when the blasts of old age sear and wither as it was in May when the freshness of youth gave it glamour? That depends upon how soberly you selected your companion and how seriously you faced life together in those first few years. If you based your hopes of an enduring future upon outward charms only there is little hope for a per­manent bliss, but if you considered a mutual reverence for God, for purity of life, for the church and for eternity you can grow old graceful and say in the eventide of existence as you look at your loved one;

0, my darling, you will be
Always young and fair to me!

Think soberly! Do not surrender the freedom and liberty of Christian living for the chains and shackles of bondage to society which drives you like a taskmaster from one gay but killing pursuit to another, promising everything but giving nothing. There is more genuine happiness in walking side by side to the little Church of Christ and sitting as husband and wife, to join in the songs of praise, than there is in spending your money for tickets to the most lavish theater production in history. If you want to land safe in the airport of eternal happiness, get on the beam! Turn your minds toward t