Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1913-04-17
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Home Maker
EDITED BY
ALICE f. TALCOTT.
self-ControI Will Master Destiny.

by Ella Wheeler Wilcox.)
Ideas often come to you that up
lift you greatly for a time. The way
to make them permanent is to take
hold of them by forming them into
words and repeating the words until
your subconscious self receives them
and begins to build with them.
For instance, a friend who had
very set opinions about right and
wrong allowed herself to get very
much wrought up when things about
her went on in a way that to her
seemed wrong. She tried to practice
self-control but never gained the
victory as she desired until one day
when the thought came TO her that
it was far more important to demon
strate self-control than it was to
have everything go on about her as
she thought it should.
"She did not want the idea to get
away from her, so she wrote it down
like this: 1T is not so important
that things go as think they should
as it is that | should be master of
them through self-control.' Then
she repeated this again and again
and held it in the silence until the
words bacame substance in her and
gave her mind firm hold so that
in the next temptation to give way
to her feelings, she easily gained the
victory You can apply this in any
kind of experience you may have" -
Unity.
If you are working among people
whose manners and habits jar upon
you, apply this rule and watch devel-
opments.
Once you control yourself you will
be surprised to find how many
things which annoy you will change
or disappear.
Just so long as you are a servant
to your own irritable nerves and
whims, you will find the world is
one succession of sharp corners
against which you bruise yourself
at every move. When you become
master of yourself the corners will
round into curves, imperceptibly but
surely.
The same rule applies in your
home.
What attitude are you taking to-
ward your own family and relatives
and friends and toward humanity?
Are you posing as martyr? Do
you wear the resigned expression of
wronged creature who must sub
nit to persecution, or sullen, re-
sentful one, or a belligerent one?
Are you thinking and brooding
over your wrongs and making your
self and others miserable in conse-
quence?
If you are doing any one of these
things you are criminal-far
worse than many convict behind
prison bars. If you are disturbing
the peace of your household, the
comfort of husband, or children, or
relatives, or friends by your temper,
your complaints or your sarcasm,
then you are murderess. 1t is a
more objectionable crime than many
committed by people who are con-
demned by Judge and jury, no mat
ter how high your standing in
church or community.
Perhaps you are a wronged, mis-
used wife, and think your troubles
have destroyed your nervous system
and that you cannot help being irri-
table and cross and saying unpleas-
ant things at times.
l tell you in reply that the most
adorable, agreeable and angelic
woman l ever knew was wronged
Wife, a woman who had suffered
every indignity possible from a mean.
brutal-natured man. Yet she made
heaven for her children and
friends in her home.
She had learned this great law of
becoming master of circumstances
through self-control
Although things about her were
not to her liking, she mall all these
things seem as trifles before her
calm self-conquest. She said to her.
self, Though my best love and my
best faith and my sweetest hopes
have been thrown into the dust,
will not let myself go down.
81 have lost respect for the man
to whom gave my life's happiness,
but l will not lose respect for my
self, and l will show the world
can create happiness even if can
not find it where I hoped it would
be, in my marital life."
Surely this was better than becom-
ing soured, aggressive, complaining
and pessimistic, and making her
presence dreaded by all her associ-
ates.
There was a great French writer
who said: 'If you have not what
y