The Farmville herald. (Farmville, Va.) 1957-current, 1957-06-14

that does not sue
coed. fails be- Dr. Foreman
cause these handicaps strain it
too much
Tensions y
A favorite modern word for
these stresses and strains within
a home is tensions. The word
is new but the thing is old. Ten
sion is what makes the teen-ager
scream. and her mother feels like
screaming, II can't stand this
another minute.i Tensions are
what make meal-times regular bat
fairgrounds, what give mothers
nervous prostration and fathers
peptic ulcers before their time,
what may make children remem-
Der their childhood with a kind Of
Shudder Tensions are what keep
juvenile delinquents from going
home, tensions may even be- the
beginning Of lost minds. Now the
thing is old. as was just said.
In the home Of Jacob. who was a
God-fearing man. there was plenty
Of it. There was tension between
him and his wives, between the
wfves themselves, between some
wives and some sons, between
the sons. between him and his
sons The family, SO to speak. was
pulled every which way. and &C
tually at last broke up.
What Can't Be Helped
Some tensions cannot be helped
They are in the nature Of things.
In a home there are persons Of
different ages, sexes and tempera-
ments. This cannot be avoided.
Yet the battle Of the sexes"
~ages from generation to genera
sion. younger people find older
people sometimes very hard to
get along with. and vice versa. In
Jacob home He was much older
than his wives, very much older
than his sons. Men and women
in those days and times probably
differed even more sharply than
now, kept separate as they were
for much Of the lives And in
Jacobs home temperamental diff
ferences surely could hardly have
been more striking The thing to
remember is that since these
strains cannot be helped. some
thing good can be made Of them
The mans point Of view is diff
ferent from the woman's, Of
course; but it takes both Of them to
make a healthy human point of
view. Youth needs the caution and
the wisdom Of older people, older
people need the optimism and en-
thusiasm Of younger people to
keep them from whitening on the
vine. Different temperaments can
balance one another. A home can
capitalize on its very handicaps.
What Can Be Helped
Nevertheless, some strains and
stresses are just the result Of hui
man meanness, human sin. They
can be helped, they call for repent
ance and change Consider the
home of Jacob. His wives did not
get along together, but while it
was in those times legal enough, it
was foolish for a man Of his tenn
permanent to have married all
those four women, especially as
he loved only one of them. Some
OF the trouble arose from young
Joseph's l7-year-old conceit Per
haps he couldn't help his dreams
Of grandeur: but he did not need
to tell those dreams at the break
fast table And some OF the trou-
BILE lay in Jacobs playing up his
son Joseph.
Hsw to Help II
A foundation stone for harmony
in the home or anywhere else. is
harmony with God One who lives
Close 10 1OI VIII remember LNdl
Gods will is always for peace,
never for strife The soul con-
scious OF being forgiven by God
will be more ready to forgive 9TH
ers. The spirit blessed by the grace
OF God-and Gods grace comes
only to the humble-will not be
forever standing on its rights and
complaining about its wrongs. II
would be good thing for many
family all nervous with many ten
sions. to read together the thir-
teenth chapter of l Corinthians,
the great chapter on love-in prac-
tlce, and then spend a while in
silence. each one thinking: Does
this describe me? And if not, do
| not need Gods forgiveness, and
fresh start?
Biased on outlines copyrighted by tn.
Division Of Christian Education Ma
io-.l Council OF the Churches 81 Christ
n. L. s. A. Released BY Community
rrsss s<,,tee.,
The death rate from pneumonia.