It is harder for some natures to sympathise with the little ones in their play than in their grievances. To do the latter is natural to every kindly heart, but very often we find it the hardest possible task to be a child with a child. The healthy little one is not often quiet in play-time, and busy mothers, weary with very real work, are glad to confine all romps within nursery walls, or to banish the players to any place out of sight and hearing. Believe me, there is no time when a mother’s supervision is more needed than during play-time. I was brought to realise this, as I had never done before, quite lately.
A young mother, herself one of a large family, said to me, “My childhood would have been one of the happiest possible, if only my mother had been oftener with us in play-hours, but she had no idea how miserable I was then. One of my sisters, younger than I, had a passionate temper, a will of iron, and a selfish, exacting disposition combined with unusual beauty and—when she chose—with the most winsome ways imaginable. By these combined qualities she dominated the nursery, got all her own way, and generally succeeded in making everyone appear to be in the wrong but herself. My mother knew this too late to prevent my childish happiness from being spoiled, and both she and my father grieved over it. ‘Why did you not speak?’ they said. ‘We should have believed you, for you were always true.’
“The fact was, I felt powerless before the strong will of my sister, who succeeded in making me think myself of no account in comparison with herself. I was not beautiful like her, and she was constantly taunting me with what she called my ugliness. Well, I can thank God that whilst my parents still lived, things were put right with them, and no one was so near to them as I was. And, if I possessed a less share of good looks, I had enough to win the love of a true heart and keep it; so I must not complain. Only I cannot quite forget that I lost the happy childhood my parents meant me to have, for want of my dear mother’s more frequent presence during our play-time.”
When you attain to the glory of motherhood, beloved girl friends, let each of you learn to be a child with your children. You will not lose by this, and they will gain enormously.
I spoke of our four-footed friends. Look at puss with her kittens. Does she stand on her dignity at play-time? Or the mother doggie. Does she disdain a game at romps with her fat, roll-about puppies? Both these furnish examples for human mothers, and depend on it, such will learn far more of their children’s real dispositions during play-hours than at any other time.
Years ago I saw an outdoor picture which I have never forgotten. A little lamb had been born very late in the season, and, after all the rest of the flock had been removed, it remained with its mother the only occupants of a field. As soon as it was old enough, it showed all the ordinary tendencies of its kind, and began to skip and frolic about the field. But it had no playfellows, and would soon return, quiet and disheartened, to its mother’s side.
The ewe rose to the occasion. She still carried her winter coat which made active movements somewhat difficult, but in spite of this, she joined in a game at romps with her little one. Anything funnier, more ungainly than her efforts at skipping and prancing round, I never expect to see, but she persevered to the delight of her lamb, so long as the two remained in the field. She left in my memory one of the sweetest pictures of motherly sympathy I ever witnessed.
It is not possible to do more than touch on the duties as well as the glory of motherhood, for the subject is equally vast and important. In all our talks in the twilight our object has been rather to suggest future thought on matters of importance, than to exhaust the subject during a sitting. You, my dear ones, if spared to be mothers, will have to study many things, if you are to be worthy of such a sacred trust. You will need loving and sympathetic natures, great self-control and constant watchfulness over self, in order that your example may be good for the little ones to follow. You will need tender, enlightened consciences to keep Duty ever to the front, and Inclination subservient to its call. You will find that you must unlearn as well as learn many things in order that you may only teach what is best. You will have to study the parts that others fill in the environment of your children so that they may have pure companionship, friends and teachers whose influence shall be second only to your own in doing them good. You will have to plan in ways small and great for the growth, health and general well-being of their bodies, but above and beyond all you must never forget that something more precious than all the world has been entrusted to you—an immortal soul with each child.
I need not say that if you realise the vastness of this trust, you will be a prayerful mother. Very conscious of your own weakness and inability rightly to fulfil your God-given work, you will constantly seek the grace which is sufficient for you and for all: the strength which is made perfect in the weakness of His believing servants. “For the weakness of God is stronger than men.”
You will be ever prayerfully striving after greater nearness to the Source of strength, and so, taking your little ones in your arms or by the hand, you will lead them into the Presence, and as you lift up heart and voice in supplication and prayer, teach them to realise from their earliest days the Divine Fatherhood, and the saving love of God in Christ Jesus.