Counsels on Health - Ellen G. White

every youth be educated to labor, that they may be
prepared for any emergency! Riches are indeed a
curse when their possessors let them stand in the
way of their sons and daughters’ obtaining a
knowledge of useful labor, that they may be
qualified for practical life.
Those who are not compelled to labor,
frequently do not have sufficient active exercise for
physical health. Young men, for want of having
their minds and hands employed in active labor,
acquire habits of indolence and frequently obtain
what is most to be dreaded, a street education,
lounging about stores, smoking, drinking, and
playing cards....
Poverty, in many cases, is a blessing; for it
prevents youth and children from being ruined by
inaction. The physical as well as the mental powers
should be cultivated and properly developed. The
first and constant care of parents should be to see
that their children have firm constitutions, that they
may be sound men and women. It is impossible to
attain this object without physical exercise. For
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