Counsels for the Church - Ellen G. White

every person is the architect of his own character. Every day the structure is
going up. The word of God warns us to take heed how we build, to see that
our building is founded upon the eternal Rock. The time is coming when our
work will stand revealed just as it is. Now is the time for all to cultivate the
powers which God has given them, that they may form characters for
usefulness here and for a higher life hereafter.
Every act of life, however unimportant, has its influence in forming the
character. A good character is more precious than worldly possessions, and
the work of forming it is the noblest in which men can engage.
Characters formed by circumstance are changeable and discordant--a
mass of contraries. Their possessors have no high aim or purpose in life.
They have no ennobling influence upon the characters of others. They are
purposeless and powerless.
The little span of life allotted us here should be wisely improved. God
would have His church a living, devoted, working church. But our people, as
a body, are far from this now. God calls for strong, brave souls, for active,
living Christians, who are following the true Pattern, and who will exert a
decided influence for God and the right. The Lord has committed to us, as a
sacred trust, most important and solemn truths, and we should show their
influence upon our lives and characters.
A Personal Experience in Counseling Children
Some mothers are not uniform in the treatment of their children. At
times they indulge them to their injury, and again they refuse some innocent
gratification that would make the childish heart very happy. In this they do
not imitate Christ; He loved the children; He comprehended their feelings
and sympathized with them in their pleasures and their trials.
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