Taking My Picture
If possible, the home should be out of the city, where the children can have ground to cultivate. Let them each have a piece of ground of their own; and as you teach them how to make a garden, how to prepare the soil for seed, and the importance of keeping all the weeds pulled out, teach them also how important it is to keep unsightly, injurious practices out of the life. Teach them to keep down wrong habits as they keep down the weeds in their gardens. The farmer plows his land and sows his seed, but he cannot make the seed grow. He must depend on God to do that which no human power can do. Under His care the germ of life breaks through the hard crust encasing it, and springs up to bear fruit. As the children are told of the work that God does for the seed, they learn the secret of growth in grace.
CT 124-125
How Are The Records Kept In Heaven?
Let children remember that day by day they are each forming a character, and that the features of this character are imprinted upon the books of heaven. God is taking pictures of His people, just as surely as an artist takes pictures of men and women. What kind of picture do you wish to produce? What kind of picture will the great Master Artist make of you in the records of heaven? We must decide this now. When death shall come, there will be no time to straighten the crooked places in the character.
To us this should be a most important matter. Every day our likeness is being taken for time and for eternity. Let each one say, “I am having my likeness taken today.” Ask yourself, “How will my words sound to the heavenly angels? Are they as apples of gold in pictures of silver, or are they like a blasting hail?”
Not only our words and actions but our thoughts make up the picture of what we are. Then let every soul be good and do good. Let the picture made of you be one of which you will not be ashamed. God help us to make our record what we would wish it to be in the heavenly record. Cg 562-563