If this labor
becomes too heavy for love, then God gives us child after child, and
each is an angel come to sanctify us; each brings us new lessons of how
to appear rightly before God, and new desires, to the end that the child
be prepared for a sacrifice that shall be holy and well-pleasing to God.
And the more you live together in this spirit, the happier you shall be
in Heaven and on earth; for, believe me, true worldly happiness and
heavenly happiness are to be found on exactly the same road. Believe me:
the dear God has brought you together to help each other gain Heaven, to
be prop and staff to each other on the narrow, toilsome way that leads
to eternal life, to level and lighten that way for each other through
love, meekness, and long-suffering--for it is rough and thorny. Now when
gloomy days come, when faults break out in one or the other, or both,
then think not of bad luck, as if that made you unhappy, but of the dear
God, who has long seen all these faults and who has brought you together
just so that one should cure the other and help him to mend his ways;
that is the purpose and the task of your marriage. And as love sent the
Saviour and led Him to the cross, so love must be active in you too;
that is the power which exceeds all others, which cures and betters.
With cursing and scolding, with threats and blows one can put down the
other, but not better him so that he can be well-pleasing to God.
Pages:
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361