Love sees much..

More vintage wisdom on home and family life from J R Miller..

"Love sees much in a wife that other eyes see not. It throws a veil over her blemishes; it transfigures even her plainest features. One of the problems of her wedded life is to retain this charm for her husbands eyes as long as she lives, to appear lovely to him even when the colour has faded from her cheeks and when the music is gone out of her voice.

This is no impossibilty; it is only what is done in every true home. But it cannot be done by the arts of the dressmaker, the milliner and the hairdresser; only the arts of love can do it. The wife who would always hold in her husbands heart the place she held on her wedding day will never cease striving to be lovely. She will be as careful of her words and acts and her whole bearing toward him as she was before marriage. She will cultivate in her own life whatever is graceful. She will scrupulously avoid whatever is offensive or unwomanly. She will look well to her personal appearance; no woman can be careless in her dress, slatternly and untidy, and long keep her place on the throne of her husbands life.

She will look well to her inner life. She must have mental attractiveness. She will seek to be clothed in spiritual beauty. Her husband must see in her ever new loveliness as the years move on. As the charms of physical beauty may fade in the toils and vicissitudes of life, there must be more and more beauty of soul to shine out to replace the attractions that are lost.

It has been said that "the wife should always leave something to be revealed only to her husband, some modest charm, some secret grace, reserved solely for his delight and inspiration, like those flowers which give of their sweetness only to the hand that lovingly gathers them."

She should always care more to please him than any other person in the world. She should prize more highly a compliment from his lips than from any other human lips. Therefore she should reserve for him the sweetest charms; she should seek ever to bring to him some new surprise of loveliness; she should plan pleasures and delights for him. Instead of not caring how she looks or whether she is agreeable or not when no-one but her husband is present, she should always be at her best for him. Instead of being bright and lovely when there is company, then relapsing into languor and silence when the company is gone, she should seek always to be brightest and loveliest when only he and she sit together in the quiet of the home. Both husband and wife should ever bring their best things to each other."

JR Miller Homemaking ..The Wife's Part..ch 3 pg 16

Both husband and wife should ever bring their best things to each other! If we were determined to always do this, we couldn't help but have a beautiful home full of love and peace. It may seem an old fashioned picture painted here by J R Miller; some may say a relic of the past. But with the Holy Spirit's empowering and a will to make it happen, we can have such a beautiful relationship within our marriages today. As homekeeping wives and mothers we have a glorious opportunity to foster an environment of loveliness and beauty in our homes. If we take care to be icons of grace and tenderness to our loved ones, we bring glory to God and true happiness to our families. If we look to strengthen the sacred bond of matrimony with our husbands the Lord will honour our desires and show us the way. The private joys we keep just for our best-beloveds will have a way of spilling over and enhancing life for the whole family - like fresh lavender laid in a drawer unseen, it's fragrance will soon make it's presence known to all.

blessings..

Trish