Green House Renovation Roof


 


Because the Lord says we should grow a garden and that we live in the north where it is cold most of the year, we thought it would be well to make one of the rooms with glass in the ceiling so that plants can grow all year in it.  So a portion of this room has glass roof and ceiling for insulation purpose as well as letting in the bright sunlight.


 


  


“Labor Was Appointed for Man’s Happiness

"God is a lover of the beautiful. He has given us unmistakable evidence of this in the work of His hands. He planted for our first parents a beautiful garden in Eden. Stately trees were caused to grow out of the ground, of every description, for usefulness and ornament. The beautiful flowers were formed, of rare loveliness, of every tint and hue, perfuming the air.... It was the design of God that man should find happiness in the employment of tending the things He had created, and that his wants should be met with the fruits of the trees of the garden.










To Adam was given the work of caring for the garden. The Creator knew that Adam could not be happy without employment. The beauty of the garden delighted him, but this was not enough. He must have labor to call into exercise the wonderful organs of the body. Had happiness consisted in doing nothing, man, in his state of holy innocence, would have been left unemployed. But He who created man knew what would be for his happiness; and no sooner had He created him than He gave him his appointed work. The promise of future glory, and the decree that man must toil for his daily bread, came from the same throne.


God Is Honored by a Christian Home

"Fathers and mothers who make God first in their households, who teach their children that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, glorify God before angels and before men by presenting to the world a well-ordered, well-disciplined family—a family that love and obey God instead of rebelling against Him. Christ is not a stranger in their homes; His name is a household name, revered and glorified. Angels delight in a home where God reigns supreme and the children are taught to reverence religion, the Bible, and their Creator. Such families can claim the promise, “Them that honour Me I will honour.” As from such a home the father goes forth to his daily duties, it is with a spirit softened and subdued by converse with God.


The presence of Christ alone can make men and women happy. All the common waters of life Christ can turn into the wine of heaven. The home then becomes as an Eden of bliss; the family, a beautiful symbol of the family in heaven.”


AH 27-28


 


“A Principle Used in Decorating”


“The rigid precision which we have mentioned as being a disagreeable feature of so many homes is not in accordance with the great plan of nature. God has not caused the flowers of the fields to grow in regular beds, with set borders, but He has scattered them like gems over the greensward, and they beautify the earth with their variety of form and color. The trees of the forest are not in regular order. It is restful to eye and mind to range over the scenes of nature, over forest, hill, and valley, plain and river, enjoying the endless diversity of form and color, and the beauty with which trees, shrubs, and flowers are grouped in nature’s garden, making it a picture of loveliness. Childhood, youth, and age can alike find rest and gratification there.



 
 




This law of variety can be in a measure carried out in the home. There should be a proper harmony of colors and a general fitness of things in the furnishings of a house; but it is not necessary to good taste that every article of furniture in a room should be of the same pattern in design, material, or upholstery; but, on the contrary, it is more pleasing to the eye that there should be a harmonious variety.


But whether the home be humble or elegant, its appointments costly or the reverse, there will be no happiness within its walls unless the spirit of its inmates is in harmony with the divine will. Contentment should reign within the household.


The very best part of the house, the sunniest and most inviting rooms, and the most comfortable furniture should be in a daily use by those who really live in the house. This will make home attractive to the inmates and also to that class of friends who really care for us, whom we could benefit, and by whom we could be benefited.”


 


AH 153-154


 


Tending the Garden


“The prevailing influence in the world is to suffer the youth to follow the natural turn of their own minds. And if very wild in youth, parents say they will come right after a while and, when sixteen or eighteen years of age, will reason for themselves and leave off their wrong habits and become at last useful men and women. What a mistake! For years they permit an enemy to sow the garden of the heart; they suffer wrong principles to grow, and in many cases all the labor afterward bestowed on that soil will avail nothing....


Some parents have suffered their children to form wrong habits, the marks of which may be seen all through life. Upon the parents lies this sin. These children may profess to be Christians; yet without a special work of grace upon the heart and a thorough reform in life, their past habits will be seen in all their experience, and they will exhibit just the character which their parents allowed them to form.”


AH 200


 

 


In the home church, children are to learn to pray and to trust in God. They are to learn that they are to prepare to become members of the family of heaven, and that they must, therefore, be kind and dutiful to their parents, faithfully respecting their wishes.


The father and mother should work together, in full sympathy with each other. They should make themselves companions to their children.


When children reach a suitable age, they should be provided with tools. If their work is made interesting, they will be found apt pupils in the use of tools. If the father is a carpenter, he should give his boys lessons in house-building, ever bringing into his instruction lessons from the Bible, the words of Scripture in which the Lord compares human beings to His building.


As much as possible, let the homes of our people be out of the cities, that the children may have ground to cultivate. It is well to let each have a piece of ground as his own. As you teach them how to prepare a garden, how to prepare the soil for the seed, and the importance of keeping the garden free from weeds, teach them how important it is to keep unsightly, injurious practises out of the life. Teach them to keep down wrong habits as they keep down the weeds in their gardens. It will take time to teach these lessons, but it will pay, yes, greatly pay.


God demands of parents a faithful study of His word, and a determined effort to make a success of the church in the home. The parents with their converted children—the result of their obedience to God—can carry into the church their self-denial and sacrifice and their spiritual strength.


 


PUR August 18, 1910,





The carpenter