after
a while that there will be nothing to attract the opposite. It will be
so full of sunshine, so full of beauty and love, that there will be
little or no place for their opposites.

The child's self-confidence should be buttressed, braced, and
encouraged in every possible way; not that he should be taught to
overestimate his ability and his possibilities, but the idea that he is
God's child, that he is heir to an Infinite inheritance, magnificent
possibilities, should be instilled into the very marrow of his being.

A great many boys, especially those who are naturally sensitive, shy,
and timid, are apt to suspect that they lack the ability which others
have. It is characteristic of such youths that they distrust their own
ability and are very easily discouraged or encouraged. It is a sin to
shake or destroy a child's self-confidence, to reflect upon his ability
or to suggest that he will never amount to much. These discouraging
words, like initials cut in the sapling, grow wider and wider with the
years, until they become great ugly scars in the man.

Most parents do not half realize how impressionable children are, and
how easily they may be injured or ruined by discouragement or ridicule.
Children require a great deal of appreciation, praise, and
encouragement. They live upon it. It is a great tonic to them. On
the other hand, they wither very quickly under criticism, blame, or
depreciation. Their sensitive natures can not stand it. It is the
worst kind of policy to be constantly blaming, chiding them, and
positively cruel, bordering on criminality even, to suggest to them
that they are mentally deficient or peculiar, that they are stupid and
dull, and that they will probably never amount to anything in the world.

How easy it is for a parent or teacher to ruin a child's constructive
ability, to change a naturally, positive creative mind to a negative,
non-producing one, by chilling the child's enthusiasm, by projecting
into his plastic mind the idea that he is stupid, dull, lazy, a
"blockhead" and good-for-nothing; that he will never amount to
anything; that it is foolish for him to try to be much, because he has
not the ability or physical stamina to enable him to accomplish what
many others do. Such teaching would undermine the brightest intellect.

I have known of an extremely sensitive, timid boy who had a great deal
of natural ability, but who developed very slowly, whose whole future
was ne