It is the duty of all children to keep in mind that their parents know
what is best. And when they refuse to gratify your wishes, you should
remember that their object is to do you good. That obedience which is
prompt and cheerful, is the only obedience which is acceptable to
them, or well-pleasing to God. A great many cases will occur in which
you will wish to do that which your parents will not approve. If you
do not, in such cases, pleasantly and readily yield to their wishes,
you are ungrateful and disobedient.

Neither is it enough that you should obey their expressed commands.
You ought to try to do every thing which you think will give them
pleasure, whether they tell you to do it or not. A good child will
seek for opportunities to make his parents happy. A little girl, for
instance, has some work to do. She knows that if she does it well and
quick, it will gratify her mother. Now, if she be a good girl; she
will not wait for her mother's orders, but will, of her own accord,
improve her time, that she may exhibit the work to her mother sooner
and more nicely done than she expected.

Perhaps her mother is sick. Her affectionate daughter will not wait
for her mother to express her wishes. She will try to anticipate
them. She will walk softly around the chamber, arranging every thing
in cheerful order. She will adjust the clothes of the bed, that her
mother may lie as comfortably as possible. And she will watch all her
mother's movements, that she may learn what things she needs before
she asks for them. Such will be the conduct of an affectionate and
obedient child. I was once called to see a poor woman who was very
sick. She was a widow, and in poverty. Her only companion and only
earthly reliance was her daughter. As I entered the humble dwelling
of this poor woman, I saw her bolstered up in the bed, with her pale
countenance emaciated with pain, and every thing about the room
proclaiming the most abject poverty. Her daughter sat sewing at the
head of the bed, watching every want of her mother, and active with
her needle. The perfect neatness of the room, told how faithful was
the daughter in the discharge of her painful and arduous duties. But
her own slender form and consumptive countenance showed that by toil
and watching she was almost worn out herself. This noble girl, by
night and by day, with unwearied attention, endeavored to alleviate
the excruciating pains of her afflicted parent. I could not look upo