Article July 21, 1934 Issue

Successful Living

[Written Especially for Young People]

BEATRICE CLAYTON

Boys and girls, at the point where school days are drawing to a close, look eagerly and questioningly toward the future. They desire many things, many rich gifts from life, but perhaps all these may be included in the one word "happiness"; for surely no one would crave any treasure which did not bring happiness. All normal young people hope to succeed in life. How may this be done?

Let us think back to the time when we were small and learning to write by copying letters, words, and sentences from examples placed before us. Sometimes we produced unrecognizable words and sentences. That was when we forgot to raise our eyes to the perfect example, and perhaps began to copy our own work or that of our neighbors. Farther on in the educational process we found ourselves acquiring skill either by imitation or through inspiration gained from careful study of examples or models; as, for instance, when the music teacher demonstrated correct rendition, or the art instructor set before us objects to be reproduced in clay or represented by drawing. And here again we found that fidelity to the example that had been set before us was the only way to successful accomplishment of the task.

So it is with thought and its effects. The writer of Proverbs said of a man, "As he thinketh in his heart, so is he." According to the example held in thought, so will daily living shape itself. Those who seem to make a lamentable failure of their lives are they who, consciously or unconsciously, have accepted an inferior example. Those who live worthily and righteously, however, are working out in their experience a high motive, a noble ideal.

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