Remember to build each other up, to strengthen and sustain, to keep companionship lovely and alive. Remember dignity and respect; understanding; not expecting perfection; a sense of humor and a sense of what is sacred and serious; common purposes, common convictions, and the character to stay with a bargain, to keep a covenant - in these are the making of a good and solid marriage.

Give no man sympathy because he has to work - it is his blessing that he can.

What better can parents and children give to each other than respectful, understanding attention.

May we never let the things we can't have, or don't have, or shouldn't have, spoil our enjoyment of the things we do have and can have. As we value our happiness let us not forget it. For one of the greatest lessons in life is learning to be happy without the things we cannot or should not have.

May I make two citations from the words of a discerning editorial writer, not one of my faith, but one of much faith: "If we neglect the divine . . . and give ourselves over wholly to the human," he said, "we may certainly count upon nothing but the triumph of pessimism. . . . True optimism must rest upon a calm, unshakable faith in eternal life and in the unlimited goodness of him who gives it."

Parents sometimes simply don't have enough hands and time and attention to do all that is urgent. But in all things there is a priority of importance....and one of our urgent opportunities is to respond to a child when he earnestly asks, remembering that they don't always ask, that they aren't always teachable, that they won't always listen.

He who has ceased to pray has lost a great friendship.