I have known a woman to keep her entire family despondent for years by her continual assertions that she was out of her sphere, misunderstood and unappreciated.

The minds of sensitive children accepted these statements and grieved over “Poor Mother’s” sad life until their own youth was embittered.  The morbid mother seized upon the sympathies of her children like a leech and sapped their young lives of joy.

The husband grew discouraged and indifferent under the continual strain, and what might have been a happy home was a desolate one, and its memory is a nightmare to the children to-day.

    Understand yourself and your Divine possibilities and you will
    cease to think you are misunderstood.

    It is not possible to misunderstand a beautiful, sunny day. 
    All nature rejoices in its loveliness.

    Give love, cheerfulness, kindness and good-will to all
    humanity, and you need not worry about being misunderstood.

    Give the best you have to each object, purpose and individual,
    and you will eventually receive the best from humanity.

CHAPTER XVII

COWARDICE AND WORRY

Cowardice is a much more prolific source of worry than most people imagine.  There are many varieties of cowardice, all tracing their ancestry back to fear.  Fear truly makes cowards of us all.  There are the physical cowards, the social cowards, the business cowards, the hang-on-to-your-job cowards, the political cowards, the moral cowards, the religious cowards, and fifty-seven, nay, a hundred and one other varieties.  Each and all of these have their own attendant demons of worry.  Every barking dog becomes a lion ready to tear one to pieces, and no bridge is strong enough to allow us to pass over in safety.  No cloud has a silver lining, and every rain-storm is sure to work injury to the crops rather than bring the needful moisture for their vivification.

What a piteous sight to see a man who dares not express his honest opinions, who must crawl instead of walk upright, in the presence of his employer, lest he lose his job.  How his cowardice worries him, meets him at every turn, torments him, lest some incautious word be repeated, lest he say or do the wrong thing.  And so long as there are cowards to employ, bully employers will exist.  Nay, the cowardice seems to call out bullying qualities.  Just as a cur will follow you with barkings and threatening growls if you run from him, and yet turn tail and run when you boldly face him, so with most men, with society, with the world—­flee from them, show your fear of them, and they will harry you, but boldly face them, they gentle down immediately, fawn upon you, lie down, or, to use an expressive slang phrase, “come and eat out of your hand.”