The Most Precious Earthly Treasure

The Most Precious Earthly Treasure   

Far away there in sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them and try to follow where they lead.

                                                                                                     Louisa May Alcott

A British television series aired earlier this year. It is a period drama with episodes about an aristocratic family trying to hold onto their ancestral estate. The opening scene brings news of the sinking of the Titanic and the drowning of a daughter’s suitor. With no male heir in the family the daughters must marry advantageously.

The house and scenery are luxurious; so are the Edwardian gowns and hairstyles of the females. The father, the “Lord of the Manor,” is kind, generous, affectionate, fair, patient, stands firm in his decisions and yet is not lacking in sensitivity. I like him. I can use none of these adjectives to describe his coming-of-age daughters. Their self-absorption, lack of restraint and failure to feel even a little remorse for the injuries they cause to themselves and to the family leaves me speechless. All the while they stand with poise and decorum, beautifully arrayed - miserable perhaps - yet without the slightest nudge of conscious or a change-of-heart.

Seeking to immerse myself in a kinder world I opened our copy of Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott. The girls in this story are refreshingly conscientious. They struggle with their natures. The first lines of the story begin with exclamations of complaint among the March sisters: Jo, Meg, Amy, Beth. Their new poorer circumstances, since their father went away to serve in the Civil War, require them to work longer hours and in ways they hadn’t before. I can’t help but chuckle over their ever-so-emphatic girlish grumbling because I know what’s coming. On the next few pages a nudge of conviction sets the girls upon nobler ideas. With the little Christmas money they have saved, each turns from thinking of the special (and well deserved) present they wish to buy for themselves, to a gift for their mother. “Glad to find you so merry, my girls,” said a cheery voice at the door. Marmee is home. 

“Character Building” is a chapter of instruction in my revised edition of Beautiful Girlhood. It shines a light upon what had disturbed me in the television series and also what refreshes me about Little Women. I share highlights from Beautiful Girlhood (in lavender) following it with excerpts from Little Women (in blue). The ideas are such a close match that it leads me to believe that they were once prevalent in the minds of the Christian readers of our great-grandmothers' day.  

The most precious earthy treasure a girl can have is good character.

 Character is not given to us; we build it ourselves. Others may furnish the material, may set before us the right standards and ideals, may give us reproof or correction, may guide our actions and mold our thoughts. But we build our own character. It is we who absorb good influence about us, adopt ideals, reach for standards, and make ourselves what we are.

 Youth is building time.

 Sometimes I have wondered why youth should be given the responsibility of laying the foundation of life’s character just when the heart is the most merry and the thoughts the least settled; but if the responsibility came later it would be at a time when the help of parents and teachers is not be had.

 A pattern is needed.

  . . No character is built right and true if the builder has not in her mind a picture of the woman she wants to be. And the pattern for good character must be chose carefully.

 She who has an ideal character is first of all pure and true, then earnest and sincere, patient and gentle, and more ready to serve than to be served.

 Many things that are fun end in wrong . . . we dare not allow ourselves to be continually guided by what others do. Christ is our Perfect Pattern, and only those who form their lives after Him are building the best character.

In chapter eight of Little Women Amy falls through the ice. This dangerous incident is alarming. Jo trembles. Then she realizes how sorry she is for her bad temper toward her younger sister Amy. Feeling terribly unsettled in her soul she asks her patient mother, “Tell me how you do it . . .” Marmee starts by confessing her own struggles with learning patience. While a young mother Jo’s father had been a help to her. She says,

 “. . . [He] showed me that I must try to practice all the virtues I would have my little girls possess, for I was their example. It was easier to try for your sakes than for my own; a startled or surprised look for one of you, when I spoke sharply, rebuked me more than words could have done; and the love, respect, and confidence of my children was the sweetest reward I could receive for my efforts to be the woman I would have them copy.”

 “O mother, if I’m ever half as good as you, I shall be satisfied,” cried Jo, much touched.

 “I hope you will be a great deal better, dear; but you must keep watch over your bosom enemy as you father calls it, or it may sadden, if not spoil your life.”

Jo agrees to try. She understands that it is she who must build her character. On the next page the conversation ends similarly to the chapter in Beautiful Girlhood in that it points to a girl’s highest pattern.

“My child, the troubles and temptations of your life are beginning, and may be many; but you can overcome and outlive them all if you learn to feel the strength and tenderness of your Heavenly Father as you do that of your earthy one. The more you love and trust Him, the nearer you will feel to Him, and the less you will depend on human power and wisdom. His love and care never tire or change, can never be taken away from you, but may become the source of life-long peace, happiness, and strength. Believe this heartily and go to God with all your cares, and hopes, and sins, and sorrows, as freely and confidingly as you come to your mother.”

 Jo’s only answer was to hold her mother close, and, in the silence which followed, the sincerest prayer she had ever prayed left her heart without words; for in that sad, yet happy hour, she had learned not only the bitterness of remorse and despair, but the sweetness of self-denial and self-control; and led by her mother’s hand she had drawn nearer to the Friend who welcomes every child with a love stronger than that of a father, tenderer than that of any mother. 

May the excerpts and ideas from these books encourage you kindly to keep growing into the woman you aspire to be whatever your age.

Post Script

The photographs of the flowers are our roadside Queen Anne’s lace; a wildflower that I’ve always assumed is one being collected by the girl in the picture at the start of the post. I embroidered it years ago. It stood on a dresser in our daughters’ bedroom. I still remember how I enjoyed making all those French knots in wool. 

The painting is of a young woman pressing flowers in a book.

Permission was granted for the liberal use of quotations from chapter four of Beautiful Girlhood.

I am making steady progress with my reproduction sampler.  

Thank you for visiting,

Karen Andreola

Thank you, Nigel, for all the times you enter the computer language behind a post to place the colored boxes up at the request of the Lady-of-the-House.