Daughters of God

Women of Sharp Intellect Needed to Manage Business

Following is a portion of a letter written in February 1884 to the matron of the St. Helena Health Retreat. Mrs. White pleads with this woman to make a decided impact on the work of God, to train young women to be useful, and to use her own talents to her best ability. DG 214.3

You should not follow your own inclinations. You should be very careful to set a right example in all things. Do not be inactive. Arouse your dormant energies. Make yourself a necessity to your husband by being attentive and helpful. Be a blessing to him in everything. Take up the duties essential to be done. Study how to perform with alacrity the plain, uninteresting, homely, but most needful duties which relate to domestic life. Your inactivity has been indulged and cultivated when it should be guarded against strictly and with a determined effort. DG 214.4

My sister, your mind will bear taxing. If you take up the burdens that you should, you can be a blessing to the [St. Helena] Health Retreat. But the indulgence of your sluggish temperament is a detriment to you, physically, mentally, and spiritually. You need the quickening, converting power of God. You need to stand firmly and truly for God and the right. You need to be vitalized by the grace of Christ. Will you wake up, and put to the task your almost-paralyzed energies, seeking to do all the good in your power? You must exercise the living machinery, or else you will not be able to throw off the waste matter, and you will fall short of gaining health.... DG 214.5

Time is precious, time is golden; it should not be devoted to little, unimportant things, which serve only to gratify the taste. You can be more useful, my sister, when you cease to allow unimportant things to take your golden moments, when useful and necessary things engage your attention and your time. There are many things to be done in this world of ours, and I hope you will not neglect the thoughtful, caretaking part of your work. You might have saved the institution with which you are connected hundreds of dollars, had you put your soul into the work. Had you spoken a word here, and done some planning there, you could have been a real blessing. Had you awakened your dormant energies by exercise in the open air, and done what it was in your power to do with cheerfulness and alacrity, you could have accomplished much more than you have, and been a real blessing. DG 215.1

I hope that you will devote your mind and your wisdom to the work. See that everything is run on an economical plan. This must be done, or debts will accumulate. Women of sharp, quick intellect are needed to discern where there is waste in little things and to rectify it. You have stood at the head of the Health Retreat as matron, and it was your duty to do this. DG 215.2

Much could be saved that is now wasted for the want of a [department] head to see and plan and tell what should be done, one who will take right hold, and by precept and example do this work. Girls will not be conscientious, diligent, and economical unless a right example is given them by the one standing at the head. If the girls are not willing to be taught, if they will not do as you wish them, let them be discharged. I know that much can be saved at our boarding house, and much at the sanitarium, if thoughtfulness and painstaking effort is brought into the work.... DG 215.3

By exerting a proper influence in these lines, you may educate girls for domestic service. This will be a great blessing to them. DG 216.1

All our talents should be used; they should not be allowed to rust through inaction. All our influence should be used to the very best account. After Christ fed the multitude, He said, “Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.” This lesson may apply to spiritual things as well as temporal. Those who do not appreciate and make the best use of their spiritual blessings, gathering up every precious ray of light, will soon become indifferent and inappreciative! Blessings are not given to those who do not value them. All our physical energies, as one of God's talents, should be used to the glory of God. Our influence is to be recognized and employed as belonging to God. God calls upon all to do their best.—Letter 5, 1884. DG 216.2