The wise hostess knows that even when she brings together the group of mature folks, and even when they are wise and witty, she must be prepared adroitly to inspire the conversation or it may flag at times.  How much more does the conversation need direction where we have the same group every day composed largely of immature persons!  When you have thought of all the portions and all the plates, have you thought of the food for the spirit?

Before suggesting methods of selection and direction, let a word of explanation be said:  food for the spirit is not confined to theology, to hymns and the Bible; it is whatever will help us to feel and think of life as an affair of the spirit.  And this must come in very simple terms, by the elementary steps, for young folks.  It will be whatever will in any way help us to live more kindly, more cheerfully, more as though this really were God’s world and all folks his family.  Whatever does this is truly religious.

Sec. 3.  METHODS

Plan for the food of the spirit as seriously at least as for the food of the body.  Learn to recognize poisons and also indigestibles.  The first are subjects of scandal, bitterness of spirit, malice, impatience, tale-bearing, unkindly criticism, and discontent.  The second are subjects too heavy for children:  your formal theology would be one of them, your judgments on some intricate subjects may be among them.  It is seldom wise to announce negative injunctions, but we can make up our own minds to avoid the conversational poisons and, when they appear, it is always easy to push them out.  Even when the unpleasant subject is so common to all and has been so impressive in the day’s experience that it threatens to become the sole, absorbing topic, we can say, “We won’t talk of it at table!  Let’s find something better.”  But we must then have ready the something better; that will be possible only by forethought.

First, save up during the day, or between the meals, the best thoughts, the cheering, kind, ideal, and amusing incidents.  Cultivate the habit of saying to yourself, “This is something for us all to enjoy tonight at the table.”

Secondly, expect the other members to bring their best.  Ask for “the best news of the day” from one and another.  Encourage them to tell of good things seen and done and of pleasant and ideal things heard and spoken.

Thirdly, use the incidents as the basis of discussion.  Let children tell what they think of moral situations.  Often they will quote the opinions of teachers and others.  Always you will secure under these circumstances the unreserved expression of what they actually think.  A free, informal conversation of this sort where opinions are kindly examined and compared is the finest kind of teaching.

Fourthly, do not forget the grace of humor.  To see the odd, whimsical, startling side of the incident or experience trains one to see the interplay of life, to catch a ray of light from all things, and to moderate our tendency to permit our tragedies to pull the heavens down.