Do not educate your children to think that your love for them must be expressed by indulging their pride, their extravagance, their love of display. There is no time now to invent ways of using money. Your inventive faculties are to be put to the stretch, to see how you can economize. (CG 135.1) MC VC

Christ’s Lesson in Economy—There is a lesson for us in the feeding of the five thousand, a lesson that has a special application to those times when we are placed in trying circumstances and are compelled to practice close economy. Having worked the miracle and satisfied the hunger of the multitude, Christ was careful that the food that remained should not be wasted. (CG 135.2) MC VC

He said to the disciples, “Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.” John 6:12. Though He had all the resources of heaven at His command, He would not suffer even a morsel of bread to be wasted. (CG 135.3) MC VC

Discard Nothing Useful—Nothing that can be utilized should be thrown away. This will require wisdom, and forethought, and constant care. It has been presented to me that the inability to save, in little things, is one reason why so many families suffer for lack of the necessities of life. (CG 135.4) MC VC

They Never Learned to Economize—There is much work to be done for the Master, and men who might today be occupying high positions in connection with the work of God have failed because they never learned to economize. They did not limit their wants to their incomes when they entered the work, and their spend-thrift habits proved the ruin of their usefulness in the cause. (CG 135.5) MC VC

He Toiled Daily With Patient Hands—Jesus made the lowly paths of human life sacred by His example.... His life was one of diligent industry. He, the Majesty of heaven, walked the streets, clad in the simple garb of the common laborer. He toiled up and down the mountain steeps, going to and from His humble work. Angels were not sent to bear Him on their pinions up the tiresome ascent, or to lend their strength in performing His lowly task. Yet when He went forth to contribute to the support of the family by His daily toil, He possessed the same power as when He wrought the miracle of feeding the five thousand hungry souls on the shore of Galilee. (CG 346.1) MC VC

But He did not employ His divine power to lessen His burdens or lighten His toil. He had taken upon Himself the form of humanity with all its attendant ills, and He flinched not from its severest trials. He lived in a peasant’s home, He was clothed in coarse garments, He mingled with the lowly, He toiled daily with patient hands. His example shows us that it is man’s duty to be industrious, that labor is honorable. (CG 346.2) MC VC

For a long time Jesus dwelt at Nazareth, unhonored or unknown, that He might teach men how to live near God while discharging the humble duties of life. It was a mystery to angels that Christ, the Majesty of heaven, should condescend, not only to take upon Himself humanity, but to assume its heaviest burdens and most humiliating offices. This He did in order to become like one of us, that He might be acquainted with the toil, the sorrows, and fatigue of the children of men. (CG 346.3) MC VC

Awaken Ambition for Useful Accomplishments—In the children and youth an ambition should be awakened to take their exercise in doing something that will be beneficial to themselves and helpful to others. The exercise that develops mind and character, that teaches the hands to be useful, that trains the youth to bear their share of life’s burdens, is that which gives physical strength and quickens every faculty. And there is a reward in virtuous industry, in the cultivation of the habit of living to do good. (CG 346.4) MC VC