A Clean Face

Title of this piece is: “A Clean Face.” It is meant for those who have adorable little girls, and/or boys. (Those who have cats might like it, too.)

Cats keep their faces clean. Feed one her breakfast, and she will munch down the last morsel, smack her lips, and then lick her paws and carefully wipe them across her mouth and face until she is sure there is no trace of untidiness.

Is this face cleaning by instinct, or is it a thing a kitten learns from her mother?

Once friends gave our little Nan a kitten named Sadie. Sadie was a soft, fluffy creature with yellow and brown and gray fur, and a purring, happy disposition. She was very lovable. But about the third day we noticed that Sadie never washed her face. Soon she began to look quite unkempt.

With the greatest discretion, we asked the friends about Sadie’s mother and brothers and sisters and their face washing routine. It turned out that Sadie’s mother had lost all nine of her lives before her offspring were old enough to open their eyes, and none of the kittens knew how to lick their paws and swipe them across their faces!

Little girls and boys are much like kittens. They are soft. They are lovable. And they have to learn everything-- much of it from mothers, and it is a wise mother indeed who knows what to teach.

To help your daughter learn about how to have, not only a clean face, but also a pure body, heart and mind, try these suggestions:

Take her to Church and Sunday School, year in, year out. (Not just at Easter and Christmas and once or twice in between.)

Emphasize the Ten Commandments, God’s list of do’s and don’ts, which includes the words: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God ...” And teach the commandment which Jesus the Christ added to the Ten: “Thou shalt love they neighbor ...

As your child grows older, study with her or him the wisdom in the last chapter of King Solomon’s Proverbs. The second section is a portrait of an ideal woman, whose worth is “far above rubies.”

Finally, do not tell. Show. Mother cat does not say “Meow, meow, meow!” (Wash your face!) She licks little kitty’s face for a time and then gives kitty a chance to watch how grown-up cat face-washing is actually accomplished.

It has been years since Nan and I talked about Sadie, but recently when Nan was home she said, “Mom, I sure am glad you dragged me to Sunday School when I was a kid!”

Published February 1978. Click your browser’s “Back” button to return.