Companion With His Children
165
sports, and win their confidence. Cultivate friendship with them, espe-
cially with your sons. In this way you will be a strong influence for
good
Teach Them Lessons From Nature—Let the father seek to
lighten the mother’s task.... Let him point them to the beautiful flow-
ers, the lofty trees, in whose very leaves they can trace the work and
love of God. He should teach them that the God who made all these
things loves the beautiful and the good. Christ pointed His disciples to
the lilies of the field and the birds of the air, showing how God cares
for them and presenting this as evidence that He will care for man,
who is of higher consequence than birds or flowers. Tell the children
that however much time may be wasted in attempts at display, our
appearance can never compare, for grace and beauty, with that of the
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simplest flowers of the field. Thus their minds may be drawn from the
artificial to the natural. They may learn that God has given them all
these beautiful things to enjoy, and that He wants them to give Him
the heart’s best and holiest affections
He may take them into the garden and show them the opening buds
and the varied tints of the blooming flowers. Through such mediums
he may give them the most important lessons concerning the Creator,
by opening before them the great book of nature, where the love of
God is expressed in every tree and flower and blade of grass. He may
impress upon their minds the fact that if God cares so much for the
trees and flowers, He will care much more for the creatures formed
in His image. He may lead them early to understand that God wants
children to be lovely, not with artificial adornment, but with beauty of
character, the charms of kindness and affection, which will make their
hearts bound with joy and happiness
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9
The Ministry of Healing, 391, 392
.
10
Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, 70
.
11
The Signs of the Times, December 6, 1877
.