Exemplify Christian Principles
163
The teachers in the school will do something toward educating
your children, but your example will do more than can be accom-
plished by any other means. Your conversation, the way in which you
manage your business matters, the likes and dislikes to which you give
expression, all help in molding the character. The kindly disposition,
the self-control, the self-possession, the courtesy your child sees in
you, will be daily lessons to him. Like time, this education is ever
going on, and the tendency of this everyday school should be to make
your child what he ought to be
Be careful that you are not rude to your children.... Require obedi-
ence, and do not allow yourself to speak carelessly to your children,
because your manners and your words are their lesson book. Help
them gently, tenderly over this period of their life. Let the sunshine of
your presence make sunshine in their hearts. These growing boys and
girls feel very sensitive, and by roughness you may mar their whole
life. Be careful, mothers; never scold, for that never helps
Parents to Be Patterns of Self-control—Children should be kept
as free from excitement as possible; therefore the mother must be calm
and unhurried, free from all excitement and nervous haste. This is a
school of discipline to herself as well as to the child. While teaching
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the little ones the lesson of self-denial, she is educating herself to be a
pattern to her children. While with tender interest she is working the
soil of their hearts, that she may subdue the natural sinful inclinations,
she is cultivating in her own words and in her own deportment the
graces of the Spirit
One victory gained over yourself will be of great value and encour-
agement to your children. You may stand on vantage ground, saying,
I am God’s husbandry; I am God’s building. I place myself under
His hand to be fashioned after the divine similitude, that I may be
a co-worker with God in fashioning the minds and characters of my
children so that it will be easier for them to walk in the way of the
Lord.... Fathers and mothers, when you can control yourselves, you
will gain great victories in controlling your children
5
The Review and Herald, June 27, 1899
.
6
Manuscript 127, 1898
.
7
Manuscript 43, 1900
.
8
Letter 75, 1898
.