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The Home a School, July 21
Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will
not depart from it.
Proverbs 22:6
.
The home is to be a school in which children are to be trained for the
higher school. The father and mother should make the decision, “I will
behave myself wisely in a perfect way.... I will walk within my house
with a perfect heart” (
Psalm 101:2
).... Parents are the first teachers of their
children, and by the lessons that they give, they, as well as their children,
are being educated. As parents consecrate themselves, body, soul, and
spirit, to the doing of their God-given work, the Lord will teach them
precious lessons, giving them wise words to speak and helping them to
show patience and forbearance under provocation....
We need homes that are surrounded by a sanctified atmosphere. Un-
converted families are Satan’s strongest allies. The members of them work
counter to God. Some parents are harsh, denunciatory, overbearing, while
others are careless and overindulgent, letting their children follow the
course of disobedience until they do very wicked things.... Such parents
need to feel the converting power of God. By giving way to anger and by
selfish indifference they unfit their children for this world and the next....
I am writing this to the parents among us because I greatly desire
them to learn, and to teach to their children, the beautiful lessons that we
must learn on earth before we can enter heaven. In everything you do ask
yourselves, “How will this help my children to prepare for the mansions
that Christ has gone to prepare for those who love Him?” When the work
in the home school is done as it should be, families will bring into the
church such a noble unselfishness that heavenly angels will love to linger
there.... Hearts will be refined and purified, made fit for the indwelling of
the Lord Jesus.
Keep Christ before your children by singing songs to His glory, by
seeking Him in prayer, and by reading from His Word, so that He will
seem to them an ever-present Guest. Then they will love Him, and will
be brought so closely into unison with Him that they will breathe out His
Spirit. They will feel a new relationship to one another in Christ.
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