Chapter 4—Obligation of Children to Aged Parents
Obligation Never Ceases
The obligation resting upon children to honor their parents is of
lifelong duration. If the parents are feeble and old, the affection and
attention of the children should be bestowed in proportion to the need
of father and mother. Nobly, decidedly, the children should shape their
course of action even if it requires self-denial, so that every thought of
anxiety and perplexity may be removed from the minds of the parents.
...
Children should be educated to love and care tenderly for father
and mother. Care for them, children, yourselves; for no other hand can
do the little acts of kindness with the acceptance that you can do them.
Improve your precious opportunity to scatter seeds of kindness.—
The
Adventist Home, 360
.
Show Kindness Even to Unjust Parents
If children think that they were treated with severity in their child-
hood, will it help them to grow in grace and in the knowledge of Christ,
will it make them reflect His image, to cherish a spirit of retaliation
and revenge against their parents, especially when they are old and
feeble? Will not the very helplessness of the parents plead for the
children’s love? Will not the necessities of the aged father and mother
call forth the noble feelings of the heart, and through the grace of
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Christ, shall not the parents be treated with kind attention and respect
by their offspring? Oh, let not the heart be made as adamant as steel
against father and mother! How can a daughter professing the name
of Christ cherish hatred against her mother, especially if that mother is
sick and old? Let kindness and love, the sweetest fruits of Christian
life, find a place in the heart of children toward their parents....
Especially dreadful is the thought of a child turning in hatred
upon a mother who has become old and feeble, upon whom has come
those infirmities of disposition attendant upon second childhood. How
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