Obligation of Children to Aged Parents
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patiently, how tenderly, should children bear with such a mother!
Tender words which will not irritate the spirit should be spoken. A
true Christian will never be unkind, never under any circumstances be
neglectful of his father or mother, but will heed the command, “Honor
thy father and thy mother.” God has said, “Thou shalt rise up before
the hoary head, and honor the face of the old man.” ...
Children, let your parents, infirm and unable to care for themselves,
find their last days filled with contentment, peace, and love. For
Christ’s sake let them go down to the grave receiving from you only
words of kindness, love, mercy, and forgiveness.—
The Adventist
Home, 362, 363
.
Caring for Aged Parents Is a Privilege
The best way to educate children to respect their father and mother
is to give them the opportunity of seeing the father offering kindly at-
tentions to the mother, and the mother rendering respect and reverence
[54]
to the father. It is by beholding love in their parents, that children are
fed to obey the fifth commandment.
After children grow to years of maturity, some of them think their
duty is done in providing an abode for their parents. While giving them
food and shelter, they give them no love or sympathy. In their parents’
old age, when they long for expression of affection and sympathy,
children heartlessly deprive them of their attention. There is no time
when children should withhold respect and love from their father and
mother. While the parents live, it should be the children’s joy to honor
and respect them. They should bring all the cheerfulness and sunshine
into the life of the aged parents that they possibly can. They should
smooth their pathway to the grave. There is no better recommendation
in this world than that a child has honored his parents, no better record
in the books of heaven than that he has loved and honored father and
mother.
Let children carefully remember that at the best the aged parents
have but little joy and comfort. What can bring greater sorrow to their
hearts than manifest neglect on the part of their children? What sin can
be worse in children than to bring grief to an aged, helpless father or
mother? Those who grieve their aged parents are written in the books
of heaven as commandment breakers, as those who do not reverence