Chapter 19—Parental Influences
Controlled by Divine Principles—There rests upon parents the
most solemn obligation to train their children in the fear and love of
God. In the home the purest morals are to be preserved. Strict obedi-
ence to Bible requirements is to be taught. The teachings of the Word
of God are to control mind and heart of the homelife may demonstrate
the power of the grace of God. Each member of the family is to be
“polished after the similitude of a palace” (
Psalm 144:12
) by the di-
vine principles and precepts.—
The Review and Herald, November 10,
1904
.
Parents Need to Understand Children—Parents should not for-
get their childhood years, how much they yearned for sympathy and
love and how unhappy they felt when censured and fretfully chided.
They should be young again in their feelings and bring their minds
down to understand the wants of their children. Yet with firmness,
mixed with love, they should require obedience from their children.
The parents’ word should be implicitly obeyed.—
Testimonies for the
Church 1:388
(1863).
[164]
God Has Appointed a Path—Angels of God are watching the
children with the deepest interest to see what characters they develop.
If Christ dealt with us as we often deal with one another and with our
children, we would stumble and fall through utter discouragement.
I saw that Jesus knows our infirmities and has Himself shared our
experience in all things but in sin; therefore He has prepared for us a
path suited to our strength and capacity, and like Jacob, has marched
softly and in evenness with the children as they were able to endure,
that He might entertain us by the comfort of His company and be to
us perpetual guide. He does not despise, neglect, or leave behind the
children of the flock. He has not bidden us move forward and leave
them. He has not traveled so hastily as to leave us with our children
behind. Oh, no; but He has evened the path to life, even for children.
And parents are required in His name to lead them along the narrow
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