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Mind, Character, and Personality Volume 1
them and bind them to your hearts. It is a critical time for children.
Influences will be thrown around them to wean them from you, which
you must counteract. Teach them to make you their confidant. Let
them whisper in your ear their trials and joys. By encouraging this,
you will save them from many a snare that Satan has prepared for their
inexperienced feet.
Do not treat your children only with sternness, forgetting your own
childhood and forgetting that they are but children. Do not expect
them to be perfect or try to make them men and women in their acts at
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once. By so doing you will close the door of access which you might
otherwise have to them and will drive them to open a door for injurious
influences, for others to poison their young minds before you awake
to their danger.—
Testimonies for the Church 1:387
(1863).
Strong, Even Discipline—The happiness of every child may be
secured by strong, even discipline. A child’s truest graces consist
in modesty and obedience—in attentive ears to hear the words of
direction, in willing feet and hands to walk and work in the path of
duty. And a child’s true goodness will bring its own reward, even in
this life.
The early years are the time for the training process, not only that
the child may become most serviceable and full of grace and truth in
this life, but that he may secure the place prepared in the home above
for all who are true and obedient. In our own training of children
and in the training of the children of others, we have proved that they
never love parents and guardians less for restraining them from doing
evil.—
The Review and Herald, May 10, 1898
.
Jesus Manifested a Peculiar Loveliness of Disposition—As a
child, Jesus manifested a peculiar loveliness of disposition. His willing
hands were ever ready to serve others. He manifested a patience that
nothing could disturb and a truthfulness that would never sacrifice
integrity. In principle firm as a rock, His life revealed the grace of
unselfish courtesy.
With deep earnestness the mother of Jesus watched the unfolding
of His powers and beheld the impress of perfection upon His character.
With delight she sought to encourage that bright, receptive mind.
Through the Holy Spirit she received wisdom to cooperate with the
heavenly agencies in the development of this child, who could claim
only God as His Father.—
The Desire of Ages, 68, 69
(1898).
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