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Testimonies for the Church Volume 1
Children who are Christians will prefer the love and approbation
of their God-fearing parents above every earthly blessing. They will
love and honor their parents. It should be one of the principal studies
of their lives, how to make their parents happy. In this rebellious
age, children who have not received right instruction and discipline
have but little sense of their obligations to their parents. It is often the
case that the more their parents do for them, the more ungrateful they
are, and the less they respect them. Children who have been petted
and waited upon, always expect it; and if their expectations are not
met, they are disappointed and discouraged. This same disposition
will be seen through their whole lives; they will be helpless, leaning
upon others for aid, expecting others to favor them and yield to them.
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And if they are opposed, even after they have grown to manhood and
womanhood, they think themselves abused; and thus they worry their
way through the world, hardly able to bear their own weight, often
murmuring and fretting because everything does not suit them.
Mistaken parents are teaching their children lessons which will
prove ruinous to them, and are also planting thorns for their own feet.
They think that by gratifying the wishes of their children, and letting
them follow their own inclinations, they can gain their love. What an
error! Children thus indulged grow up unrestrained in their desires,
unyielding in their dispositions, selfish, exacting, and overbearing,
a curse to themselves and to all around them. To a great extent,
parents hold in their own hands the future happiness of their children.
Upon them rests the important work of forming the character of these
children. The instructions given in childhood will follow them all
through life. Parents sow the seed which will spring up and bear
fruit either for good or evil. They can fit their sons and daughters for
happiness or for misery.
Children should be taught very young to be useful, to help them-
selves, and to help others. Many daughters of this age can, without
remorse of conscience, see their mothers toiling, cooking, washing,
or ironing, while they sit in the parlor and read stories, knit edging,
crochet, or embroider. Their hearts are as unfeeling as a stone. But
where does this wrong originate? Who are the ones usually most to
blame in this matter? The poor, deceived parents. They overlook the
future good of their children, and in their mistaken fondness, let them
sit in idleness, or do that which is of but little account, which requires