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Testimonies for the Church Volume 1
children cannot do this of themselves, but parents can do much. By
earnest prayer and living faith great victories will be gained. Some
parents have not realized the responsibilities resting upon them and
have neglected the religious education of their children. In the morning
the Christian’s first thoughts should be upon God. Worldly labor and
self-interest should be secondary. Children should be taught to respect
and reverence the hour of prayer. Before leaving the house for labor,
all the family should be called together, and the father, or the mother
in the father’s absence, should plead fervently with God to keep them
through the day. Come in humility with a heart full of tenderness and
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with a sense of the temptations and dangers before yourselves and
your children; by faith bind them upon the altar, entreating for them
the care of the Lord. Ministering angels will guard children who are
thus dedicated to God. It is the duty of Christian parents, morning
and evening, by earnest prayer and persevering faith, to make a hedge
about their children. They should patiently instruct them, kindly and
untiringly teach them how to live in order to please God.
Impatience in the parents excites impatience in the children. Pas-
sion manifested by the parents creates passion in the children and
stirs up the evils of their nature. Some parents correct their children
severely in a spirit of impatience, and often in passion. Such cor-
rections produce no good result. In seeking to correct one evil, they
create two. Continual censuring and whipping hardens children and
weans them from their parents. Parents should first learn to control
themselves, then they can more successfully control their children.
Every time they lose self-control, and speak and act impatiently, they
sin against God. They should first reason with their children, clearly
point out their wrongs, show them their sin, and impress upon them
that they have not only sinned against their parents, but against God.
With your own heart subdued and full of pity and sorrow for your
erring children, pray with them before correcting them. Then your
correction will not cause your children to hate you. They will love
you. They will see that you do not punish them because they have put
you to inconvenience, or because you wish to vent your displeasure
upon them; but from a sense of duty, for their good, that they may not
be left to grow up in sin.
Some parents have failed to give their children a religious education
and have also neglected their school education. Neither should have