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Mind, Character, and Personality Volume 2
and it will be hard to bring it to submit to wholesome discipline. Its
disposition has become soured; it delights in having its own way;
parental control is distasteful. These evil tendencies grow with its
growth, until in manhood supreme selfishness and a lack of self-control
place him at the mercy of the evils that run riot in our land.—
The
Health Reformer, April, 1877
. (
Temperance, 177
.)
Never Discipline in Anger—God has a tender regard for the chil-
dren. He wants them to gain victories every day. Let us all endeavor to
help the children to be overcomers. Do not let offenses come to them
from the very members of their own family. Do not permit your actions
[519]
and your words to be of a nature that your children will be provoked
to wrath. Yet they must be faithfully disciplined and corrected when
they do wrong, but never in anger.—MS 47, 1908.
A parent gives way to temper before the child and then wonders
why the child is so difficult to control. But what could he expect?
Children are quick to imitate, and the child is but putting into practice
the lessons taught him by his parents in their outbursts of anger
You may have to punish your child with the rod. This is sometimes
essential. But never, never strike him in anger. To correct him thus
is to make two wrongs in trying to cure one. Defer the punishment
till you have talked with yourself and with God. Ask yourself, Have I
submitted my will to God’s will? Am I standing where He can control
me? Ask God to forgive you for transmitting to your child a disposition
so difficult to manage. Ask Him to give you wisdom that you may deal
with your wayward child in a way that will draw him nearer to you
and to his heavenly Father.—
The Review and Herald, July 8, 1902
.
Violent Emotions Endanger Life—The giving way to violent
emotions endangers life. Many die under a burst of rage and passion.
Many educate themselves to have spasms. These they can prevent
if they will, but it requires willpower to overcome a wrong course
of action. All this must be a part of the education received in the
school, for we are God’s property. The sacred temple of the body must
be kept pure and uncontaminated, that God’s Holy Spirit may dwell
therein.—Lt 103, 1897. (HC 265.)
The Fruitage of Each Outburst of Anger—One class have come
up without self-control; they have not bridled the temper or the tongue;
and some of these claim to be Christ’s followers, but they are not.
Jesus has set them no such example.... They are unreasonable and not