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Spiritual Gifts, Volume 4b
have lost all sense of modesty and good manners. Yet the way that
they have been instructed leads them to think it the height of gentility.
This spirit is like a contagious disease. God’s people should choose
the society for their children, and teach them to avoid the company
of these vain worldlings. Mothers should take their daughters with
them into the kitchen, and patiently educate them. The constitution
will be better for such labor. The muscles will gain tone and strength,
and their meditations will be more healthy and elevated at the close
of the day. They may be weary, but how sweet is rest after a proper
amount of labor. Sleep, nature’s sweet restorer, invigorates the weary
body, and prepares it for the next day’s duties. Do not intimate to your
children that it is no matter whether they labor or not. Teach them that
their help is needed, that their time is of value, and that you depend on
their labor.
I have been shown that much sin has resulted from idleness. Active
hands and minds do not find time to heed every temptation the Enemy
suggests; but idle hands and brains are all ready for Satan to control.
The mind, when not properly occupied, dwells upon improper things.
Parents should learn their children that idleness is sin. I was referred
to
Ezekiel 16:49
. “Behold this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom,
pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness, was in her and in
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her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hands of the poor and
needy.”
Children should feel that they are indebted to their parents, who
have watched over them in their infancy, and nursed them in sickness.
They should realize that their parents have suffered much anxiety on
their account. Especially have conscientious, godly parents felt the
deepest interest that their children should take a right course. As
they have seen faults in their children, how heavy have been their
hearts. If the children who caused those hearts to ache could see
the effect of their course, they would certainly relent. If they could
see their mother’s tears, and hear her prayers to God in their behalf,
if they could listen to her suppressed and broken sighs, their hearts
would feel, and they would speedily confess their wrongs and ask to
be forgiven. There is a work to be accomplished for old and young.
Parents should better qualify themselves to more fully discharge their
duty to their children. Some parents do not understand their children,
and are not really acquainted with them. There is often a great distance