Father’s Position and Responsibilities
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sacrifice. The wife and children should be encouraged to unite in this
offering and also to engage in the song of praise. Morning and evening
the father, as priest of the household, should confess to God the sins
committed by himself and his children through the day. Those sins
which have come to his knowledge and also those which are secret,
of which God’s eye alone has taken cognizance, should be confessed.
This rule of action, zealously carried out by the father when he is
present or by the mother when he is absent, will result in blessings to
the family
The father represents the divine Lawgiver in his family. He is a
laborer together with God, carrying out the gracious designs of God
and establishing in his children upright principles, enabling them to
form pure and virtuous characters, because he has preoccupied the
soul with that which will enable his children to render obedience not
only to their earthly parent but also to their heavenly Father
The father must not betray his sacred trust. He must not, on any
point, yield up his parental authority
To Walk With God—The father ... will bind his children to the
throne of God by living faith. Distrusting his own strength, he hangs
his helpless soul on Jesus and takes hold of the strength of the Most
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High. Brethren, pray at home, in your family, night and morning; pray
earnestly in your closet; and while engaged in your daily labor, lift up
the soul to God in prayer. It was thus that Enoch walked with God.
The silent, fervent prayer of the soul will rise like holy incense to the
throne of grace and will be as acceptable to God as if offered in the
sanctuary. To all who thus seek Him, Christ becomes a present help in
time of need. They will be strong in the day of trial
Maturity of Experience Called For—A father must not be as a
child, moved merely by impulse. He is bound to his family by sacred,
holy ties
What his influence will be in the home will be determined by his
knowledge of the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent.
“When I was a child,” Paul says, “I spake as a child, I understood as
5
Testimonies For The Church 2, 701
.
6
The Signs of the Times, September 10, 1894
.
7
Letter 9, 1904
.
8
Testimonies for the Church 4:616
.
9
Testimonies For The Church 1, 547
.