Father’s Position and Responsibilities
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yield, to lose patience and self-control, to be hard and denunciatory,
to find fault and accuse—this is the time for you to send to heaven
the prayer, “Help me, O God, to resist temptation, to put all bitterness
and wrath and evilspeaking out of my heart. Give me Thy meekness,
Thy lowliness, Thy long-suffering, and Thy love. Leave me not to
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dishonor my Redeemer, to misinterpret the words and motives of my
wife, my children, and my brethren and sisters in the faith. Help me
that I may be kind, pitiful, tenderhearted, forgiving. Help me to be a
real house-band in my home and to represent the character of Christ
to others.
Exercise Authority With Humility—It is no evidence of manli-
ness in the husband for him to dwell constantly upon his position as
head of the family. It does not increase respect for him to hear him
quoting Scripture to sustain his claims to authority. It will not make
him more manly to require his wife, the mother of his children, to act
upon his plans as if they were infallible. The Lord has constituted the
husband the head of the wife to be her protector; he is the house-band
of the family, binding the members together, even as Christ is the head
of the church and the Saviour of the mystical body. Let every husband
who claims to love God carefully study the requirements of God in his
position. Christ’s authority is exercised in wisdom, in all kindness and
gentleness; so let the husband exercise his power and imitate the great
Head of the church
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12
Letter 105, 1893
.
13
Letter 18
b, 1891.