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The Adventist Home
the training of children at the present day is sadly defective. It is the
home training that is neglected. Parents, and especially mothers, do not
realize their responsibility. They have neither the patience to instruct
nor the wisdom to control the little ones entrusted to their keeping
It is too true that mothers are not standing at their post of duty,
faithful to their motherhood. God requires of us nothing that we cannot
in His strength perform, nothing that is not for our own good and the
good of our children
Mothers to Seek Divine Aid—Did mothers but realize the impor-
tance of their mission, they would be much in secret prayer, presenting
their children to Jesus, imploring His blessing upon them, and plead-
ing for wisdom to discharge aright their sacred duties. Let the mother
improve every opportunity to mold and fashion the disposition and
habits of her children. Let her watch carefully the development of
character, repressing traits that are too prominent, encouraging those
that are deficient. Let her make her own life a pure and noble example
to her precious charge.
The mother should enter upon her work with courage and energy,
relying constantly upon divine aid in all her efforts. She should never
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rest satisfied until she sees in her children a gradual elevation of char-
acter, until they have a higher object in life than merely to seek their
own pleasure
It is impossible to estimate the power of a praying mother’s influ-
ence. She acknowledges God in all her ways. She takes her children
before the throne of grace and presents them to Jesus, pleading for
His blessing upon them. The influence of those prayers is to those
children as “a wellspring of life.” These prayers, offered in faith, are
the support and strength of the Christian mother. To neglect the duty
of praying with our children is to lose one of the greatest blessings
within our reach, one of the greatest helps amid the perplexities, cares,
and burdens of our lifework
The power of a mother’s prayers cannot be too highly estimated.
She who kneels beside her son and daughter through the vicissitudes
of childhood, through the perils of youth, will never know till the
4
The Signs of the Times, March 11, 1886
.
5
The Signs of the Times, February 9, 1882
.
6
The Signs of the Times, May 25, 1882
.
7
Good Health, July, 1880
.