Mother’s First Duty Is To Train Children
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judgment the influence of her prayers upon the life of her children. If
she is connected by faith with the Son of God, the mother’s tender hand
may hold back her son from the power of temptation, may restrain
her daughter from indulging in sin. When passion is warring for
the mastery, the power of love, the restraining, earnest, determined
influence of the mother, may balance the soul on the side of right
When Visitors Interrupt—You should take time to talk and pray
with your little ones, and you should allow nothing to interrupt that
season of communion with God and with your children. You can say
to your visitors, “God has given me a work to do, and I have no time
for gossiping.” You should feel that you have a work to do for time
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and for eternity. You owe your first duty to your children
Before visitors, before every other consideration, your children
should come first.... The labor due your child during its early years
will admit of no neglect. There is no time in its life when the rule
should be forgotten
Do not send them out-of-doors that you may entertain your visitors,
but teach them to be quiet and respectful in the presence of visitors
Mothers to Be Models of Goodness and Nobility—Mothers, be
careful of your precious moments. Remember that your children are
passing forward where they may be beyond your educating and train-
ing. You may be to them the very model of all that is good and pure
and noble. Identify your interest with theirs
If you fail in everything else, be thorough, be efficient, here. If
your children come forth from the home training pure and virtuous, if
they fill the least and lowest place in God’s great plan of good for the
world, your life can never be called a failure and can never be reviewed
with remorse
Infant children are a mirror for the mother in which she may see
reflected her own habits and deportment. How careful, then, should
be her language and behavior in the presence of these little learners!
8
The Signs of the Times, March 16, 1891
.
9
The Signs of the Times, July 22, 1889
.
10
Counsels to Teachers, Parents, and Students, 129
.
11
The Signs of the Times, August 23, 1899
.
12
The Review and Herald, September 15, 1891
.
13
Testimonies For The Church 5, 44
.