Proper Discipline and Education of our Children
255
hypocrites. The traits of character thus cherished may become so
persistent that to lie will be as natural as to breathe. Pretense will be
taken for sincerity and reality.
Parents, never prevaricate; never tell an untruth in precept or in
example. If you want your child to be truthful, be truthful yourself.
Be straight and undeviating. Even a slight prevarication should not
be allowed. Because mothers are accustomed to prevaricate and be
untruthful, the child follows her example.
It is essential that honesty be practiced in all the details of the
mother’s life, and it is important in the training of children to teach the
youthful girls as well as boys never to prevaricate or to deceive in the
least
The Importance of Character Development
God has given parents their work, to form the characters of their
children after the divine Pattern. By His grace they can accomplish the
task; but it will require patient, painstaking effort, no less than firmness
and decision, to guide the will and restrain the passions. A field left to
itself produces only thorns and briers. He who would secure a harvest
for usefulness or beauty must first prepare the soil and sow the seed,
then dig about the young shoots, removing the weeds and softening
the earth, and the precious plants will flourish and richly repay his care
and labor.
Character building is the most important work ever entrusted to
human beings, and never before was its diligent study so important
as now. Never was any previous generation called to meet issues
so momentous; never before were young men and young women
confronted by perils so great as confront them today
Strength of character consists of two things—power of will and
power of self-control. Many youth mistake strong, uncontrolled pas-
sion for strength of character; but the truth is that he who is mastered
by his passions is a weak man. The real greatness and nobility of the
man is measured by the power of the feelings that he subdues, not by
the power of the feelings that subdue him. The strongest man is he,
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Child Guidance, 151, 152
305
Child Guidance, 169