God Has a Work for You to Do
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and my means.” Parents, your children should be your helping hand,
increasing your power and ability to work for the Master. Children
are the younger members of the Lord’s family. They should be led
to consecrate themselves to God, whose they are by creation and by
redemption. They should be taught that all their powers of body, mind,
and soul are His. They should be trained to help in various lines of
unselfish service. Do not allow your children to be hindrances. With
you the children should share spiritual as well as physical burdens. By
helping others they increase their own happiness and usefulness
Our work for Christ is to begin with the family in the home. The
education of the youth should be of a different order from that which
has been given in the past. Their welfare demands far more labor than
has been given them. There is no missionary field more important
than this. By precept and example parents are to teach their children to
labor for the unconverted. The children should be so educated that they
will sympathize with the aged and afflicted and will seek to alleviate
the sufferings of the poor and distressed. They should be taught to be
diligent in missionary work; and from their earliest years self-denial
and sacrifice for the good of others and the advancement of Christ’s
cause should be inculcated, that they may be laborers together with
God
Witnessing by Moving Into New Localities
It is not the purpose of God that His people should colonize or
settle together in large communities. The disciples of Christ are His
representatives upon the earth, and God designs that they shall be
scattered all over the country, in the towns, cities, and villages, as
lights amidst the darkness of the world. They are to be missionaries
for God, by their faith and works testifying to the near approach of the
coming Saviour.
The lay members of our churches can accomplish a work which,
as yet, they have scarcely begun. None should move into new places
merely for the sake of worldly advantage; but where there is an opening
to obtain a livelihood, let families that are well grounded in the truth
enter, one or two families in a place, to work as missionaries. They
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Testimonies for the Church 7:63
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Testimonies for the Church 6:429