214
Child Guidance
time a censure or reproof is on their lips which the children have not
merited. Parents, this course pursued toward your children destroys
their cheerfulness and ambition. They do your bidding, not from
love, but because they dare not do otherwise. Their heart is not in
the matter. It is a drudgery instead of a pleasure, and this often leads
them to forget to follow out all your directions, which increases your
irritation and makes it still worse for the children. The faultfinding
is repeated, their bad conduct arrayed before them in glowing colors,
until discouragement comes over them, and they are not particular
whether they please or not. A spirit of “I don’t care” seizes them, and
they seek that pleasure and enjoyment away from home, away from
their parents, which they do not find at home. They mingle with street
company and are soon as corrupt as the worst
To an Arbitrary Course of Action—The will of the parents must
be under the discipline of Christ. Molded and controlled by God’s
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pure Holy Spirit, they may establish unquestioned dominion over the
children. But if the parents are severe and exacting in their discipline,
they do a work which they themselves can never undo. By their
arbitrary course of action, they stir up a sense of injustice
To Injustice—Children are sensitive to the least injustice, and
some become discouraged under it and will neither heed the loud, angry
voice of command, nor care for threatenings of punishment. Rebellion
is too frequently established in the hearts of children through the wrong
discipline of the parents, when if a proper course had been taken, the
children would have formed good and harmonious characters. A
mother who does not have perfect control of herself is unfit to have the
management of children
To a Jerk or Blow—When the mother gives her child a jerk or
blow, do you think it enables him to see the beauty of the Christian
character? No indeed; it only tends to raise evil feelings in the heart,
and the child is not corrected at all
To Harsh, Unsympathetic Words—Christ is ready to teach the
father and the mother to be true educators. Those who learn in His
school ... will never speak in a harsh, unsympathetic tone; for words
8
Testimonies For The Church 1:384, 385
.
9
Manuscript 7, 1899
.
10
Testimonies For The Church 3:532, 533
.
11
Manuscript 45, 1911
.