402
Child Guidance
simple petition tell the Lord your needs and express gratitude for His
mercies. Thus you invite Jesus as a welcome guest into your home and
heart. In the family long prayers concerning remote objects are not in
place. They make the hour of prayer a weariness, when it should be
regarded as a privilege and blessing. Make the season one of interest
and joy
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More Prayer Means Less Punishment—We should pray to God
much more than we do. There is great strength and blessing in praying
together in our families, with and for our children. When my children
have done wrong, and I have talked with them kindly and then prayed
with them, I have never found it necessary after that to punish them.
Their hearts would melt in tenderness before the Holy Spirit that came
in answer to prayer
Benefits of Solitary Prayer—It was in hours of solitary prayer
that Jesus in His earth-life received wisdom and power. Let the youth
follow His example in finding at dawn and twilight a quiet season for
communion with their Father in heaven. And throughout the day let
them lift up their hearts to God. At every step of our way He says, “I
the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand; ... fear not; I will help thee.”
Isaiah 41:13
. Could our children learn these lessons in the morning of
their years, what freshness and power, what joy and sweetness, would
be brought into their lives
The Gates of Heaven Are Open to Every Mother—When Christ
bowed on the banks of Jordan after His baptism and offered up prayer
in behalf of humanity, the heavens were opened; and the Spirit of God,
like a dove of burnished gold, encircled the form of the Saviour; and
a voice came from heaven which said, “This is my beloved Son, in
whom I am well pleased.”
What significance does this have for you? It says that heaven is
open to your prayers. It says that you are accepted in the Beloved.
The gates are open for every mother who would lay her burden at
the Saviour’s feet. It says that Christ has encircled the race with His
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human arm, and with His divine arm He has grasped the throne of the
Infinite and united man with God, and earth with heaven
20
Testimonies For The Church 6:357, 358
.
21
Manuscript 47, 1908
.
22
Education, 259
.
23
The Signs of the Times, July 22, 1889
.