52
Child Guidance
stir, the earnest effort, the cultivation of the will power, that this life
brings
Parents Who Are Too Busy—Many parents plead that they have
so much to do that they have no time to improve their minds, to educate
their children for practical life, or to teach them how they may become
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lambs of Christ’s fold
Parents must not neglect to arm their own minds against sin, to
guard against that which will not only ruin themselves, but transmit
pain and every kind of misery and evil to their offspring. By cor-
rectly educating themselves, parents are to teach their children that the
heavens do rule
Parents Should Welcome Counsel—While they sleep in godless
indifference, Satan is sowing in the hearts of their children seeds which
will spring up to bear a harvest of death. Yet often such parents resent
counsel as to their mistakes. They act as though they would like to
ask those who offer advice, What right have you to meddle with my
children? But are their children not God’s children also? How does He
regard their wicked neglect of duty? What excuse will they offer when
He asks them why they brought children into the world, and then left
them to be the sport of Satan’s temptations
Be prepared to listen to counsel from others. Do not feel that it is
no business of your brethren or sisters how you treat your children, or
how your children conduct themselves
Benefits of Meetings for Mutual Counsel [
Note: reference is
here made to group study as in camp meeting.
]—God has committed
to our hands a most sacred work, and we need to meet together to
receive instruction, that we may be fitted to perform this work....
We need to meet together and receive the divine touch that we may
understand our work in the home. Parents need to understand how
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they may send forth from the sanctuary of the home their sons and
daughters so trained and educated that they will be fitted to shine as
lights in the world
10
Letter 5, 1884
.
11
Testimonies For The Church 3:145
.
12
Letter 86, 1899
.
13
The Signs of the Times, April 3, 1901
.
14
Manuscript 27, 1911
.
15
Testimonies For The Church 6:32, 33
.