To be Taught from Babyhood
59
have their course for the first three years of a child’s life, and it will
be hard to bring it to submit to wholesome discipline. Its disposition
has become soured; it delights in having its own way; parental control
is distasteful. These evil tendencies grow with its growth, until, in
manhood, supreme selfishness and a lack of self-control place him at
the mercy of the evils that run riot in our land
Never should they [the children] be allowed to show their par-
ents disrespect. Self-will should never be permitted to go unrebuked.
The future well-being of the child requires kindly, loving, but firm
discipline
Obedience to Parents Leads to Obedience to God—The youth
and children who have praying parents have been greatly privileged,
for such have an opportunity to know and love God. In respecting and
rendering obedience to their parents, they may learn how to respect
and obey their heavenly Father. If they walk as children of the light,
they will be kind and courteous, loving and respectful, to their parents,
whom they have seen, and thus be better qualified to love God, whom
they have not seen. If they are faithful representatives of their parents,
practicing the truth through the help given them of God, then by
precept and example they acknowledge the ownership of God and
honor Him by a well-ordered life and godly conversation
[84]
Only the Obedient Enter Heaven—Let parents and teachers im-
press upon the minds of the children that the Lord is proving them
in this life, to see if they will render obedience to Him with love and
reverence. Those who would not be obedient to Christ here would not
obey Him in the eternal world
If parents or children are ever welcomed into the mansions above, it
will be because they have in this world learned to obey the commands
of God
[85]
6
Pacific Health Journal, April, 1890
.
7
Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, 112
.
8
The Youth&srquo;s Instructor, June 15, 1893
.
9
Counsels on Sabbath School Work, 79
.
10
Manuscript 60, 1903
.