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Child Guidance
Teach your children to study from cause to effect; show them that
if they violate the laws of their being, they must pay the penalty by
suffering disease. If in your effort you can see no special improvement,
be not discouraged; patiently instruct, line upon line, precept upon
precept, here a little and there a little.... Press on until the victory is
gained. Continue to teach your children in regard to their own bodies,
and how to take care of them. Recklessness in regard to bodily health
tends to recklessness in moral character
Healthful Living Should Be a Family Matter—Healthful living
must be made a family matter. Parents should awake to their God-given
responsibilities. Let them study the principles of health reform and
teach their children that the path of self-denial is the only path of safety.
The mass of the inhabitants of the world by their disregard of physical
law are destroying their power of self-control and unfitting themselves
to appreciate eternal realities. Willingly ignorant of their own structure,
they lead their children in the path of self-indulgence, thus preparing
the way for them to suffer the penalty of the transgression of nature’s
laws
Physical Training Should Be Given—Physical training, the de-
velopment of the body, is far more easily given than spiritual training.
The nursery, the playground, the workshop; the sowing of the seed, and
the gathering of the harvest—all these give physical training. Under
[105]
ordinarily favorable circumstances a child naturally gains healthful
vigor and a proper development of the bodily organs. Yet even in
physical lines the child should be carefully trained
Obedience to Nature’s Laws Brings Health and Happiness—
Our children should be instructed that they may be intelligent in regard
to their own physical organism. They can at an early age, by patient
instruction, be made to understand that they should be made to obey
the laws of their being if they would be free from pain and disease.
They should understand that their lives cannot be useful if they are
crippled by disease. Neither can they please God if they bring sickness
upon themselves by the disregard of nature’s laws
[106]
5
Testimonies For The Church 2:526, 537
.
6
Testimonies For The Church 6:370
.
7
Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, 108
.
8
Health Reformer, August, 1871
.