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The Ministry of Health and Healing
pointments and trials. Instead of calling attention to every trifling
pain or hurt, divert their minds; teach them to pass lightly over little
annoyances or discomforts. Study to suggest ways by which the
children may learn to be thoughtful of others.
But do not neglect the children. Burdened with many cares,
mothers sometimes feel that they cannot take time patiently to in-
struct their little ones and give them love and sympathy. They should
remember that if the children do not find in their parents and in
their home that which will satisfy their need for sympathy and com-
panionship, they will look to other sources, where both mind and
character may be endangered.
For lack of time and thought, many a mother refuses her children
some innocent pleasure, while her busy fingers and weary eyes are
diligently engaged in work designed only for adornment, something
that likely will serve only to encourage vanity and extravagance in
their young hearts. As the children approach manhood and woman-
hood, these lessons bear fruit in pride and moral worthlessness. The
mother grieves over her children’s faults but does not realize that the
harvest she is reaping is from seed that she herself planted.
Some mothers are not uniform in the treatment of their children.
At times they indulge them to their injury; at other times they refuse
some innocent gratification that would make the childish heart very
happy. In this they do not imitate Christ. He loved the children. He
comprehended their feelings and sympathized with them in their
pleasures and their trials.
The Father’s Responsibility
The husband and father is the head of the household. The wife
looks to him for love and sympathy, and for aid in training the
children. This is right; the children are his as well as hers, and he is
equally interested in their welfare. The children look to their father
for support and guidance. He needs to have a right conception of
life and of the influences and associations that should surround his
family. Above all, he should be controlled by the love and fear of
God and by the teaching of His Word, that he may guide the feet of
his children in the right way.