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Formation of Behavior Patterns
177
Molding the Character to Resist Temptation
—The first steps
in intemperance are usually taken in childhood or early youth. Stim-
ulating food is given to the child, and unnatural cravings are awak-
ened. These depraved appetites are pandered to as they develop.
The taste continually becomes more perverted; stronger stimulants
are craved and are indulged in, till soon the slave of appetite throws
aside all restraint. The evil commenced early in life, and could have
been prevented by the parents. We witness strenuous efforts in our
country to put down intemperance; but it is found a hard matter to
overpower and chain the strong, full-grown lion.
If half the efforts that are put forth to stay this giant evil were
directed toward enlightening parents as to their responsibility in
forming the habits and characters of their children, a thousandfold
more good might result than from the present course of combating
only the full-grown evil. The unnatural appetite for spirituous liquors
is created at home, in many cases at the very tables of those who are
most zealous to lead out in the temperance campaigns....
Parents should not lightly regard the work of training their chil-
dren. They should employ much time in careful study of the laws
which regulate our being. They should make it their first object to
learn the proper manner of dealing with their children, that they may
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secure to them sound minds in sound bodies. Too many parents are
controlled by custom, instead of sound reason and the claims of God.
Many who profess to be followers of Christ are sadly neglectful of
home duties. They do not perceive the sacred importance of the trust
which God has placed in their hands, so to mold the characters of
their children that they will have moral stamina to resist the many
temptations that ensnare the feet of youth.—
The Signs of the Times,
20 April 1882, par. 8
.
Commence With the Cradle
—If parents had done their duty
in spreading the table with wholesome food, discarding irritating
and stimulating substances, and at the same time had taught their
children self-control, and educated their characters to develop moral
power, we should not now have to handle the lion of intemperance.
After habits of indulgence have been formed, and grown with their
growth and strengthened with their strength, how hard then for those
who have not been properly trained in youth to break up their wrong
habits and learn to restrain themselves and their unnatural appetites.