Testimonies for the Church Vol 1 - Lansing SDA Church

374 Testimonies for the Church Volume 1[398]children cannot do this of themselves, but parents can do much. Byearnest prayer and living faith great victories will be gained. Someparents have not realized the responsibilities resting upon them andhave neglected the religious education of their children. In the morningthe Christian’s first thoughts should be upon God. Worldly labor andself-interest should be secondary. Children should be taught to respectand reverence the hour of prayer. Before leaving the house for labor,all the family should be called together, and the father, or the motherin the father’s absence, should plead fervently with God to keep themthrough the day. Come in humility with a heart full of tenderness andwith a sense of the temptations and dangers before yourselves andyour children; by faith bind them upon the altar, entreating for themthe care of the Lord. Ministering angels will guard children who arethus dedicated to God. It is the duty of Christian parents, morningand evening, by earnest prayer and persevering faith, to make a hedgeabout their children. They should patiently instruct them, kindly anduntiringly teach them how to live in order to please God.Impatience in the parents excites impatience in the children. Passionmanifested by the parents creates passion in the children andstirs up the evils of their nature. Some parents correct their childrenseverely in a spirit of impatience, and often in passion. Such correctionsproduce no good result. In seeking to correct one evil, theycreate two. Continual censuring and whipping hardens children andweans them from their parents. Parents should first learn to controlthemselves, then they can more successfully control their children.Every time they lose self-control, and speak and act impatiently, theysin against God. They should first reason with their children, clearlypoint out their wrongs, show them their sin, and impress upon themthat they have not only sinned against their parents, but against God.With your own heart subdued and full of pity and sorrow for yourerring children, pray with them before correcting them. Then yourcorrection will not cause your children to hate you. They will loveyou. They will see that you do not punish them because they have putyou to inconvenience, or because you wish to vent your displeasureupon them; but from a sense of duty, for their good, that they may notbe left to grow up in sin.Some parents have failed to give their children a religious educationand have also neglected their school education. Neither should have