Testimony Treasures, Volume 1 - Ellen G. White

see that their parents are interested for them. They should make home
pleasant and cheerful.
Fathers and mothers, speak kindly to your children; remember how
sensitive you are, how little you can bear to be blamed; reflect, and know
that your children are like you. That which you cannot bear, do not lay upon
them. If you cannot bear censure and blame, neither can your children, who
are weaker than you and cannot endure as much. Let your pleasant, cheerful
words ever be like sunbeams in your family. The fruits of self-control,
thoughtfulness, and painstaking on your part will be a hundredfold.
Parents have no right to bring a gloomy cloud over the happiness of their
children by faultfinding or severe censure for trifling mistakes. Actual wrong
and sin should be made to appear just as sinful as it is, and a firm, decided
course should be pursued to prevent its recurrence. Children should be
impressed with a sense of their wrongs, yet they should not be left in a
hopeless state of mind, but with a degree of courage that they can improve
and gain your confidence and approval.
Too Much Leniency
Some parents mistake in giving their children too much liberty. They
sometimes have so much confidence in them that they do not see their faults.
It is wrong to allow children, at some expense, to visit at a distance,
unaccompanied by their parents or guardians. It has a wrong influence upon
the children. They come to feel that they are of considerable consequence
and that certain privileges belong to them, and if these are not granted, they
think themselves abused. They refer to children who go and come, and have
many privileges, while they have so few.
And the mother, fearing that her children will think her unjust, gratifies
their wishes, which in the end proves a great injury to them. Young visitors,
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