Chapter 4—Parental Example and Guidance
Responsible for Character—But few parents realize that their children are what their example and discipline have made them, and that they are responsible for the characters their children develop.—The Health Reformer, December, 1872.Te 180.1
There is work for mothers in helping their children to form correct habits and pure tastes. Educate the appetite; teach the children to abhor stimulants. Bring your children up to have moral stamina to resist the evil that surrounds them. Teach them that they are not to be swayed by others, that they are not to yield to strong influences, but to influence others for good.—The Ministry of Healing, 334, 335.Te 180.2
The Mother an Example—Woman is to fill a more sacred and elevated position in the family than the king upon his throne. Her great work is to make her life a living example which she would wish her children to copy.—Testimonies for the Church 3:566.Te 180.3
Temperance in All Details of Home Life—Parents should so conduct themselves that their lives will be a daily lesson of self-control and forbearance to their household.... We urge that the principles of temperance be carried into all the details of home life; that the example of parents should be a lesson of temperance.—The Signs of the Times, April 20, 1882.Te 180.4
God Will Supplement the Parents’ Endeavors—When you take up your duties as a parent, in the strength of God, with a firm determination never to relax your efforts, nor to leave your post of duty, in striving to make your children what God would have them, then God looks down upon you with approbation. He knows that you are doing the best you can, and He will increase your power. He will Himself do the part of the work that the mother or father cannot do; He will work with the wise, patient, well-directed efforts of the God-fearing mother. Parents, God does not propose to do the work that He has left for you to do in your home. You must not give up to indolence and be slothful servants, if you would have your children saved from the perils that surround them in the world.—The Review and Herald, July 10, 1888.Te 180.5