THE EXAMPLE OF THE PARENTS.

THE EXAMPLE OF THE PARENTS.

BRINGING a thin, sick, three-months-old baby into the dispensary one day, a distracted mother begged for help. Why was her baby so sick? Why so thin? What did the baby need?

It was easy for us to see, after an examination, that the mother’s milk was not sufficient, neither was it nourishing enough, for the baby. The mother loved the baby and she had tried to feed it, but because she did not have the proper milk supply, the child had not been able to give her baby that physical nourishment which she did not have herself.

There are many children who are weak, not in body as that one was, but in character. They are not developing within themselves the qualities of love, obedience, patience, industry, and honesty. They are weak in the traits that make for good people, and the reason is that the parents do not already have within themselves the right traits of character. They cannot give to their children what they do not have.

Some parents, after having tried hard to teach their children the right way, are very bewildered to find that the children drift away from it. When these parents come to the pastor sadly telling the facts, the pastor may readily be able to see the cause. What the parents failed to understand was that the lessons they had tried to teach their children they had not learned themselves.

One of the first lessons to teach our little ones is the love of God. Yes we may read to them, tell them bible stories, send them to Sabbath school, and teach them to pray; but underneath all our teachings, underneath all our words and outward actions, there must flow a strong current of the love of God in our very own hearts. Then our children will feel it and understand it, because of the fact that we feel it and understand it.

Ask yourself the following question: “ Would I rather read my Bible than read any other book? How much time do I spend in Prayer? Do I talk to God for as much as ten minutes a day? Would I rather place a gift for my savior into the offering plate than buy a new suit or a new dress? Do I really love the worship periods I have with my children each day, or are they just something in which I feel I must engage? Do I have a deep longing for a blessing from God as I walk into the church on a Sabbath day? Or are my thoughts upon my own clothes or upon my neighbour’s apparel? Do I love truth more than anything else in the word?”

All parents want their children to obey them. We want them to come when called, and to go when we tell them to go. We want them to obey what is right. When we teach them to obey us we are laying the foundation for their obedience to God. Just as we saw how the mother could not give her baby milk she did not have, so we cannot give our children a desire to obey God that we do not have within ourselves. We may again ask ourselves a few question: “Do I pay an honest tithe? Do I break the seventh commandment with my thoughts? In little things, do I sometimes break the commandment that tells me not to steal or to bear false witness?”

We should test ourselves on other points we wish to teach our children. We wish them to be respectful to adults; yet, do they hear us as parents being rude to each other? We wish them to be calm and patient under trial and provocation; yet perhaps, they hear us grumbling and complaining about the events of the day. We expect that they shall never lose their tempers; yet, we punish them severely if they lose control of themselves.

In times of drought herdsmen may take their cattle for many miles to find grass. Sometimes they come upon a country with much stubble. Thought the cattle may seem to be satisified with this type of food, they continue to weaken and to grow thinner. The stubble cannot nourish them. Though the herdsmen feel sad to see their cattle in such a poor condition, they cannot help it, for they do not have nourishing food to give them.

Our scoldings, our warnings, our teaching through the years, will be of no more value to our children than the stubble is to the cattle, unless we live what we teach. Even as the stubble cannot nourish the cattle, so a sham, pretended goodness cannot guide our children.

“Children imitate their parents; hence great care should be taken to give them correct models. Parents who are kind and polite at home, while at the same time they are firm and decided, will see the same traits manifested in their children. If they are upright, honest, and honourable, their children will be quite likely to resemble them in these particulars. If they reverence and worship God, their children, trained in the same way, will not forget to serve Him also,” (“Child Guidance”, p. 215). “Parents, let the sunshine at love, cheerfulness, and happy contentment enter your own hearts, and let its sweet, cheering influence pervade your home.” (“Ministry of Healing”, p. 387).