Section 16

The Home

Chapter 180.

Child Training

1. HOW should parents train their children?
"Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." Prov. 22:6. "And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." Eph. 6:4.

2. How diligently should parents teach children God's Word?
"These words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children." "Ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." Deut. 6:6,7; 11:19.

3. What high ideal should be placed before the young?
"Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity." 1 Tim. 4:12.

4. What duty does God require of children?
"Honor thy father and thy mother." Ex. 20:12.

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5. What is to be one of the prominent sins of the last days?
"For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy." 2 Tim. 3:2.

6. Why did God reprove Eli?
"In that day I will perform against Eli all things which I have spoken concerning his house: when I begin, I will also make an end. For I have told him that I will judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knoweth; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not." 1 Sam. 3:12,13.

7. How should the youth be taught to regard the aged?
"Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honor the face of the old man, and fear thy God: I am the Lord." Lev. 19:32.

8. What are some good fruits of proper child training?
"Correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest; yea, he shall give delight unto thy soul." Prov. 29:17.

9. What will result if correction is withheld?
"The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame." Verse 15. See Prov. 22:15.

10. Is there danger of delaying correction too long?
"Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying." Prov. 19:18. See Prov. 23:13,14.

11. Does proper correction evidence a want of parental love?
"He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes." Prov. 13:24.

NOTE.-One Christian mother writes thus concerning the importance of child training: "Children who are allowed to come up to manhood or womanhood with the will undisciplined and the passions uncontrolled, will generally in after-life pursue a course which God condemns. The neglect of parents to properly discipline their children has been a fruitful source of evil in many families. The youth have not been restrained as they should have been. Parents have neglected to follow the directions of the Word of God in this matter, and the children have taken the reins of government into their own hands. The consequence has been that they have generally succeeded in ruling their parents, instead of being under their authority. False ideas and a foolish, misdirected affection have nurtured traits which have made the children unlovely and unhappy, have embittered the lives of the parents, and have extended their baleful influence from generation to generation. Any child that is permitted to have his own way will dishonor God and bring his father and mother to shame."

12. Whom does the Lord chasten?
"For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth." Heb. 12:6.

NOTE.-From this we may learn that all child training should be done in love, and that proper child training is an evidence of true love.

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13. Against what evil should fathers guard?
"Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged." Col. 3:21.

NOTE.-Correction should never be given in anger, for anger in the parent stirs up anger in the child. It is well to pray with a child before correcting him, and frequently mild but faithful instruction, admonition and prayer are all the training necessary,- are, in fact, the best training that can be given. But in any case of perverseness, stubbornness, or willful disobedience, the correction, whatever it may be, should be persisted in until the child yields submissively to the will and wishes of the parent. It is best, generally, that correction should be done in private, as this tends to preserve the self-respect of the child, a very important element in character building. No correction nor training should be violent or abusive, or given for the purpose of breaking the will of the child, but rather to direct the will, bring it into proper subjection, and the child to a realizing sense of what is right and duty.

14. How are the present effects and future results of chastisement contrasted?
"Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby." Heb. 12:11.

15. What question must every unfaithful parent meet? "Where is the flock that was given thee, thy beautiful
flock?" Jer. 13:20.

NOTE.-Happy will those parents be who can say, "Behold, here am I and the children Thou gavest me." See Isa. 8:18. 

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THE OLDEST university was not on India's strand,
Nor in the valley of the Nile, nor on Arabia's sand;
From time's beginning it has taught and still it teaches free
Its learning mild to every child- the school of Mother's Knee.

The oldest school to teach the law, and teach it deeply, too,
Dividing what should not be done from what each one should do,
Was not in Rome nor Ispahan nor by the Euxine Sea;
But it held its sway ere history's day- the school of Mother's Knee.

The oldest seminary, where theology was taught,
Where love to God, and reverent prayer, and the Eternal Ought
Were deep impressed on youthful hearts in pure sincerity,
Came to the earth with Abel's birth- the school of Mother's Knee.

The oldest, and the newest, too, it still maintains its place,
And from its classes, ever full, it graduates the race.
Without its teaching, where would all the best of living be?
'Twas planned by heaven this earth to leaven- the school of Mother's Knee.
 

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