Standards Are Being Lowered. --Christian parents are giving way to the
world-loving propensities of their children. They open the door to amusements
which from principle they once prohibited.
Even among Christian parents there has been too much sanctioning of the love
of amusements. Parents have received the world's maxim, have conformed to the
general opinion that it was necessary that the early life of children and youth
should be frittered away in idleness, in selfish amusements, and in foolish
indulgences. In this way a taste has been created for exciting pleasure, and
children and youth have trained their minds so that they delight in exciting
displays; and they have a positive dislike for the sober, useful duties of life.
They live lives more after the order of the brute creation. They have no
thoughts of God or of eternal realities, but flit like butterflies in their
season. They do not act like sensible beings whose lives are capable of
measuring with the life of God, and who are accountable to Him for every hour of
their time.
Mothers to Invent and Direct Amusements. --Instead of sending her children
from her presence, that she may not be troubled with their noise and be annoyed
with the numerous attentions they would desire, she will feel that her time
cannot be better employed than in soothing and diverting their restless, active
minds with some amusement or light, happy employment. The mother will be amply repaid for the efforts she may make and the time she may
spend to invent amusement for her children.
Young children love society. They cannot, as a general thing, enjoy
themselves alone; and the mother should feel that, in most cases, the place for
her children when they are in the house is in the room she occupies. She can
then have a general oversight of them and be prepared to set little differences
right, when appealed to by them, and correct wrong habits or the manifestation
of selfishness or passion, and can give their minds a turn in the right
direction. That which children enjoy they think mother can be pleased with, and
it is perfectly natural for them to consult mother in little matters of
perplexity. And the mother should not wound the heart of her sensitive child by
treating the matter with indifference or by refusing to be troubled with such
small matters. That which may be small to the mother is large to them. And a
word of direction or caution, at the right time, will often prove of great
value.
Do Not Deny Innocent Pleasures. --For lack of time and thought many a mother
refuses her children some innocent pleasure, while busy fingers and weary eyes
are diligently engaged on work designed only for adornment, something that, at
best, will serve only to encourage vanity and extravagance in their young
hearts. As the children approach manhood and womanhood, these lessons bear fruit
in pride and moral worthlessness. The mother grieves over her children's faults
but does not realise that the harvest she is reaping is from seed which she
herself planted.
Some mothers are not uniform in the treatment of their children. At times
they indulge them to their injury, and again they refuse some innocent gratification that would make the childish
heart very happy. In this they do not imitate Christ; He loved the children; He
comprehended their feelings and sympathized with them in their pleasures and
their trials.
How Mrs. White Restrained Her Children. --When the children will beg that
they may go to this company or join that party of amusement, say to them:
"I cannot let you go, children; sit right down here, and I will tell you
why. I am doing up work for eternity and for God. God has given you to me and
entrusted you to my care. I am standing in the place of God to you, my children;
therefore I must watch you as one who must give an account in the day of God. Do
you want your mother's name written in the books of heaven as one who failed to
do her duty to her children, as one who let the enemy come in and preoccupy the
ground that I ought to have occupied? Children, I am going to tell you which is
the right way, and then if you choose to turn away from your mother and go into
the paths of wickedness, your mother will stand clear, but you will have to
suffer for your own sins."
This is the way I did with my children, and before I would get through, they
would be weeping, and they would say, "Won't you pray for us?" Well, I
never refused to pray for them. I knelt by their side and prayed with them. Then
I have gone away and have pleaded with God until the sun was up in the heavens,
the whole night long, that the spell of the enemy might be broken, and I have
had the victory. Although it cost me a night's labour, yet I felt richly paid
when my children would hang about my neck and say, "Oh, Mother, we are so
glad that you did not let us go when we wanted to. Now we see that it would have
been wrong." Parents, this is the way you must work, as though you meant it. You must make
a business of this work if you expect to save your children in the kingdom of
God.
Problems of the Perplexing Teen Ages. --In the present state of society it is
no easy task for parents to restrain their children and instruct them according
to the Bible rule of right. Children often become impatient under restraint and
wish to have their own way and to go and come as they please. Especially from
the age of ten to eighteen they are inclined to feel that there can be no harm
in going to worldly gatherings of young associates. But the experienced
Christian parents can see danger. They are acquainted with the peculiar
temperaments of their children and know the influence of these things upon their
minds; and from a desire for their salvation, they should keep them back from
these exciting amusements.
Vigilance Is Especially Needed After Conversion. -- When the children decide
for themselves to leave the pleasures of the world and to become Christ's
disciples, what a burden is lifted from the hearts of careful, faithful parents!
Yet even then the labours of the parents must not cease. These youth have just
commenced in earnest the warfare against sin and against the evils of the
natural heart, and they need in a special sense the counsel and watch care of
their parents.
The Secret of Guarding the Children From Worldly Attractions. --How many
parents are lamenting the fact that they cannot keep their children at home,
that they have no love for home! At an early age they have a desire for the
company of strangers; and as soon as they are old enough, they break away from that which appears to them to be bondage and
unreasonable restraint and will neither heed a mother's prayers nor a father's
counsels. Investigation would generally reveal that the sin lay at the door of
the parents. They have not made home what it ought to be--attractive, pleasant,
radiant with the sunshine of kind words, pleasant looks, and true love.
The secret of saving your children lies in making your home lovely and
attractive. Indulgence in parents will not bind the children to God nor to home;
but a firm, godly influence to properly train and educate the mind would save
many children from ruin.
It is the duty of parents to watch the going out and the coming in of their
children. They should encourage them and present inducements before them which
will attract them at home and lead them to see that their parents are interested
for them. They should make home pleasant and cheerful.