When the Wish of Child Is Law—In some families the wish of the child is law. Everything he desires is given him. Everything he dislikes, he is encouraged to dislike. Indulgence is supposed to make the child happy, but it only makes him restless and discontented. Indulgence has spoiled his appetite for plain, healthful food and for the plain use of his time; self-gratification has done the work of unsettling his character for time and for eternity.—The Review and Herald, May 10, 1898. (1MCP 170.1) MC VC

Satan Seeks to Control Children’s Minds—Parents, you know something of the inducements by which Satan tries to lead your children into folly. He is working with all his powers to lead them astray. With a determination that many do not dream of he is seeking to gain control of their minds and to make the commandments of God of no effect in their lives.— Manuscript 93, 1909. (1MCP 170.2) MC VC

Parents to Bind Children to Their Hearts—Do not let your children see you with a clouded brow. If they yield to temptation, and afterward see and repent of their error, forgive them just as freely as you hope to be forgiven by your Father in heaven. Kindly instruct them and bind them to your hearts. It is a critical time for children. Influences will be thrown around them to wean them from you, which you must counteract. Teach them to make you their confidant. Let them whisper in your ear their trials and joys. By encouraging this, you will save them from many a snare that Satan has prepared for their inexperienced feet. (1MCP 170.3) MC VC

Do not treat your children only with sternness, forgetting your own childhood and forgetting that they are but children. Do not expect them to be perfect or try to make them men and women in their acts at once. By so doing you will close the door of access which you might otherwise have to them and will drive them to open a door for injurious influences, for others to poison their young minds before you awake to their danger.—Testimonies for the Church 1:387 (1863). (1MCP 170.4) MC VC