He has not bid us to move forward and leave them. He has not traveled so hastily as to leave us with our children behind. Oh, no, but he has evened the path to life, even for children. And parents are required in his name to lead them along the narrow way. God has proportioned a way and a path according to the strength and capacity of children.
(4bSG 132.1)
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June 6, 1863, I was shown some of the dangers of the young. Satan is controlling the minds of youth, and leading their inexperienced feet astray. The youth are ignorant of his devices, and parents should be awake, and in these perilous times work with perseverance and industry, to shut out the first approach of the foe. They should instruct their children when they go out and when they come in, when they rise up, and when they sit down. It should be line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little.
(4bSG 132.2)
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The mother’s work commences with the infant. She should subdue the will and temper of the child, and bring its disposition into subjection. Learn it to obey. As the child grows older, relax not the hand. Every mother should take time to reason with the child, to correct its errors, and patiently teach it the right way. Christian parents should know that they are instructing and fitting their children to become children of God. The whole religious experience of the children is influenced by the instructions given, and character formed, in childhood. If the child’s will is not subdued and made to yield in childhood to the will of the parents, then what a task! What a severe struggle! What a conflict, to yield that will which never was subdued, to the requirements of God! Parents who neglect this important work, commit a great error, and sin against their poor children, and against God. Children, while under strict discipline, will at times have dissatisfied feelings. They will feel impatient under restraint, and will wish to have their own will, and go and come as they please. And they will often feel, from the ages of ten to eighteen, that there would be no harm in going to picnics and other gatherings of young associates; yet their experienced 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 in reference to their salvation, keep them back from these exciting amusements.
(4bSG 132.3)
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