Christian parent

“ As the parent sustains a physical, intellectual and moral relation to the child, it is his mission to provide for its physical, mental and moral wants. "He that provideth not for his own house hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel." Natural affection will prompt to this. Children are in a state of utter helplessness. The infant is at the mercy of the parent. Instinct impels the parent to provide for its wants. ”

“ But on the other hand, in the wayward, dissolute child I discern unfaithful parents who have no respect for religion, and who take no interest in the spiritual welfare of their children. Thus the child is a living commentary upon its home and its parents. The fruits of the latter will be seen in the character of the former. The child is the moral reproduction of the parent. Hence the pious parent is rewarded in his child, and the immoral parent is cursed in his child. Whatsoever thou sowest in thy child, that shalt thou also reap. ”

“ I am happy to hear you speak with so much confidence on such an important subject, as I have long thought that the fears which Christian parents so often and so long cherish respecting the salvation of their children, are no less dishonourable to God than destructive of their own peace. ”

“ And, last of all, especially should Christian parents with joy and thankfulness receive the manifest teaching of this law,—teaching reaffirmed by our blessed Lord in the New Testament,—that God our Father offers to parental faith Himself to take in hand our children, even from the earliest beginning of their infant days, and, purifying the fountain of their life through "a circumcision made without hands," receive the little ones into covenant relation with Himself, to their eternal salvation. ”

“ Paul, our children would be unclean, but now they are holy. For the promises of God are not only to us, but to our children, even to as many as the Lord our God shall call. And thus each generation, by growing in virtue and wisdom and the knowledge of God, will help forward all the generations which follow it to fuller light and peace and safety; and each parent in trying to live like a Christian man himself, will make it easier for his children to live like Christians after him. ”

“ Let Christian parents make full proof of the family promise, use it in their prayers at the Throne of grace, cling to it as the anchor of their hope for those who are as dear to them as their own lives, and prove the sincerity of their prayers by unmeasured diligence in instruction and parental authority and influence, and a holy example. ”

“ Such, very often, is the experience of children brought up by Christian parents. It is not necessary that all should pass through agonies of soul before being saved; there are those to whom faith comes peacefully and easily through the nurture of Christian homes. ”

“ It is unquestionably the privilege of all Christian parents to count on God for their children: but it is also their bounden [95] duty—do we dislike the homely word?—to train their children for God.
Here we have the sum and substance of the whole matter—the two sides of this great question. The word of God, in every part of it, connects a man with his house. "This day is salvation come to this house." "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house" (Luke xix.; Acts xvi) . Here lies the solid basis of the privilege and responsibility of parents. ”

“ This is their right, when they act by the power of the Priesthood, to direct the child until it is of a proper age, and then hand it over to the husband and father, and into the hands of God, with such faith and such love of virtue and truth, and with such love of God and its parents, that that child can never suppose that it is out of the hand and from under the control of the parent. ”

“ What does the fifth commandment require of children?
“Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.” Ex. 20:12.
Note.—While this precept refers directly to our earthly parents, it also includes God, our Father in heaven; for in honoring them we honor Him. To the child too young to know God, the earthly parent takes the place of God. Learning to honor, respect, and obey his earthly parents is the child's first and most important lesson in learning to honor, respect, and obey God, his Heavenly Parent. ”

“ I shall simply take the teachings of Christ as my only guide, and present, as he did, "Our Father in heaven" as a kind and sympathizing parent, who loves and cares for all the children he has created more tenderly than any earthly parent can do; who ever is seeking their best good; who is pleased when they strive to do right, and grieved when they do wrong. ”

“ The parent must not make blundering, witless efforts: as this is the highest duty imposed upon him, it is also the most delicate; and he will have infinite need of faith and prayer, tact and discretion, humility, gentleness, love, and sound judgement, if he would present his child to God, and the thought of God to the soul of his child. ”

“ A son or daughter can by no other means so well come to understand the fatherhood of God as by considering the tenderness and self-sacrifice of good human parents, and hence the Saviour in His most beautiful parable (Luke xv.) uses this relationship to set forth the depth and strength of Divine love to sinful men. He who treats such love lightly, therefore, despises the love of Him who instituted the relationship of parent and child to minister to human happiness and to elevate human character. ”

“ They must answer to God for every blessing there enjoyed. If they turn a deaf ear and a cold heart to all the entreaties of their parents, and resist those saving influences which are brought to bear upon them, and as a consequence, become outcasts from society and from heaven, then let me warn them that, every prayer they heard at the family altar, every lesson given, every admonition delivered, and every holy example set them, by their pious parents, will be ingredients in that bitter cup which it will take eternity for them to exhaust! Oh, children of the Christian home! ”

“ I soon discovered how eager and how successful also she had been in her endeavours to bring her father and mother to the knowledge and experience of the truth. This is a lovely feature in the character of a young Christian. If it have pleased God, in the free dispensation of his mercy, to call the child by his grace while the parents remain still in ignorance and sin, how great is the duty incumbent on that child to do what is possible to promote the conversion of those to whom so much is owing! Happy is it when the ties of grace sanctify those of nature! ”

“ The successful training of a child, especially in the first years of its life, is due more to example than to commandment. The influence of example upon youthful minds is rarely comprehended. We are commanded to be an example in faith, purity, conversation, charity, spirit, and to be a pattern of good works. It is the parents' duty to love their children. Titus 2:4. Perhaps every parent thinks and is ready to say, “I love my child.” True love as required by the Bible comprehends more than you may have been aware. ”

“ Such parental reservation of children for filthy lucre and the pleasures of sin for a season, involves a guilt which no redeeming attribute can mitigate. If God gave his only Son to suffer and die upon the accursed tree, shall we, his professed followers, not give in turn our sons to Him, to proclaim the glad news of a purchased and offered redemption? Think of this, oh ye who profess to be the parents of a Christian home, and have with the lip had your children dedicated to God in baptism! ”

“ It is true, that, when they grow up to manhood, some of them turn away, and wander away from their parents; but, I do not think an instance can be pointed out, where a child has left his parents or parent, who has been trained according to the laws of the Gospel, with proper parental indulgence and restriction. If parents understood how to conduct themselves properly, towards their children, they would bind the affections of their children to them as firmly, speaking comparatively according to the intelligence they enjoy, as the affections of angels are bound to the Gods of eternity. ”

“ In this way she can transform this mere selfish love into the beginning of that spiritual love which Christ commended when He said, "If ye love me, keep my commandments."
The parent stands to his child for the time being, as the one supreme source of every power and blessing; the wise parent may establish between himself and the little one almost the same beautiful and solemn relationship as that which exists between the Supreme Giver of all good and His children. ”

“ Shall we not accept them in faith, as the child takes from its parent’s hand bitter medicine, the use of which it cannot see; but takes it in faith that its parent knows best, and that its parent’s purpose is only love and benevolence? ”

“ Bishop Schrembs, of Toledo, aptly advises pastors "to teach young parents that the service of God is even more glorious than that of country, for as St. Jerome says, 'Such a service establishes ties of relationship between the family and Jesus Christ Himself.'"
Nor do parents, as they sometimes fear, lose a son or daughter who enters religion. One who marries is in a certain sense lost to the parent, for the responsibilities of his new state of life so absorb his energies as to leave him but little opportunity to concern himself about his old home. ”

“ This is God's command, and He will hold every parent responsible for the religious instruction of his or her children. In such an education for God, which is the duty of the parent and the right of the child, the habit of family worship constitutes an essential part. ”

“ It is the duty of the father to preserve them, teach them, train them for this life, and prepare them for the life to come. Since the children come from God, the pious parent must consider them as a sacred trust which he does not neglect. ”

“ What instruction suggests the giving of thanks for daily food?
“In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” 1 Thess. 5:18.
Note.—As a rule, children will reflect the life and principles manifested in their parents. The reason why so many children are irreverent, irreligious, and disobedient today is because their parents are so. Like parent like child. If parents would see a different state of things, they must themselves reform. They must bring God into their homes, and make His Word their counselor and guide. ”

“ In order that this may be realized, it is first of all necessary that there be the proper surroundings. We cannot expect that parent to draw out these graces of the new life in the child, who is not himself imbued with a spirit of living faith and fervent love to Christ. ”

“ Each one must be reared to become what he must be, even more so when he is to be dressed with a difficult superiority, as the christian profession is. Moral influence from the mother to the child, as young as it may be, is extraordinary. Because of that, fervent mothers, who love their children with supernatural love, even before they talk, infuse in their spirits, according to the child's capability, the great ideas of the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. ”

“ The mother in the humblest home, with the most meager opportunities, if she has a high enough appreciation of the mission to which her child is called as a representative of the precious “faith of Jesus,” can, in him, place at the disposal of the Holy Spirit such graces of gentleness, such a beauty of holiness, such winsome kindliness, such tact and address, as shall open the way for anything which he has to bring. ”

“ And this is what God expects every parent to do in a moral sense. A child ought to get his first ideas of God from his parent, and his father’s and mother’s love ought to be the stepping-stones by which he rises to apprehend the love of his Father in heaven. This exhortation takes for granted that the parents will be possessors of this true knowledge, and will impart it to their children. III. The reason given to the young for receiving and retaining parental instruction. The coronet on the brow of the noble proclaims his place in society—sets forth his high position. ”

“ They inherit from their parents a predisposition to evil or to good; they imitate them as their example, in all things, take their word as the law of life, and follow in their footsteps as the sure path to happiness. These parents are members of the church, and, as such, have dedicated their children to the Lord at the altar of baptism, and there in the presence of God and a witnessing assembly, they vowed to bring them up in the nurture of their divine Master, and to minister in spiritual things to their souls. ”

“ Think about how illicit it is to let their children go to the school where their christian conscience is to be killed, where is to be extinguished the holy light of faith that Jesus, eternal Word of God, spread all over the world and that the holy Mother Church maintains to communicates it to all generations by the ministry of christian mothers, who are not only instruments of Good for the bodily life, but for the spiritual life of their children as well. ”

“ Mother’s religious creed and mine differ in one point, although we profess the same holy faith. To me a child of God is a child forever, just as no act of mine can make me cease to be my mother’s son. ”