MRS. C. C. L by MRS. C. C. L.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 10, 1914

MRS. C. C. L

By MRS. C. C. L.

Practical Problems of Home Makers—No. 2

MRS. C. C. L

How to Secure Obedience

I RECEIVED your good letter some time ago. I am sorry to have been so long in answering it. I hope you received the REVIEW which I sent you, and I am wondering how you get along without having the REVIEW regularly. I hope that you will be able to take it soon. I feel that we cannot afford to be without this weekly visitor in these days when events are hastening on so rapidly that it is difficult for us to keep in touch even by having the papers.

I was interested in what you wrote concerning discipline. I think there are times when the rod is the best medicine. Still, if children are properly trained from infancy, it is not necessary to use it very often, as they soon reach the years of understanding when one can talk with them and reason with them. Personally, I never knew how to govern without a little help from the rod, but the way it is usually applied seems cruel to me. I believe that discipline should begin at birth by teaching the child regularity of habit. If we pursue this course with firmness and gentleness, much of the trouble with disobedience will be avoided. The children will fall into the habit of doing things at stated times, and will thus come to act in harmony with law. As they learn to recognize law in the household, they will be the more readily recognize the divine law when they become older.