They Are Children

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Mar 8, 1906

They Are Children

Don’t expect too much of them, for it has taken you forty years, it may be, to make you what you are, with all your lessons of experience, and we dare say you are a faulty being at best. Above all, don’t expect judgment in a child or patience under trial. Sympathize with the children in their mistakes and troubles; don’t ridicule them. Remember not to measure a child’s trial by your standard. “As one whom his mother comforteth,” says the inspired writer, and beautifully does he convey to us the deep, faithful love that ought to be found in every woman’s heart, the unfailing sympathy with all her children’s griefs. Let the memories of their childhood be as bright as you can make them. Grant them every innocent pleasure in your power. It has often roused our indignation to see how carelessly their little plans were thwarted by older persons, when a very little trouble on their part would have given the child pleasure, the memory of which would last a lifetime. Lastly, don’t think a child hopeless because it betrays some very bad habits. We have known children who seem to have been born thieves and liars, so early did they display these most undesirable traits of character, yet we have lived to see them become noble men and women, and ornaments in society. We must confess they had wise, affectionate parents. Whatever else you may be compelled, by your circumstances in life, to deny your child, give it what it most values, plenty of love.—Golden Rule.