OUR CHILDREN by Mrs. S. Brownsberger

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 13, 1877

OUR CHILDREN.

By Mrs. S. Brownsberger

“Give me a child till his seventh year,” said a Catholic bishop, “and I care not in what circumstances he may afterward be placed, he will be a Catholic.” There is a most important truth underlying this remark. The earliest impressions of a child are the most lasting. Indeed, they last forever.

I firmly believe that the character and intellectual and moral worth of a man or woman depend more upon the influence of the mother, and the training given during the first ten years of life, than upon all other conditions and circumstances combined. The child takes most of its nature from its mother, besides speech, manners, and inclinations. We should begin with ourselves, if we would train our children properly. We should never indulge in a thought, word, or action that we would not gladly see repeated by our little ones.

Children are faithful imitators. Have you not noticed that your looks, tones, and actions are watched and faithfully copied by your child? If you are vexed and allow a frown to gather on your brow, have you not seen the same repeated on the little face that watched yours? Have you not often felt a guilty consciousness that your child was wrought up to a nervous, passionate temper by your own hasty words and actions? We should make it a part of our daily duty, for which God most surely holds us responsible, to restrain, when in the presence of our little ones, every impatient word, look, or action, if we would cultivate in them sweet dispositions. By the exercise of a rigid self-control we do half the work of training our children. A child may inherit an evil temper, or unpleasant traits of character; but if the first and every exhibition of the disposition is checked at the outset, it will die for want of nourishment. Never excuse the disposition to yourself or others by calling it a baby trick. Be assured the monster will be too large for your successful management and expulsion as soon as the child ceases to be a baby.

There is one fact of the utmost importance that should be noticed. A child should not be allowed a liberty at one time which at another time is forbidden. In the case of very young children who have not learned to reason from cause to effect, circumstances, unless of a very serious nature, should not be taken into account and allowed to modify your conduct, as would be proper in the case of older children.

For instance: If your child has torn a valuable book or paper, never having been told not to do it, make the child think it a serious matter. The voice should be low and the manner calm; for loud tones and an excited manner will distract the child’s thought from the act committed, and all the feeling he will have will be a fear of you; and his little mind will be in such a tumult that he will not know why he fears. If, on another occasion, he tears a book or paper that is of no value, do not pass it by. The child does not consider the difference between the value of the two books or papers, but simply the act. Make as serious a matter of the latter act as of the first. Again, if the child accidentally tears a book or paper, whether of value or otherwise, express displeasure that you may teach it cautiousness, and continue to impress upon its mind the fact that books and papers should never be torn.

If this plan be adopted as a constant rule of action, correct habits will be established at a very early age; two-thirds of all the trouble experienced by mothers will be avoided, and the child itself be far happier.

MRS. S. BROWNSBERGER.