As we go forward in establishing church schools we shall find a work to be done for the children in places where it has been thought a school could not be maintained. As far as possible, all our children should have the privilege of a Christian education. To provide this we must sometimes establish home church schools. It would be well if several families in a neighborhood would unite to employ a humble, God-fearing teacher to give to the parents that help that is needed in educating their children. This will be a great blessing to many isolated groups of Sabbathkeepers, and a plan more pleasing to the Lord than that which has been sometimes followed, of sending young children away from their homes to attend one of our larger schools.
(CT 158.1)
Our small companies of Sabbathkeepers are needed to hold up the light before their neighbors; and the children are needed in their homes, where they may be a help to their parents when the hours of study are ended. The well-ordered Christian home, where young children can have parental discipline that is after the Lord’s order, is the best place for them.
(CT 158.2)
The tender years of childhood are years of heavy responsibility for fathers and mothers. Parents have a sacred duty to perform in teaching their children to help bear the burdens of the home, to be content with plain, simple food, and neat, inexpensive dress. The requirements of the parents should always be reasonable; kindness should be expressed, not by foolish indulgence, but by wise direction. Parents are to teach their children pleasantly, without scolding or faultfinding, seeking to bind the hearts of the little ones to them by silken cords of love. Let all, fathers and mothers, teachers, elder brothers and sisters, become an educating force to strengthen every spiritual interest and to bring into the home and the school life a wholesome atmosphere, which will help the younger children to grow up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
(CT 158.3)
Bible Study in the Home
Our children are the Lord’s property; they have been bought with a price. This thought should be the mainspring of our labors for them. The most successful method of securing their salvation and of keeping them out of the way of temptation is to instruct them constantly in the word of God. And as parents become learners with their children, they will find their own growth in grace and in a knowledge of the truth more rapid. Unbelief will disappear; faith and activity will increase; assurance and confidence will deepen as they thus follow on to know the Lord. Their prayers will undergo a transformation, becoming more earnest and sincere. Christ is the head of His church, and unfailing dependence of His people; He will give the needed grace to those who seek Him for wisdom and instruction.
(CT 159.1)
God would have us consider these things in their sacred importance. It is the privilege of brothers and sisters and parents to co-operate in teaching the children how to drink the gladness of Christ’s life by learning to follow His example. To the older children in these isolated families I will say: It is not necessary that all should drop the home responsibilities to attend our boarding schools, in order to obtain a fitting for service. Remember that right in the home there is a work to do for the Master. In the home there are younger children to be instructed, and thus relieve the mother’s burdens.
(CT 159.2)
Let the elder members of the family bear in mind that this part of the Lord’s vineyard needs to be faithfully cultivated, and resolve that they will put forth their best capabilities to make home attractive and to deal patiently and wisely with the younger children. There are young persons in our homes whom the Lord has qualified to give to others the knowledge they have gained. Let these strive to keep spiritual lessons fresh in mind. And while they are teaching they can also be studying. Thus they may be learners while teaching. New ideas will come to them, and the hours of study will be a decided pleasure as well as profit.
(CT 160.1)
Missionary Agencies
I speak to fathers and mothers: You can be educators in your homes; you can be spiritual missionary agencies. Let fathers and mothers feel their need of being home missionaries, the need of keeping the atmosphere of the home free from the influence of unkind and hasty speech, the need of making the home a place where angels of God can come in and bless and give success to the efforts put forth.
(CT 160.2)
Let parents unite in providing a place for the daily instruction of their children, choosing as teacher one who is apt to teach, and who, as a consecrated servant of Christ, will increase in knowledge while imparting instruction. The teacher who has consecrated herself to the service of God will be able to do a definite work in missionary service and will instruct the children in the same lines.
(CT 160.3)
Let fathers and mothers co-operate with the teacher, laboring earnestly for the salvation of their children. If parents will realize the importance of these small educating centers, co-operating to do the work that the Lord desires to have done at this time, the plans of the enemy for our children will be largely frustrated.
(CT 161.1)
“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”Proverbs 22:6. Children are sometimes tempted to chafe under restraint; but in afterlife they will bless their parents for the faithful care and strict watchfulness that guarded and guided them in their years of inexperience.
(CT 161.2)
By hasty, unfounded criticism the influence of the faithful, self-sacrificing teacher is often well-nigh destroyed. Many parents whose children have been spoiled by indulgence leave to the teacher the unpleasant task of repairing their neglect; and then by their own course they make his task almost hopeless. Their criticism and censure of the school management encourage insubordination in the children and confirm them in wrong habits.
(CT 161.3)
If criticism or suggestion in regard to the teacher’s work becomes necessary, it should be made to him in private. If this proves ineffective, let the matter be referred to those who are responsible for the management of the school. Nothing should be said or done to weaken the children’s respect for the one upon whom their well-being in so great degree depends.—Education, 284.
(CT 161.4)
Parents should keep ever before their minds the object to be gained—the perfection of the characters of their children. Those parents who educate their children aright, weeding from their lives every unruly trait, are fitting them to become missionaries for Christ in truth, in righteousness, in holiness. He who in his childhood does service for God, adding to his “faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity” (2 Peter 1:5-7), is fitting himself to hear and to respond to the call, “Child, come up higher; enter the higher school.”
(CT 162.1)
Do you think we shall not learn anything there? We have not the slightest idea of what will then be opened before us. With Christ we shall walk beside the living waters. He will unfold to us the beauty and glory of nature. He will reveal what He is to us, and what we are to Him. Truth we cannot know now, because of finite limitations, we shall know hereafter.
(CT 162.2)
Neither the church school nor the college affords the opportunities for establishing a child’s character building upon the right foundation that are afforded in the home.
(CT 162.3)
For Further Study
The Child’s First School The Acts of the Apostles, 203-205. The Adventist Home, 15-28, 177-186, 190-199. Child Guidance, 17-28. The Desire of Ages, 511-517. The Ministry of Healing, 349-394. Messages to Young People, 329-334. Patriarchs and Prophets, 140-144, 260, 560-562, 574-580. Testimonies For The Church 1:384-405, 3532, 533; Testimonies For The Church 4:197-213; Testimonies For The Church 5:36-45, 319-331, 423, 424; Testimonies For The Church 6:93, 94; Testimonies For The Church 7:47, 48. Safeguarding the Young The Adventist Home, 401-409. Patriarchs and Prophets, 168, 169. Testimonies For The Church 1:156, 157, 216-220, 390-405, 546, 547; Testimonies For The Church 3:560-570; Testimonies For The Church 4:134-143; Testimonies For The Church 7:17, 27, 63. What Shall Our Children Read The Adventist Home, 410-418. Education, 227; Fundamentals of Christian Education, 92-94, 167-173, 381-389. Messages to Young People, 271-282, 290. Patriarchs and Prophets, 504. Testimonies For The Church 1:125, 126, 134, 135, 504; Testimonies For The Church 2:236, 410; Testimonies For The Church 4:497-499; Testimonies For The Church 5:516-520; Testimonies For The Church 7:164-166. The Parable of the Growing Seed The Adventist Home, 200-203. Teaching Lessons of Helpfulness The Adventist Home, 282-290. Child Guidance, 119-121. Testimonies For The Church 1:393-395; Testimonies For The Church 2:182, 369-371; Testimonies For The Church 4:96-98. Co-operation Between the Home and the School Child Guidance, 300-302, 318, 327. Education, 283-286. Fundamentals of Christian Education, 64-70. Home Schools Fundamentals of Christian Education, 149-161.
(CT 163)