If I Were A Young Parent
Today’s young parents may be inclined to think that those of us whose children were babies four decades ago cannot understand the problems that must be faced by this present generation. Certainly it would be unrealistic to suggest that there are not differences in the degree of difficulty. I think none of us who are older envy the young parents today and most of us feel a great sense of anxiety and sympathy regarding the problems that prevail in the permissive society today. Yet there are indeed some very real principles that never change. From generation to generation they are the same.
Let me tell you just a few things, I would try to be and do if I were a young parent today:
• I would try to make our home a place of peace and security for my children. Our home life together should cause them to know that I want to be at home. I want them to be at home and I want home to be a happy contrast to the vicious world of sin outside.
• I would try to have one parent at home all the time when the children are there and two parents there as much as possible. A house without a parent in it is not a good home for children, and a house where the children see only one parent at a time for five days and nights a week is far from the best home for children.
• I would try to accept no employment that would prevent me from having a close association with my children. It would be better to live in a humble cottage and be a real parent than to live in a beautiful mansion and fail my family.
• I would try to provide the best possible associations for my children. I would teach them to choose wisely among the children at school and in the neighborhood. I would try to have them be with other children from the families in the church. I would even try to have them know such children from other congregations and have the opportunity to participate in recreation with them. And I would especially guide them to choose educational opportunities that would help and not hinder their moral and spiritual development.
• I would try to train them so that I never had to require them to attend services of the church. They would go because they wanted to do so. And I would remember that it is easier to get them to willingly attend all the services of the church than it is to get them to go once a week! I would try to train them to so behave in church services that both parents and children could be happy there. This means that I would not allow other mothers and grandmothers nor other children or teenagers to play with my babies before services. Everyone should be able to see that such activity only stirs up the baby’s spirits and produces trouble for the mother during services. You see, if they play with the baby before services, how is the baby to know when the playing should end?
• I would try to take my religion home with me. In other words, I would try hard to demonstrate the same character at home that I do at church services.
All of the items I have mentioned in this article will not constitute me a good and successful parent, but I believe these will help. And if I do my part, God will give me wisdom to be and to do what he wants. I pray for young parents. May God bless you and yours abundantly.
Truth
Magazine Vol. XLV: 10 p7
May 17,
2001