Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 8 (1893)

Ms 91, 1893

The Mother a Teacher

1893

Previously unpublished.

A mother is a teacher either of good or of evil to her child. A mother can in no case neglect her God-given responsibilities to educate and train her child while it is a babe in her arms, bringing it up from its babyhood in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. She needs to know what is comprehended in this injunction. She should daily cultivate patience and tender love and never govern in a hasty or passionate spirit. Her love, if it is a pure and holy element, will not be that kind of love which is spasmodic. It is cruelty to her offspring to let it come up with a wicked disposition, a warped character, for this is a manifest neglect of her appointed work and sin lieth at her door. 8LtMs, Ms 91, 1893, par. 1

It is the mother’s sacred duty, in connection with her husband, if one in the faith with her, to restrain, to control the evil as fast as it manifests itself, that the sin of spoiling her child shall not lie at her door. She should admonish anyone who shall flatter or foster pride and vanity in her child, for this will surely make it unhappy and lay the foundation for traits of character which will be transmitted to her children and to future generations. She should study the Bible and pray much for divine enlightenment and guidance to educate and train the child for the present and the future immortal life. 8LtMs, Ms 91, 1893, par. 2

All willfulness and disobedience and transgression should be judiciously repressed and lessons given to correct all these evils. The mother and father should come to an understanding to be perfectly united in the work, having perfect control of the child. The daily example should be kept before the child in all the administration of punishment, that nothing is done in a passion or with severity, that you do not deny it or will to give it pain without yourself suffering with it. Love is to be the ruling element and yet firmness and decision are positively essential in order to bring the child up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Restrain willfulness, impatience, and anger; let them not be mingled with the educating and training. 8LtMs, Ms 91, 1893, par. 3

You are the lessonbook to your children. You are yourself strictly in training that you shall be a good teacher. Guard the child, that truthfulness in the smallest matters shall be preserved. Parents can, by precept and example, be exactly that which they wish their children to be. They are to be patterns for their children, as Christ is the Pattern for all that live on the face of the earth. Love and faith will accomplish much, and never forget that childhood indulgence is a very great mistake in parents. Many youth are so petted, so indulged in their love of eating and gratification of appetite, that the selfish appetite becomes a tyrant. 8LtMs, Ms 91, 1893, par. 4