Child Guidance

Chapter 14—Quietness, Respect, and Reverence

Repress Undue Noise and Turbulence—Let not a mother allow her mind to be occupied with too many things.... With the greatest diligence and the closest watchfulness she must care for the little ones who, if allowed, will follow every impulse springing out of the fullness of their unpracticed, ignorant hearts. In their exuberance of spirit they will give utterance to noise and turbulence in the home. This should be checked. Children will be just as happy if they are educated not to do these things. They are to be taught that when visitors come, they are to be quiet and respectful.¹ CG 97.1

Let Quietness Reign in the Home—Fathers and mothers, ... teach your children that they must be subordinate to law. Do not allow them to think that because they are children, it is their privilege to make all the noise they wish in the house. Wise rules and regulations must be made and enforced, that the beauty of the home life may not be spoiled.² CG 97.2

Parents do their children great wrong when they allow them to scream and cry. They should not be allowed to be careless and boisterous. If these objectionable traits of character are not checked in their early years, the children will take them with them, strengthened and developed, into religious and business life. Children will be just as happy if they are taught to be quiet in the house.³ CG 97.3

Teach Respect for Experienced Judgment—Children should be taught to respect experienced judgment. They should be so educated that their minds will be united with the minds of their parents and teachers, and so instructed that they can see the propriety of heeding their counsel. Then when they go forth from the guiding hand, their characters will not be like the reed trembling in the wind.⁴ CG 98.1

Parental Laxness Encourages Disrespect—If in their own homes children are allowed to be disrespectful, disobedient, unthankful, and peevish, their sins lie at the door of their parents.⁵ CG 98.2

The mother ... is to rule her household wisely, in the dignity of her motherhood. Her influence in the home is to be paramount; her word, law. If she is a Christian, under God's control, she will command the respect of her children. Tell your children exactly what you require of them.⁶ CG 98.3

When parents do not maintain their authority, when the children go to school, they have no particular respect for the teachers or principal of the school. The reverence and respect that they should have, they were never taught to have at home. Father and mother were on the same level with the children.⁷ CG 98.4

Results of Unchecked Impertinence—Show respect for your children, and do not allow them to speak one disrespectful word to you.⁸ CG 98.5

A Wise Youthful Attitude—Wise is that young man and highly blest who feels it to be his duty, if he has parents, to look up to them, and if he has not, who regards his guardian, or those with whom he lives, as counselors, as comforters, and in some respects as his rulers, and who allows the restraints of his home to abide upon him.⁹ CG 98.6

Reverence to Be Carefully Cherished [Note: For a fuller treatment of this subject, see chapter 80, “Reverence for That Which Is Holy.”]—Reverence ... is a grace that should be carefully cherished. Every child should be taught to show true reverence for God.¹⁰ CG 99.1

The Lord desires us to understand that we must place our children in right relation to the world, the church, and the family. Their relation to the family is the first point to be considered. Let us teach them to be polite to one another, and polite to God. “What do you mean,” you may inquire, “by saying that we should teach them to be polite to God?” I mean that they are to be taught to reverence our heavenly Father and to appreciate the great and infinite sacrifice that Christ has made in our behalf.... Parents and children are to sustain so close a relation to God that the heavenly angels can communicate with them. These messengers are shut out from many a home where iniquity and impoliteness to God abound. Let us catch from His Word the spirit of heaven and bring it into our life here below.¹¹ CG 99.2

How to Teach Reverence—Parents can and should interest their children in the varied knowledge found in the sacred pages. But if they would interest their sons and daughters in the Word of God, they must be interested in it themselves. They must be familiar with its teachings and, as God commanded Israel, speak of it “when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.” Deuteronomy 11:19. Those who desire their children to love and reverence God must talk of His goodness, His majesty, and His power, as revealed in His Word and in the works of creation.¹² CG 99.3

Reverence Is Revealed by Obedience—Let children be shown that true reverence is revealed by obedience. God has commanded nothing that is unessential, and there is no other way of manifesting reverence so pleasing to Him as by obedience to that which He has spoken.¹³ CG 100.1