One of the great blessings of this world is that most children have parents who love them dearly and take care of them until they are sufficiently mature to look after themselves. The sad exceptions to this rule merit all the compassionate interest that the more fortunate can express toward them, because parental love can be the greatest influence for good in the life of any child. It not only nourishes and protects but in its higher human manifestation provides the moral guidance and spiritual climate in which the child's qualities of true manhood or womanhood can best develop.
Paul wrote to the Christian families of Ephesus, "Ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord."Eph. 6:4; Today parenthood still includes vital obligations. Mrs. Eddy emphasizes this when she writes in Science and Health, "Is not the propagation of the human species a greater responsibility, a more solemn charge, than the culture of your garden or the raising of stock to increase your flocks and herds?"Science and Health, p. 61;
But many people say, "It's difficult to know what to teach children these days." In the modern world of loosely defined values and morals they are often so confused about what is right and what is wrong that they feel inadequate to guide their children in the proper way to think and live. But no one need despair of measuring up to the requirements of human parenthood. The qualities of ideal fatherhood and motherhood—intelligence, integrity, and perception, as well as love and affection—are not limited. They come from God and belong through reflection to every individual offspring of God. Understanding this, everyone can prove that he has the capacity to be a good parent.
