“… so the tree inclines.” Virgil set this guideline for parents in 50 B.C., and my mother has been repeating it ever since! Of course, she meant that the examples we set for our children often carry through to their adult lives. I had reason to realize that on several occasions in the last few months.
After I took up residence in my apartment in New York City, I was quick to locate the closest Christian Science church in my area. At a recent Wednesday evening testimony meeting I sat waiting for the meeting to begin, but was somewhat annoyed by two children running up and down the aisle. They were hiding in the pews, and popping up to surprise each other. Where were their mothers? I thought. The organist had already started to play the prelude when a couple came in with two more children, and the six of them filled a back pew as the parents took control of the two who were running around.
As we sang the first hymn, I cleared my negative thinking about children being boisterous. They were, after all, God’s children, and how could I fault them for attending church?
