89. PARENTS      --page 711--

         My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother: For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck (Pro.1:8,9).

         1. All Hail to the Queen, unsung and unseen
         Who gives and keeps giving again!
         All Hail to the Queen, to the mother who's been
         A heroine again and again!
         All Hail to the Queen, whose job has been
         The highest & hardest 'mongst men!
         All Hail to the Queen!--To the Mother unseen.
         All Hail to the mother of men!
         2. A woman spends nine months of her life and many more years taking care of the results of two minutes work on the part of the man.
         3. When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much he had learned in 7 years.--Mark Twain.
         4. Any parent whose children don't fear him as well as love him, is no parent!--Like God, we not only love God, but we fear Him!
         5. You're not supposed to commit the care of your child to a teacher or nanny or guardian or governess unless you trust them enough to give them the authority to teach'm and train'm right and make'm behave!
         6. That's the worst kind of a reflection on parenthood, parents who can't keep their kids under control!
         7. Thank You Lord for children! Help us to prize every one as precious.
         8. Children are a big job, but with a big job comes a big reward and with big responsibility comes lots of benefits.
         9. You women have more love and mercy than us men. That's true, and it's illustrated by Mothers with children. Mothers always seem more patient and merciful.
         10. As sons grow older, Fathers grow smarter.
         11. The reason many parents no longer lead their children in the right direction is because they aren't going that way themselves.
         12. The bravest battle that ever was fought,
         Shall I tell you where and when?
         On the maps of the World you will find it not,
         It was fought by the mothers of men.
         13. Who ran to help me when I fell,
         And would some pretty story tell,
         Or kiss the place to make it well?
         --My Mother!
         14. The hand that rocks the cradle
         Is the hand that rules the World!
         15. As beauty is reflected by a looking glass ... so too is the love of a mother mirrored in her children's smiles.
         16. I have seen a mother at a crib, so I know what love is.
         17. Even if a mother has never witnessed or won a soul, if she's never done a thing but have babies, she has created new lives and new souls that will last forever and has helped in the process of their creation by the Lord.
         18. A mother has done her bit to contribute the most priceless, precious, valuable thing in the whole Kingdom of God, an immortal soul for the Kingdom of Christ forever! Children are forever!
         19. You're never an adult until you have a child of your own.
         20. Yesterday's kids are today's parents!
         21. A mother needs a little vacation from her children once in awhile.
         22. A Mother is like a Goddess to her children.
         23. Every mother is a physical beautiful conception, representation, picture or likeness of the Holy Spirit--like a father is a likeness of God, and a son is a likeness of Jesus.
         24. Babies and children are not just women's work in our Family!
         25. Every child has got to have a father, even if it's not his own!
         26. That's what makes a father wonderful, that willingness to sacrifice himself and his strength and his time to help take care of the mother and the child.
         27. I've never seen a child yet that didn't need a father or a father image, somebody to play the part of a father. God made children to need both mother & father.
         28. Fathers are usually the disciplinarians of the family, who won't let the kids get away with anything and who really sock it to them!
         29. The Holy Spirit is like a Mother, sweet, loving and gentle, but as we grow older we're apt to need a father's image, God Himself, and be more afraid of Him and His Word of correction and judgments and His very heavy hand that enforces strict rules.
         30. I tried to spend at least an hour or two with my kids every day reading and teaching them the Bible, and I think they now show the good results!
         31. If God gives a child, what difference does it make what instrument God used! Even if you aren't the flesh father, if you are the husband you are responsible!
         32. That child is part of both of you, and it is your job to take care of it, to love it, to provide for it and to give it the love that only a mother and a father can give.
         33. If the original father is undeserving and unworthy, God often chooses another father.
         34. Your love for the child is what proves whether you're worthy of being married and being a father and mother!
         35. When God makes His choice and gives you a child, God has chosen to make you a mother and a father, and that makes you a husband and a wife!
         36. How else can two become one more than in one child?
         37. Are you equal to the task?--No, but God is! And He will help you to make them His good children, His faithful witnesses and His future rulers if you'll do your best as His Queen mothers and kingly fathers to rear them in His house as the fine and worthy princes and princesses that they should and must be to rule His future Kingdom with us!
         38. Motherhood takes the strength of Samson, the wisdom of Solomon, the patience of Job, the faith of Abraham, the insight of Daniel and the courage of David!
         39. Your children are a part of the Lord's service.
         40. You parents are some of our greatest witnesses through your children!
         41. Don't go around talking about
your children and my children and making some kind of difference between them! They are our children and we are one Family and all our children are just as much mine as they are yours!
         42. You mothers are the ones that are molding the future and making the World!
         43. The World of tomorrow is what the mothers of today make it, according to the way they raise their children.
         44. God can really deal with you through your own children.
         45. We really need a lot more love and patience and prayer and reasoning with our children.
         46. It takes time and patience and understanding and lots of real love to train a child.
         47. If you have reared your children right, they'll not go astray, or at least, for not very long.
         48. Sometimes they depart for a little while but they'll always sooner or later come back to the Lord if you've trained them right.
         49. We'd like to protect our children all their lives and never have any trouble or sickness or accidents, but would this ever teach them anything?
         50. While you're taking care of those children you're helping God's Kingdom come on Earth!
         51. I don't see how any mother of a family of several small children can possibly do anything else but train them and take care of them and her husband and her home.
         52. When God gives you children, then your first duty to God is to those children! That
is God's work.
         53. If you can't change the World, maybe your children will!--Train them to.
         54. It's usually the parents' fault when children catch diseases or colds.
         55. Even if you have eight or nine children you can still give each one something special, a special something that means a lot to them.
         56. There are times when you have to show each child that they're special, and not treat each one exactly the same all the time.
         57. The earlier teenagers get married the better, because right away that teaches them a sense of responsibility and they then begin to realize what a parent is and have a little more patience with their own parents. [
HomeARC note: The Charter, "Marriage Rules" 17.E. states, "Members ages 16 and 17 may marry those ages 16 through 20, providing it is legally permissible and they each receive permission from at least one CM parent."]
         58. If we can't have teenagers that behave in the Family, we just won't have any teenagers.
         59. No woman can control teenage boys unless she's a real toughie! It takes a man that can really lower the boom on'm and apply [firm discipline]!
         60. What good are parents if they can't even control their own kids?
         61. Kids who can't behave and parents who can't control their children don't belong in God's Family.
         62. A father without discipline is no father at all.
         63. I don't think you should talk about the Devil and his works around children too much. It's not good, as it gets their minds on those negative things and begins to make them fearful to where they spend too much time thinking about it.
         64. God's love can help you love anyone--especially for your children's sake!
         65. Parents should not discuss financial problems and big problems of any kind before children who wouldn't understand them.
         66. The reason I made it through school and all the unbelief and persecution was that I was convinced on my parents' religion. I knew they had the real thing and I believed in it, and nothing the atheists and the anti-Christs of school and education and evolution could do could shake that faith.
         67. No wonder the Lord had to increase woman's conception. Not just as a part of the Curse, but to make sure that some children did survive, because the Devil was out to kill'm & stop'm if he could. If he couldn't stop sex & he couldn't stop nudity, which encourages sex, then he would certainly try to get the children. And they are his major point of attack & what he hates the most. Maybe that explains why so many children die before they're just a few years of age.
         68. The Devil is really out to get the children, to kill the children, to neutralise the children, to stop the children! Because if he can stop enough children he'll kill the whole generation & the whole World will die of genocide. Which is no doubt why he's thought up the atomic bombs & the atomic war, because every other tactic has failed to stop the population growth.
         69. As a good parent, I keep a sharp eye on this whole outfit from stem to stern. I run a tight ship & I don't let anybody get away with anything! I keep an eye even on the property & inspect everything almost every day, including the people.
         70. We didn't get where we're at by namby-pamby pussyfooting around & letting people get away with things & pampering & babying & tolerating & spoiling our people. We got where we're at because the Lord has helped me to be a tough father with my children & not let them get away with anything!
         71. If parents cannot discipline & control their own children, they have no business in any important job in God's Work.
         72. If you don't discipline a child from the time they're a baby, they're going to be a failure & a flop & a mess & a problem by the time they get to be a year old, & that's not the poor baby's fault, it's the fault of the God-damned parents who don't obey God's rules & our instruction.
         73. Delinquent children are the products of delinquent parents!
         74. Discipline is damned hard work, very hard work, & it is a constant grind. You don't ever dare let up, not for one minute, not for one occasion, not on any score whatsoever. You've got to keep at it to make it consistent & constant.
         75. How would you parents like it if I tell you you're involved in deviltry & witchcraft if you fail to discipline your children?--Because rebellious stubborn children are the result of rebellious stubborn parents.
         76. If you are too busy to train & discipline & control your children & enforce obedience, you are too busy! You're better off not to have any children or give'm to somebody who knows how to take care of them, who knows how to train them in the nurture & admonition of the Lord & raise them in obedience & self-control, or at least parental control!
         77. God does not put up with parents or children who are controllable only part of the time. He cannot take a chance on people who are risky & possibly will fail when they are most needed. It's either all or nothing at all with God! Either you are obedient or you are disobedient, & God will not tolerate any percentage of disobedience!
         78. "He scourgeth every son whom He receiveth!" (Heb.12:6b) Well, I haven't told any parents to make a Roman scourge with nine thongs & nine bits of lead in the tips to give their children stripes, long deep cuts in the back every time they spank them. But that's the word God uses for His kind of stripes that He gives people who disobey & rebelliously stubbornly willfully refuse to do what they're told to do, including taking care of & disciplining their own children. They spare the rod & spoil the child. Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child & only the rod of correction can drive it far from him. (Prov.22:15)
         79. "Whom the Lord loveth He scourgeth" (Heb.12:6), & it hurts Him more than it does us. One of the supreme forms of love, one of the most sacrificial forms of love, is to discipline a child.
         80. If you don't chasten your children in obedience to God's laws & drive that child's foolishness far from him, if you spoil that child by sparing [discipline], you don't love that child or care anything about that child! You hate that child! God cannot stand any kind of unfaithfulness in His army anymore than any other Commander of any other military force can take a chance on security risks & disobedience & failure to follow orders & obey commands.
         81. If punishment doesn't hurt, it's not doing a damned bit of good. If God didn't hurt us with His chastisements & His scourging & His punishment, we wouldn't repent, & it wouldn't do us any good.
         82. Parents who are neglecting their children & failing to discipline them & teach them & control them & punish them , whatever it takes to do it, are failing God & us & the Family & their job & the next generation.
         83. As a good parent, you must catch in a hurry children who are starting to go astray, nip it in the bud. You must deal with them right away & not take any chances on any gaps in the armour, any gaps in the wall, any chinks in the armour, any Achilles' heels, we can't take chances on any little finger-sized or thumb-sized holes in the dike or pretty soon you'll have a complete flood that'll sink the ship.
         84. Parents who fail to discipline their children are a constant hazard, because if they have let the Devil get in like that through their disobedience & their neglect & their downright rebelliousness against us & our laws & Family laws & the laws of God & His Word, they are untrustworthy, they cannot be relied upon. They're a hole in the wall, they're a chink in the armour through which the Devil can get in & cause no end of trouble.
         85. If you flatly, willfully disobey & refuse to child-train & discipline & chasten your children & make them behave as God does, you're going to have to live with that for eternity in everlasting shame & contempt & have to see the damage & suffering that your neglect & your disobedience & your rebelliousness has caused you children.
         86. God will destroy parents who are destroying their children & thereby destroying the future, & both the present & future Work of God.
         87. Nobody is indispensable, especially people who do not obey. I don't care how good a job you've done at your technical work. If you have failed on you children, you have failed! All the typing & all the photography & all the computer work & all the technology & all the lit & all the publications & all that we're doing has failed if we have failed on our children.
         88. Parents who fail to discipline & make their children obey & have not yet learned to themselves obey & who have flagrantly violated our rules of child-training & God's rules of discipline, claiming to love God, have ruined their children, the gifts of God, pretending that it was in love when it was in just plain laziness & refusal to enforce the law & the rules because it hurt both them & their child.
         89. Your refusal to discipline, child-train your child is going to hurt you a lot more & that child a lot more & God's Work a lot more than a little hurt that would have lasted for a moment in a spanking or some kind of punishment. If you don't change & straighten out & straighten that child out, your crying is going to last morning, noon & night, day after day & year after year until the whole thing goes crash.
         90. You cannot have any link broken in the chain of discipline, because only one person who fails to discipline a child can undo all the good training that all the others have put into him. Lack of unity & cooperation between parents or among parents & teachers destroys any possibility of training and discipline.
         91. Our children are the future & we must preserve & protect the future. And if we don't take care of our children, preserve & protect & train them properly so that they are good little Christians who know how to behave, & are good examples & are good products of good parents, then we have wrecked the future.
         92. If you think that just a mere resurrection or rapture is going to remedy everything & God is going to take care of everything, including your own failures & mistakes & the mess you've made out of your children, you've got a sad awakening coming. You're going to reap tomorrow what you sowed today & yesterday. And you're going to have to rectify it & change it & get it straightened out in the future, in the Millennium.
         93. Most children can be forced to be good. If all those caring for them use strict discipline, faithful, consistent, continuous unrelenting discipline, they'll learn very soon that crime doesn't pay.
         94. No matter how faithful you are in every other area & every other job & every other thing, if you have failed with your children, you have failed God in the most important job He has given you to do!--And that's to prepare & save the future, which is your children.
         95. Either you straighten out & straighten your children out & make them behave or you have no place in the rulership of the house of God. If you can't rule your own household, you certainly cannot rule over the church of God or have any place of great responsibility or administration over His government or His people.
         96. A child becomes an adult when they learn to sacrifice for others & share & help each other, & that's maturity in the Lord's eyes.
         97. We should not teach children to be
self-confident, but Christ confident.
         98. The reason our children are such wonderful children is because
you parents & teachers have been such examples to them. They believe in this Family & the Lord & what we believe, because they believe in you & know you live it & you are it & they don't doubt it & they love you & respect & admire & have faith in you.

         (See also No. E, G, 50, 50A, 91, 232, 314A, 315, 317, 385, 389, 572, 588, 606, 608, 617, 632, 688, 728, 739, 744-746, 752, 777, 830, 902, 915, 918, 991, 1040, 1064, 1109, 1112, 1180, 1527, 1549.)

         99. DEU.6:6,7 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
         100. DEU.18:10a There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire.
         101. DEU.12:28 Observe and hear all these words which I command thee, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee for ever, when thou doest that which is good and right in the sight of the Lord thy God.
         102. 1KI.3:26,27 Then spake the woman whose the living child was unto the king, for her bowels yearned upon her son, and she said, O my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it, But the other said, Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it. Then the king answered and said, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it: she is the mother thereof.
         103. 1SA.1:27,28 For this child I prayed; and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of Him: Therefore also I have lent him to the Lord; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the Lord.
         104. PSA.78:4 We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, & His strength, and His wonderful works that He hath done.
         105. PSA.113:9 He maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children. Praise ye the Lord.
         106. PSA.115:14 The Lord shall increase you more and more, you and your children.
         107. PSA.127:3-5 Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is His reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.
         108. PRO.13:24 He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.
         109. PRO.17:21 He that begetteth a fool doeth it to his sorrow: and the father of a fool hath no joy.
         110. PRO.19:13 A foolish son is the calamity of his father: and the contentions of a wife are a continual dropping.
         111. PRO. 19:18 Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying.
         112. PRO.20:7 The just man walketh in his integrity: his children are blessed after him.
         113. PRO.22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
         114. PRO.23:13 Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.
         115. PRO.23:15,16 My son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine. Yes, my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips speak right things.
         116. PRO.23:24,25 The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice: and he that begetteth a wise child shall have joy of him. Thy father and they mother shall be glad, and she that bare thee shall rejoice.
         117. PRO.29:15 The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.
         118. ISA.8:18 Behold, I and the children whom the Lord hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the Lord of hosts, which dwelleth in mount Zion.
         119. ISA.54:13 All thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of they children.
         120. JOE.1:3 Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell the children, and their children another generation.
         121. JOH.21:15b Feed My lambs.
         122. ACT.2:39a The promise is unto you, and to your children.
         123. 2CO.12:14b The children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children.
         124. EPH.6:4 And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
         125. COL.3:21 Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.
         126. 1TI.5:8 But if any provide not for his own, and especially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.



Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family