The most potent influence for good that the world knows is a whole minded Christian home.
In such a home the life of the parents expresses their convictions rather than their frailties and their instruction of the children in the truths of the Christian faith is easy and natural, for it is but an explanation of the motives which actually determine the behavior which the children see and the conditions of life which they share.
Such a home is quiet, unhurried, without strain and stress.
The feelings and emotions inducted within the children by the contagion of sympathy are unhectic, sound, and wholesome.
The suggestions of such a home are in right directions, its unconscious models worthy of imitation.
Its authority is reasonable, its spirit that of mutual affection, its members are friends and comrades who stick together in work and in play.
In such a home the kingdom of God begins to come on earth,
that Kingdom which will come fully when all men realize that they have one Father and are brethren.
To such a home many of us can look back, and we thank God that it imparted its spirit, not just by precept or instruction, but by the uncounted, unintended vital influences of its atmosphere.
Text from “
The Training of Children in the Christian Home” by Luther Allan Weigle.
