Article January 16, 1965 Issue

"Obedience is the offspring of Love"

MARION L. DOUGLASS

There is much talk today of juvenile delinquency and the great need of training our children when they are small so that they may learn early to be good citizens. The solution for this problem, as with any conceivable human problem, may always be found in the Science of Christianity and the prayerful application of this Science to the problem at hand.

Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," "Children should obey their parents; insubordination is an evil, blighting the buddings of self-government" (p. 236). In training a child to obey, the parent should begin by disciplining himself. If he sees in his child an immature mortal who is naughty or difficult, he can turn his own thought to the spiritual reality taught in Christian Science (Gen. 1:31), "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good."

The question uppermost is, Does the parent love his God and his child enough to discipline himself first? Can he be humble enough to admit to himself that the mere fact that he is a parent does not equip him with unerring wisdom? When these questions can be honestly answered in the affirmative, he is ready to rely on God for wisdom, realizing that human knowledge is inadequate to tell him what is the right thing to be done in any situation.

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