Editorial July 19, 1969 Issue

Parents and Children

Helen Wood Bauman

The relation of parents and children is a two-way relation. It presents responsibilities on both sides. If it is to be a fruitful and happy relation, it should be maintained on a basis of mutual respect.

Christ Jesus respected little children. He appreciated their purity and recognized their closeness to God. He said, "In heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven."^{Matt. 18:10;} Christian Science teaches the same respect for the young. Mary Baker Eddy gives many directives for protecting children's impressible mentalities. She says, for instance, "Too much cannot be done towards guarding and guiding well the germinating and inclining thought of childhood." She goes on, "To mould aright the first impressions of innocence, aids in perpetuating purity and in unfolding the immortal model, man in His image and likeness."^{The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 261;}

When a child learns that God is his Father and is taught to work out that sublime relationship by living the innocent qualities of God's likeness, a generation gap between him and his human parents in later years is not likely to occur. Obeying God, the child will find it natural to obey right demands of his elders. He will look up to them as a refuge from childhood's struggles as he learns life and finds his place in the world. He will respond to respect. He will learn self-respect, too, and with it respect for others. But the child who is permitted to defy his parents without some kind of reasonable discipline will become the young adult who has no respect for authority.

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