Article March 12, 1979 Issue

To be better parents

MERLE WITHAM MILLER

"By the time you learn to be good parents, you're out of a job." This stroke of quiet humor appeared on a poster I saw. As a Christian Scientist and a mother, I knew the observation called for some prayerful thought, not just a chuckle, for it spelled out a prevalent, erroneous belief about parenthood.

The Bible supports the view that it is well within people's capacity to be good parents from the outset instead of having to learn the hard way and often too late. A passage from Proverbs reads, "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."^{ Prov. 1:8,9;} With God's guidance couples of any age can help their children put on "an ornament of grace."

The poster statement implies that young parents are necessarily immature. A truth that will heal this notion can be found in Mary Baker Eddy's definition of the Bible term "children" in the Glossary of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. Here the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science gives the true spiritual meaning of the word and then the opposite mortal sense: "Children. The spiritual thoughts and representatives of Life, Truth, and Love.

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