Editorial July 26, 1993 Issue

Help for parents

Richard C. Bergenheim

Is there anything quite as wonderful as watching a child grow up? There is the excitement of a baby's first step, of a child's delightful gurgles of happiness, and of his or her repose in sleep after a nonstop day. And possibly, as quiet descends on the house, we are aware once again that this child came without a set of directions, with no instruction manual, no "how to" guide. Yet a parent has the greatest obligation of all, which is to raise a child effectively.

I visited a local bookstore the other day and found about eighteen feet of shelf space allotted for books on raising children. So there was no lack of advice available. But as I looked through several books dealing with preschoolers, I also saw that you had to take your pick among a wide variety of approaches; there was no consensus. How does one choose? How does one know what to do?

To answer this kind of question, we need to find an effective starting point. A glimpse of what this is can be found in the Bible in the book of Psalms: "Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture" (100:3). Within this one sentence we are given more essential information than in all the books on child rearing in a bookstore. That is a lot to claim, but it also illustrates the enormous value of the Bible as a guide for us all. The preceding verse tells us something about our real origin, what determines our character and nature, who oversees our development. It tells us whom we can rely on. It opens our eyes to the divine assistance ever at hand.

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