Another Kingdom and Another Master

On consistent, expectant child-training—quietness, no-whining zones, working with joy and diligence from a young age, manners…

“Does this training seem hard on the child, impossible for the mother?  I don’t think it is.  The earlier the parents begin to make the laws of order and beauty and quietness comprehensible to their children, the sooner they will acquire good, strong notions of what is so basic to real godliness: self-denial.  A Christian home should be a place of peace, and there can be no peace where there is no self-denial.

“Christian parents are seeking to fit their children for their inheritance in Christ.  A sense of the presence of God in the home is instilled by the simple way He is spoken of…

“The task of parents is to show by love and by the way they live that they belong to another Kingdom and another Master, and thus to turn their children’s thoughts toward that Kingdom and that Master.  The “raw” material with which they begin is thoroughly selfish.  They must gently lay the yoke of respect and consideration for others on those little children, for it is their earnest desire to make of them good and faithful servants…”

While we must not forget that all of this, from beginning to end, is of grace and of the Holy Spirit, I’d forgotten how much I appreciated the “older-woman” advice that Elisabeth Elliot offers in her writings, and how significant it has been in our home.  Her book Keep A Quiet Heart is a treasure, and the “daily thought” transcripts of her old radio programs are found on Back to the Bible’s website under Bible Studies and Devotions.  Priceless!