Bringing Up Children in a Godly Way

TODAY ever so many parents are heartbroken because of the way their children turned out. They keep asking, “What did we do wrong?”

But there are also parents whose children give them joy. One such is the mother who recently wrote the Watch Tower Society telling how her children were witnessing to God’s name and kingdom. She concluded by saying, “Our children are a real pleasure to us.”

What makes the difference? No doubt the children who bring joy to their parents are those carefully reared “in the discipline and mental-regulating of Jehovah.” (Eph. 6:4) What might be said to be a noteworthy instance of a father who did this is one of Jehovah’s witnesses in Alabama who reared eighteen children, twelve by his first wife and six by his second. Today these children range from fourteen to forty-two years of age and each one is a zealous dedicated servant of Jehovah God. Among these are a number of overseers, missionaries and other full-time preachers. How did he go about rearing them “in the discipline and mental-regulating of Jehovah”?

For one thing, he fostered a warm, loving atmosphere in the home. Those separated from each other for the day would ask each other at the evening meal: “What did you do today?” If they had an interesting or an amusing experience they enjoyed telling it to the rest. If one came home later and no one asked him, “What did you do today?” he usually asked, “Well, isn’t anyone going to ask me what I did today?” Everyone was made to feel that the rest of the family was interested in him and cared for him.

This father also saw to it that the family enjoyed recreation together. Both he and his wife were on the family ball teams, although the girls would run bases for their mother. He and his wife were not too busy for such things. And they took all their children along with them when visiting such places as the Grand Canyon and Yosemite National Park on their vacations.

As loving and affectionate as the father was, he could also be firm when necessary. As the girls grew older he established a hard-and-fast rule for his daughters. Whenever any boy invited one of them out, another sister had to go along. This did not always suit the young men, but the daughters respected their father’s instructions and wishes in this as in everything else. They appreciated his wise and loving concern for them.

In particular did the father teach and exemplify putting first the interests of God’s kingdom. (Matt. 6:33) He saw to it that the family studied the Bible together and prayed together and he encouraged his children to do personal Bible study. Bible words were among the first expressions they learned. He made it an inflexible rule never to neglect the meetings of the Christian congregation. Even when relatives who were not Witnesses came for a visit, his entire family, as many as fourteen, all went to the meetings. Their guests would ask, “Are all of you going?” Yes, they all were, and so this left the guests the choice of remaining home alone or accompanying the family to their meetings. To their own surprise, these guests found they enjoyed and benefited from the experience of attending a meeting of the Witnesses!

Not only did the father and mother set a good example by regularity in the Christian field ministry, but the whole family would often spend from one to three months during the summer preaching in parts of the country that did not ordinarily get to hear the good news of God’s kingdom. In going from door to door the parents took their tots along with them, so that as these grew up they took to house-to-house preaching on their own as ‘ducks take to water.’

Helpful also in giving these children the benefit of “the discipline and mental-regulating of Jehovah” was the custom of the father to invite to his home those serving as traveling representatives of the Watch Tower Society. These were made to feel very much at home and so were always glad to come. They had a fine influence on the children and gave them something to aim for.

Eighteen children, and all of them holding firm to Jehovah’s pure worship in preaching and in conduct! Yes, it can be done when the apostolic advice is followed to rear children in “the discipline and mental-regulating of Jehovah.”