“The object of the home is to build up manhood and womanhood. This work of training belongs to the parents and cannot be transferred. It is a most delicate and responsible duty – one from which a thoughtful soul would shrink with awe and fear, were it not for the assurance of Divine help. Yet there are many parents who do not stop to think of the responsibility which is laid upon them when a little child enters their home.

“Look at it a moment. What is so feeble, so helpless, so dependent, as a newborn babe? Yet look onward and see what a stretch of life lies before this feeble infant – away into the eternities! Think of the powers folded up in this helpless form, and what the possible outcome may be. Who can tell what skill may be lying, yet unconscious, in these tiny fingers? What eloquence or song may be in these little lips? What intellectual faculties may be in this brain? What power of love or sympathy are in this heart? The parents are to take this infant and raise it into manhood or womanhood, and to draw out these slumbering powers and teach it to use them. God wants a man trained for a great mission in the world; and He puts into the hands of a young father and mother a little babe, and bids them to care for it and train it for Him until that man is ready for his mission…

“When we look at a little child and remember all this, what a dignity surrounds the work of caring for it! Does God give to angels any work grander than this?

“Women sigh for fame. They wish to be sculptors, and chisel cold stone into forms of beauty to fill the world with admiration of their skill. Or they wish to be poets, to write songs to thrill a nation and to be sung around the world. But is any work in marble so great as hers who has an immortal life laid in her hands, to shape for its destiny? Is the writing of any poem in musical lines so noble a work as the training of the powers of a human soul into harmony?

“O that God would give every mother a vision of the glory and splendor of the work that is given to her, when a babe is placed in her bosom to be cared for and trained! Could she have just one glimpse into the future of that life as it reaches on into eternity; could she only look into its soul to see its possibilities; could she be made to understand her own personal responsibility for the training of this child, for the development of its life, and for its destiny – she would see that in all God’s world, there is no other work so noble and so worthy of her best powers; and she would commit to no other hands the sacred and holy trust given to her!”

Dear mothers, have you realized that the Lord has given you a noble calling that is the most sacred and blessed in all the world? Every other earthly achievement and attainment will cease to be worth anything at the moment when our life slips into the world of eternity. But the souls of our children are the only thing on this earth that have the potential to follow us into the Kingdom of Heaven! Have you prayed to the Lord, beseeching Him for grace and strength as you endeavor to raise your sons and daughters into manhood and womanhood?

Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below!

God bless you and your family, this day and always.

All for the King’s glory,

Christian

photo by Jon Flobrant on Unsplash