Here is a message on parental responsibility by William Bacon Stevens that should awaken us to our need of holiness. Even if you are not a parent, if you profess to be a child of God someone is watching you to see if there is any evidence of it. What do they see? Stevens wrote:
We aid and abet the spiritual death of our children, by our irreligious example–both in doing that which is positively wrong, and in neglecting to do what is as positively required. As young as our child is–it has learned to join together precept and practice. And if we are professors of religion, our child has put along side of this profession–our daily walk and conversation, and is perpetually drawing inferences from the one to the other, either for, or against, the truth which we profess.
Uncurbed tempers, ill-governed passions;
unbridled tongues, uncharitable words;
lack of meekness, and gentleness, and truth;
lack of sobriety of mind, and kindliness of heart;
the absence of that strict conscientiousness which should mark all our actions;
neglect of the Bible and of prayer;—
irrepressible worldliness, in ever dwelling upon “What shall we eat, and what shall we drink, and with what shall we be clothed?”
–are leaving indelible impressions upon the minds of our offspring! So that, copying our habits of thought, speech, and action–our child’s character in its essential characteristics, may be formed for eternity; before its mind is able to receive the precepts which perhaps we occasionally teach.
