Chapter 32—Preoccupy the Garden of the Heart
Parents as Gardeners—The Lord has entrusted to parents a
solemn, sacred work. They are to cultivate carefully the soil of the
heart. Thus they may be laborers together with God. He expects them
to guard and tend carefully the garden of their children’s hearts. They
are to sow the good seed, weeding out every unsightly weed. Every
defect in character, every fault in disposition, needs to be cut away;
for if allowed to remain, these will mar the beauty of the character
Parents, your own home is the first field in which you are called
to labor. The precious plants in the home garden demand your first
care. To you it is appointed to watch for souls as they that must give
account. Carefully consider your work, its nature, its bearing, and its
results
You have before your own door a little plot of ground to care for,
and God will hold you responsible for this work which He has left in
your hands
Tending the Garden—The prevailing influence in the world is to
suffer the youth to follow the natural turn of their own minds. And
if very wild in youth, parents say they will come right after a while
and, when sixteen or eighteen years of age, will reason for themselves
and leave off their wrong habits and become at last useful men and
women. What a mistake! For years they permit an enemy to sow the
garden of the heart; they suffer wrong principles to grow, and in many
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cases all the labor afterward bestowed on that soil will avail nothing....
Some parents have suffered their children to form wrong habits,
the marks of which may be seen all through life. Upon the parents
lies this sin. These children may profess to be Christians; yet without
a special work of grace upon the heart and a thorough reform in life,
1
Manuscript 138, 1898
.
2
The Signs of the Times, July 1, 1886
.
3
The Review and Herald, September 15, 1891
.
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