Counsels for the Church - Ellen G. White

estraint. Here the children learn lessons that are not easily unlearned.
Whenever they are subjected to unaccustomed restraint, or required to apply
themselves to hard study, they appeal to their injudicious parents for
sympathy and indulgence. Thus a spirit of unrest and discontent is
encouraged, the school as a whole suffers from the demoralizing influence,
and the teacher's burden is rendered much heavier. But the greatest loss is
sustained by the victims of parental mismanagement. Defects of character
which a right training would have corrected, are left to strengthen with years,
to mar and perhaps destroy the usefulness of their possessor.
Teachers Under God
The Lord works with every consecrated teacher; and it is for the
teacher's own interest for him to realize this. Instructors who are under the
discipline of God receive grace and truth and light through the Holy Spirit to
communicate to the children. They are under the greatest Teacher the world
has ever known, and how unbecoming it would be for them to have an
unkind spirit, a sharp voice, full of irritation! In this they would perpetuate
their own defects in the children.
God will communicate by His own Spirit with the soul. Pray as you
study, "Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy
law," Psalm 119:18. When the teacher will rely upon God in prayer, the
Spirit of Christ will come upon him, and God will work through him by the
Holy Spirit upon the mind of the student. The Holy Spirit fills mind and
heart with hope and courage and Bible imagery, which will be
communicated to the student. The words of truth will grow in importance,
and will assume a breadth and fullness of meaning of which he has never
dreamed. The beauty and virtue of the word of God have a transforming
influence upon mind and character; the sparks of heavenly love will fall upon
the hearts of the children as an inspiration. We may bring hundreds and
thousands of children to Christ if we will work for them.
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