Bringing up children

by CR (128)

An old and wise aphorism teaches that 'no one can give what they don't have'.

Unfortunately, in our day and age only a minority of men and women are prepared to raise their children in a manner that meets the demands of spiritual and material life

Parents, truly worthy of the name, are not the ones who simply procreate, irresponsibly, but those who measure and weigh the responsibilities arising from marriage and prepare to consciously fulfill the duties of parenthood.

The act of reproduction is merely instinctive, considering the general source of animal life, but, in the case of human beings, the consequences that result from it are the most serious and relevant. 

Children, as a rule, are the image of parents. With the immense power of assimilation that they have in childhood, they indelibly record in the subconscious what they see adults do, and try to imitate them.

Therefore, it is not possible to dissociate home from school. After all, home is above all a school, a good or bad one, in which the parents, who are the teachers, are continuously teaching their children lessons and examples, discipline or indiscipline, virtue or vice, work or idleness, honor or dishonor, courage or cowardice, truth or falsity, dignity or debasement, order or disorder, shame or of shamelessness, loyalty or betrayal, sincerity or hypocrisy.

Upbringing begins in the cradle. A few days after birth, the child begins to display inclinations and tendencies that need to be stimulated when good, disciplined and guided whenever they are unreasonable and inconvenient.

The responsibilities of a couple, during their children's childhood are immense. For the sake of their children's upbringing, in addition to permanent vigilance, it demands from both husband and wife, all the courage, sacrifice and self-denial they are capable of. Such upbringing should come first on the parents' list of priorities that they should never do without.

References

[1] Christian Rationalism, 1st Edition, Rio de Janeiro 1984

[2] Compilation, paraphrasing, translation from original texts in Portuguese