Rules for Raising Children
(Author Unknown)
Suzanna Wesley was the mother of nineteen children, among them were
John and Charles Wesley. It has been said that the Methodist faith
was born on the lap of a mother, Suzanne Wesley.
She spent one hour each day in prayer. That's seven hours each week!
She spent one hour per week with each child individually imparting
spiritual life and wisdom. That's nineteen hours!
Suzanna Wesley over two hundred years ago formulated sixteen rules
for raising children. They are still pretty good rules!
1. Eating between meals is not allowed.
2. As children, they are to be in bed by 8 pm.
3. They are required to take medicine without complaining.
4. They are to subdue their self-will so that they might be open to
God's salvation.
5. Teach a child to pray as soon as he can speak.
6. Require all to be still during Family Worship.
7. Give them nothing they cry for, and only that which they ask for
politely.
8. To prevent lying, punish no fault which is first confessed and
repented.
9. Never allow a sinful act to go unpunished.
10. Never punish a child twice for a single offense.
11. Commend and reward good behavior.
12. Any attempt to please, even if poorly performed should be commended.
13. Preserve property rights, even in smallest matters.
14. Strictly observe all promises.
15. Require no daughter to work before she can read well.
16. Teach children to reverence God.
One of Suzanna Wesley's prayers gives a glimpse of her faith:
"Help me, Lord, to remember that religion is not to be confined
to the church, or closet, nor exercised only in prayer and meditation,
but that everywhere I am in Your presence... May all things instruct
me and afford me an opportunity of exercising some goodness and daily
learning and growing toward Your likeness."
Although she lived two hundred years ago, Suzanna's faith lives on
today. The important things in life have not changed. It still matters
that parents stay in the Lord and spend their lives leading children
to do the same.
