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.
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