Recently I ran across a very convicting
and helpful list of questions in a book written in the 19th century
by Nehemiah Adams (http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20428).
While the book itself is not likely to be interesting or helpful to most
readers of my blog, I thought these questions would be. They appeared in a chapter about a “Maternal Association,” a group of Christian ladies who had joined
together to encourage one another in raising their children in the Lord. These
were questions designed to aid self-examination and meditation. Though written
specifically for mothers, most of them are just as applicable to fathers. I
found this list of questions profoundly convicting. They deserve careful,
prayerful, and regular reading. It might even be useful to make reviewing these
questions alone or with your spouse a weekly exercise. Here is the passage
copied directly from the original book. You might want to copy, paste, and slightly
revise them, then print them out for your own use and regular review. -JME
QUESTIONS TO BE THOUGHT UPON.
1.
Have I so prayed for my children as that my prayer
produced an effect upon myself?
2.
Have I realized that to train my children for
usefulness and heaven is probably the chief duty God requires of me?
3.
Have I realized that, if I cannot eradicate an evil
habit, probably no one else can or will?
4.
Have I granted to-day, from indulgence, what I denied
yesterday from principle?
5.
Have I yielded to importunity in altering a decision
deliberately made?
6.
Have I punished the beginning of an evil habit?
7.
Have I suffered the indulgence of an evil habit through
sloth or discouragement?
8.
Have calmness and seriousness marked my looks, tones,
and voice, when inflicting punishment?
9.
Was my convenience, or the guilt of the child, the
measure of its punishment?
10. Has
punishment been sufficiently private, and have I tried to affect the mind more
than the body?
11. Do
my children see in me a self-command which is the effect of principle?
12. Have
I, in my plans, my heart, and conduct, sought first for my children the kingdom
of God?
13. Have
I commended God to my children, and my children to God?
14. Have
I aimed to govern my children on the same principle and in the same spirit
which God adopts in the government of his creatures?
15. Have
I, in pursuance of the above resolution, acted in the spirit of that prayer in
God's word, 'Them that honor me, I will honor, and they that despise me shall
be lightly esteemed'?
16. Have
I aimed to secure the love and obedience of my children?
17. Have
I remembered that it is full time to make a child obey when it knows enough to
disobey?
18. Do
I realize that the fulfilment of covenant promises is dependent on my fidelity?
Gen. 18: 19.
19. Have
these resolutions been undertaken in the strength of Christ, remembering 'I can
do all things through Christ which strengthened me'?
20. Have
I labored to convince my child that its true character is formed by its
thoughts and affections?
21. Do
I daily realize that each of my children is a shapeless piece of marble,
capable, through my instrumentality, of being moulded into an ornament for the
palace of the King of kings?
22. Do
I, by my conversation and actions, teach my children that character, and not
wealth or connexions, constitutes respectability?
23. Do
I realize what circumstances are educating my children;—my conversation, my
pursuits, my likings, and dislikings?
24. Do
I realize that the most important book a child can and does read, is its
parents' daily deportment and example?
25. Do
my children feel they can do what they like, or that they must do what they are
commanded?
26. Have
I felt that a timid child is in great danger of being insincere?
27. Do
I, as an antidote to timidity, cultivate the fear of God and self-respect?
28. Do
I realize that I must meet each child at the judgment-seat, and hear from it
what my influence over it has been as a mother?
29. Do
I realize that it is in my power to exert such an influence that Christ shall
see in each the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied?
30. Do
I realize that my children will obey God much as they do me?
31. Do
I impress on my children that little faults in Christian families may be as
dangerous to the soul, and as evil in their tendencies, as larger faults where
there is no Christian education?
32. Do
I realize the danger of retarding or hindering the work of the Holy Spirit, by
evil habits, worldly pursuits, or companions?
33. Do
I make each child feel that it has a work to do, and that it is its duty and
happiness to do that work well?
