helpful suggestions rather than big issues. This will break fellowship be tween you and your child. Another parent writes, “What ad vice would you give a teenager, an enormously high-strung boy, who at tends junior high? He needs to im prove in reading. My husband be lieves in force while I believe in keeping education interesting.” It is impossible to force anyone to learn against his will. There are remedies for problems in this area, however, and most school administra tors will be glad to help you if you seek their counsel and advice. In our household the family altar was a great help for the children to develop read ing skills. There was no pressure put on anyone. We all had a Bible and took our turn around a circle. Pres sure, however, will always increase the problems. Encourage the child through help at home and in the school, making sure he is not kept in tension. One last letter states, “We have two children, a boy and a girl. The latter is older, a little past four. She has always been mature for her age. Last month she started stuttering. Sometimes it gets better, and then again it will become worse. We have tried prayer, ignoring, spanking, cor recting, shaming and making her say the sentence right. My husband and I have both prayed about it and are concerned.” When a child does something not moral at all, it is only a mechanical thing, I question the value of disci pline. The child should be given con fidence in expressing himself freely. When she does anything like this love her and ignore as much of the problem as you can. Tell her softly, “Just speak slowly, sweetheart; no body is going to discipline or correct you. If .you say it wrong, maybe the next time you can say it right.” Give the child understanding, patience and love. Ask the Lord quietly to help your little child, as well as to give you His promised wisdom. Stuttering is usu ally a reflection of a situation in which the little child feels insecure, perhaps
in the presence of her father or mother. She is afraid that she will make an error. The Lord wants to give us under standing in these matters so that we will make the discipline fit the “crime.” You must build around the child a simple support of apprecia tion, understanding, security and CHRIST'S SALVATION Christ does not save men by His life, Though that was holy, sinless, pure; Nor even by His tender love, Though that forever shall endure; He does not save them by His words, Though they shall never pass away; Nor by His vast creative power That holds the elements in sway; He does not save them by His works, Though He was ever doing good; The awful need was greater still, It took His death, His cross, His blood. Men preach today a crossless Christ, A strengthless Saviour, vague and dim; They will not see their sinful state, They will not own their need of Him. They will not know the Lamb of God, Despised, rejected, crucified; That were to humble into dust Their boasted intellect, their pride. Yet no man cometh unto God Save by the Son alone, He saith; The deathless life for which we long Can only, ever come through death. Not Bethlehem, not Nazareth, Stern Justice's lifted hand could stay; Think of Christ’s eternal love for us despite all our sins and shortcom ings. When we turn to Him, He is willing to take away our sins and place them as far as the east is from the west. In our failures, turning to the power of the Holy Spirit, may we not be overly discouraged or dis heartened, deriving lessons whi ch will help us to press on by God’s grace. 20 To Calvary the soul must go, And follow Jesus all the way. love. You have a tremendous and sa cred obligation to your children.
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