How Will This Affect Their Souls?

"Train with this thought continually before your eyes--that the soul of your child is the first thing to be considered."

"This is the thought that should be uppermost on your mind in all you do for your children. In every step you take about them, in every plan, and scheme, and arrangement that concerns them, do not leave out that mighty question, "How will this affect their souls? . . .


". . . A true Christian must be no slave to fashion, if he would train his child for heaven. He must not be content to do things merely because they are the custom of the world; to teach them and instruct them in certain ways, merely because it is usual; to allow them to read books of a questionable sort, merely because everybody else reads them; to let them form habits of a doubtful tendency, merely because they are the habits of the day. He must train with an eye to his children's souls. He must not be ashamed to hear his training called singular and strange. What if it is? The time is short,--the fashion of this world passeth away. He that has trained his children for heaven, rather than for earth,--for God, rather than for man,--he is the parent that will be called wise at last." [Emphasis mine]

~ From The Duties of Parents, J. C. Ryle
(See our first post in this series)