Learning Lessons As Mothers and Fathers

In the book Preaching the Gospel in the Way of Life (Chapter 12, Section 2), Brother Witness Lee speaks an encouraging word for mothers and fathers. He says:

All the young mothers and fathers learn the real lessons of human life by having children. When I was young, close to thirty years ago, by the mercy of the Lord I already had two or three children. At the same time there were a number of sisters in the church, many of whom were nurses. Those sisters were trained and very capable. When they went to the homes of the brothers and sisters who had children, they did not criticize outwardly, but they criticized inwardly very much. I knew this because a number of times they came to me and told me how they felt about certain sisters and brothers. I did not argue, but I said to myself, “All right, sisters, wait four or five years. You will have two children. Then I will go to your home and see how you manage it.” I told them, “Wait for a time and see.” They thought I meant that they should wait and see about those other families. They did not realize that I meant, “Wait and see how you will manage.” Sometimes after a few months, one of those sisters would get married, and after two or three years she would have children. From then on her mouth was shut; she no longer criticized. If we have two or three spiritual children, we will learn the lessons. Our criticizing mouth will be shut, and our criticizing heart will be calmed down. Then we will know only to sympathize with others. It is not a small thing to take care of children….

If we do not have children under our care, we learn only one thing—to enjoy. Moreover, if we cannot have our enjoyment, spontaneously we criticize; we never sympathize. This is the case until one day we pick up the responsibility to take care of four or five, even ten or twenty children. Then our mouths will be shut, and our hearts will be calmed down. We will sympathize with others, we will realize our responsibility, and we will learn the lessons….

Having children helps us to learn the lessons. As disciples, we all need to take care of some children.

How does Brother Witness Lee’s fellowship match our experience? As mothers and fathers of physical children or spiritual children, what lessons are we learning?

4 thoughts on “Learning Lessons As Mothers and Fathers

  1. I was given a message on caring for our kids that is wonderful. I do not know when it was but if anyone else does i would love to hear the second part. The sister who gave it to me has moved to another locality. Praise the Lord for our children!

  2. I wanted to let you know I really enjoyed this very much! I went to the lsm website to read this whole section from the book, “Preaching the Gospel in the Way of Life”. I realized the part about Bearing the Responsibility to Feed Spiritual Children is in Chapter 13. I wanted to share in case anyone else wanted to read further reading.

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