You ought to LOVE your parents.
LOVE is the only state of mind from which all the only other
duties that you owe them, can arise. By love, we mean
affection; and surely this is due to a father and mother.
The very relation in which you stand to them demands this.
If you are destitute of this, if you are without any
propensity of heart towards them, you are in a strange and
guilty state of mind. Until you are married, or are in
prospect of it, they ought, in most cases, to be the supreme
objects of your earthly affections. It is not enough for you
to be respectful and obedient, and even kind; but, where
there exists no reasons for alienating your heart, you
should be fond of them. It is of infinite importance that
you should watch over the internal state of your mind, and
not allow dislike, alienation, or indifference, to
extinguish your love towards your parents. Do not take up a
prejudice against them, nor allow an unfavorable impression
to be made upon your mind. Respect and obedience, if they do
not spring from love, are valueless in their nature, and
very precarious in their existence.
If you love them, you will delight to be in their company,
and take pleasure in being at home with them. It is painful
to them to see that you are happier anywhere than at home,
and fonder of any other society than theirs. No companion
should be so valued by you as a kind father or mother.
If you love them, you will strive in all things to please
them. We are always anxious to please those whom we love,
and to avoid whatever would give them pain. If we are
careless whether we please or displease any particular
person, it is obviously impossible that we can have any
affection for that person. The essence of piety towards God
is a deep solicitude to please him; and the essence of
filial piety, is a solicitude to please your parents. Young
people, dwell upon this single simple thought, A CHILD'S
PLEASURE SHOULD BE TO PLEASE HIS PARENTS. This is love, and
the sum of all your duty. If you would adopt this rule, if
you would write this upon your heart, if you would make this
the standard of your conduct, I might lay down my pen, for
it includes everything in itself.
O that you could be brought to reason and to resolve thus—"I
am bound by every tie of God and man, of reason and
revelation, of honor and gratitude, to do all I can to make
my parents happy, by doing whatever will give them pleasure,
and by avoiding whatever will give them pain. By God's help,
I will from this hour study and do whatever will promote
their comfort. I will make my will to consist in doing
theirs, and my earthly happiness to arise from making them
happy. I will sacrifice my own desires, and be satisfied
with their choice." Noble resolution, and just and proper!
Adopt it, act upon it, and you will never be sorry. Do not
have any earthly happiness that is enjoyed at the expense of
theirs.
If you love them, you will desire their good opinion. We
naturally value the esteem of those to whom we are
attached—we wish to be thought highly of by them; and if we
are quite careless about their respect for us, it is a sure
sign we have no love for them. Children should be desirous
and even anxious to stand high in the opinion of their
parents; and nothing can be a more decisive proof of a bad
disposition in a son or a daughter, than their being quite
indifferent what their parents think of them. All love must
be gone in such a case as this, and the youth is in the road
to rebellion and destruction—commendation has lost its
value, censure its efficacy, and punishment its power.
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