JOHN WESLEY MOMENTS
DAVE HANSON
In his sermon on The Education of Children, John Wesley urges parents to make sure to never give children the things they cry for. He says that if you give children the things they cry for you will only teach them to cry for more. Wesley taught that parents must teach their children to obey them else they will never learn to obey God. He even went so far as to caution against praising your children lest you build their pride.
Much of what he taught about educating children he learned from the actions of his own mother, Susanna.
However, in his sermon he warns:
“Your mother, or your husband’s mother, may live with you, and you will do well to show her all possible respect. But let her on no account have the least share in the management of your children. She will undo all that you had done; she would give them their own will in all things. She would humour them to the destruction of their souls, if not of their bodies too. In fourscore years I have not met with one woman who knew how to manage grandchildren. My own mother, who governed her children so well, could never govern one grandchild …”
“Saw it, liked it, told Grandma, got it!”