We want the salvation of God to come into our families. No scolding; no fretting. I made up my mind I would not have that, at any rate, in my house. When the children disobeyed, I would take them and talk with them. I would tell them I would not do as I knew many were doing, lay the rod upon them, or the rattan, but I would tell them: Now, you have done a wrong thing. You have grieved the Spirit of God. You have grieved Christ who gave His life for you. I have taken you and adopted you as my children, and if you will come into right order, I will help you in every way possible. My husband was an invalid, and so we would take them out to ride in our carriage, and we would take our dinner, perhaps, out in the grove, and we would make it as pleasant for them as we could. {Ms82-1912}
"Instead of giving them a hurried blow that made them ten times worse, it was to have them melted down. If I could get an apple it was a strange thing, for there were scarcely any around. I would always purchase them, and I would put one under their bowl at the table. Well, they knew that I cared for them, and this is the way we tried to manage them."
But then I told them, You have done a wrong thing, and now what are you going to do about it? I am going to let this go until the evening, and I do not want you to go to bed with this sin upon you. I would make them see that they had done wrong, and they must repent of that wrong. And here, said I, is the whip. I never want to strike you a blow. I never want to do it. And I am not going to use it on you now, because you are all stirred up in yourself, and it would not be much account. But you go to evening, and then we will talk matters over. And when it come to the evening, as we would talk matters over, and they had the whole day to think of it, they said, We did do wrong. I would find that they would make their confession, and in that way I was molding their character so that I did not have to strike them a blow. They were boys, and rude and rough, but they saw I did nothing in passion. {Ms82-1912.17}
Now, said I, the evening is come and I am going to pray with you. I knelt down, and I prayed with them. I asked the Lord that their hearts might be subdued, and they be converted. Well, before I would get through they would come right to me, and put their arms around me, and say, Forgive us; we won’t do it again, we won’t do it again. {Ms82-1912.18}
Well, this is the way. Instead of giving them a hurried blow that made them ten times worse, it was to have them melted down. If I could get an apple it was a strange thing, for there were scarcely any around. I would always purchase them, and I would put one under their bowl at the table. Well, they knew that I cared for them, and this is the way we tried to manage them. {Ms82-1912.19}
Now, the light given me is that something needs to be done right here on these very grounds. We need the converting power of God. The fathers need to manage their children in such a way that their hearts will be broken, and when their hearts are broken, then you can expect that there will be some reformation. {Ms82-1912.20}
The Lord of heaven is looking down upon us; and I want to tell you how it is presented to me. Here is God who has given His only begotten Son, that these unconverted youth might be converted and brought into the truth. Now this is the way that I tried to manage it. I would get them something that they could not get themselves, and I would try to talk with them, and soften their hearts, and the Lord blessed me in it. But to let the youth go unchecked in such a place as this, which it is so sacred to me, [is not the way to manage.] My husband and I searched out this place, and then how carefully we worked to preserve every penny, that we might erect the building here, the first building. We would move so that we did gain special victories, and then we added house to house, that we might put in our patients. I want to tell you that the Lord worked with us, and the salvation of God was right with us in doing our work in this line of reform. {Ms82-1912.21}
It is no use to scold and to fret and all this, because you are educating yourself and you are educating your children in that line. What we want is to be conformed to the image of Christ. What we want is that we shall in our character represent Jesus Christ, and that will bring more souls to the truth than anything else that we can do. {Ms82-1912.22}
Well, this was the plan that we entered into, and I want to tell you that there is to be, if I have any influence that can ever be exerted, a set of youth that shall be retained here that will not stand to cause perplexity and work counter to God. You know when you are working counter to God. You know, those who are here, whether you are walking in harmony with God or not. You must consider there are those who have to bear the expenses of this one and that one and the other one. We want the Lord Jesus to be welcomed right into our homes here, but we are not to serve the devil. We are not going to permit it at all, and we want it to be understood thus. {Ms82-1912.23}
Mrs. E. G. White, Manuscript 82, 1912