Those children who are the most indulged become willful, passionate, and unlovely. Would that parents could realize that upon judicious, early training depends the happiness of both the parents and the children. Who are these little ones that are committed to our care? They are the younger members of the Lord's family. “Take this son, this daughter,” he says, “nurse them for me, and fit them up ‘that they may be polished after the similitude of a palace,’ that they may shine in the courts of the Lord.” Precious work! Important work! Yet we see mothers sighing for a wider field of labor, for some missionary work to do. If they could only go to Africa or India, they would feel that they were doing something. But to take up the little daily duties of life, and to carry them forward faithfully, perseveringly, seems to them an unimportant thing. Why is this? Is it not often because the mother's work is so rarely appreciated? She has a thousand cares and burdens of which the father seldom ha…
"Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."
The EGW passage directly addresses the training of children and its long-term effects, echoing the core message of Proverbs 22:6.
"Whatever may be his calling and its perplexities, let the father take into his home the same smiling countenance and pleasant tones with which he has all day greeted visitors and strangers. Let the wife feel that she can lean upon the large affections of her husband,—that his arms will strengthen and uphold her through all her toils and cares, that his influence will sustain hers, and her burden will lose half its weight. Are the children not his as well as hers? CE 172.2"
"Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God."
Both passages emphasize mutual support and consideration within relationships. While Ephesians 5:21 speaks to general submission, the EGW quote applies this principle specifically to the husband-wife relationship, highlighting mutual support and shared burdens.
"love of God. He should teach them that the God who made all these things loves the beautiful and the good. Christ pointed his disciples to the lilies of the field and the birds of the air, showing how God cares for them, and presented this as an evidence that he will care for man, who is of higher consequence than birds and flowers. Tell the children that however much time may be wasted in attempts at display, our appearance can never compare, for grace and beauty, with that of the simplest flowers of the field. Thus their minds may be drawn from the artificial to the natural. They may learn that God has given them all these beautiful things to enjoy, and that he wants them to give him the heart's best and holiest affections. CE 172.3"
"And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these."
The EGW passage directly references Christ pointing to the lilies of the field and birds of the air, which is a clear allusion to Matthew 6:28-29.