Admonitions for Parents 1

I found this needed (for ME) and very profound article recently titled "Admonitions for Parents: Lessons by Our Holy Father John Chrysostomos on Raising Children". It is a list of 39 admonitions and I thought it would be a great Lenten Journey, for the rest of Lent anyway. There are 26 days left until Pascha, so each day I'll post one or two of these admonitions, in order they appear in the article. I cannot find the word I want to use to describe how these admonitions REALLY grabbed my heart and soul, jerking from my selfishness and putting me in my place. So here goes day 1:

1. Having children is a matter of nature; but raising them and educating them in the virtues is a matter of mind and will. [1]

2. By the duty of raising them I mean not only not allowing them to die of hunger, as people often limit their obligation toward their children to doing. For this, is needed neither books nor rubrics, for nature speaks of it quite loudly. I am speaking of the concern for educating childrens hearts in virtues and piety—a sacred duty which cannot be transgressed without thereby becoming guilty of the childrens murder, in a certain sense.

1. The first part is taken from Christian Reading, 1838, part 4, pp. 242-253, which was taken from vol. 5, Benedict in Mund; vidua Eligatur.