The minister who keeps back hell from his people in his sermons is neither a faithful nor a charitable man.
J. C. RyleRead
Instruction, and advice, and commands will profit little, unless they are backed up by the pattern of your own life. Your children will never believe you are in earnest, and really wish them to obey you, so long as your actions contradict your counsel... Think not your children will practise what they do not see you do. You are their model picture, and they will copy what you are... will seldom learn habits which they see you despise, or walk in paths in which you do not walk yourself.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Children learn more from observing their parents than from their words alone.
This quote emphasizes the importance of leading by example when it comes to parenting. It suggests that children are more likely to adopt the values, behaviors, and habits of their parents when they see them actively practicing what they preach. If parents' actions do not align with their advice, children may become skeptical and less likely to follow guidance that contradicts their observations.
Themes
ParentingExampleBehaviorChildrenValues
In practice
Example use cases
In a parenting seminar discussing the effectiveness of role modeling.
More from J. C. Ryle
All quotes →Good hymns are an immense blessing to the Church. They train people for heaven, where praise is one of the principal occupations.
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When I speak of a man growing in grace, I mean simply this - that his sense of sin is becoming deeper, his faith stronger, his hope brighter, his love more extensive, his spiritual mindedness more marked.
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Those who confine God's love exclusively to the elect appear to me to take a narrow and contracted view of God's character and attributes....I have long come to the conclusion that men may be _x000D_ more systematic in their statements than the Bible, and may be led into grave error by idolatrous veneration of a system
J. C. RyleRead
Never be satisfied with the world's standard of Christianity!
J. C. RyleRead
Sunday morning, before we go to hear the Word of God preached...let us not rush into God’s presence careless, reckless, and unprepared, as if it mattered not in what way such work was done. Let us carry with us faith, reverence, and prayer. If these three are our companions, we will hear with profit, and return with praise.
J. C. RyleRead
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Children are the hands by which we take hold of heaven.
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