Do not treat your children only with sternness, forgetting your own childhood and forgetting that they are but children. Do not expect them to be perfect or try to make them men and women in their acts at once. By so doing you will close the door of access which you might otherwise have to them and will drive them to open a door for injurious influences, for others to poison their young minds before you awake to their danger.—Testimonies for the Church 1:387 (1863). {1MCP 170.4}

Behandle ikke kun jeres børn strengt, og glemme jeres egen barndom og glemme at de kun er børn. Forvent ikke at de skal være fuldkomne eller prøve at (171) gøre dem til mænd og kvinder med det samme. Derved vil du lukke adgangsdøren som I ellers skulle have åben til dem og vil drive dem til at åbne døren for skadelige påvirkninger, så andre kan forgifte deres unge sind, før du er klar over deres fare. - IT 387 (1863).