Your children have come up, instead of being brought up and educated to the end that they might become Christians. In many respects your cattle have received better treatment than your children. You have not done your duty to your children, but have left them to grow up in ignorance. You have not realized the responsibility you took upon yourself in bringing into the world so numerous a flock, that you were in a great measure accountable for their salvation. You cannot throw off this responsibility. You have robbed your children of their rights by not interesting yourself in their education and instructing them patiently and faithfully in regard to forming characters for heaven. Your course has done much to destroy their confidence in you. You are exacting, overbearing, tyrannical; you fret, and scold, and censure, and by so doing wean their affections from you. You treat them as though they had no just rights, as though they were machines to turn in your hands according to your pleasure. You provoke them to wrath, and often discourage them. You do not give them love and affection. Love begets love, affection begets affection. The spirit which you manifest toward your children will be reflected upon you. {2T 94.1}

Dine børn er selv kommet frem i stedet for at blive opdraget frem og uddannet til at de må blive kristne. I mange henseender har dit kvæg fået en bedre behandling end dine børn. Du har ikke gjort din pligt over for dine børn, men ladet dem vokse op i uvidenhed. Du har ikke indset det ansvar du tog på dig, ved at bringe en så mangfoldig flok i verden, at du i stor grad er ansvarlig for deres frelse. Du kan ikke kaste dette ansvar fra dig. Du har frarøvet dine børn deres rettigheder ved ikke at interessere sig for deres uddannelse og belære dem tålmodigt og redeligt så deres karakter formes for himlen. Din fremgangsmåde har ødelagt meget for deres tillid til dig. Du er fordringsfuld, bydende, tyrannisk; din irritation og udskælden og kritik (95) fjerner deres hengivenhed. Du behandler dem som de ikke har nogen egentlige rettigheder, som om de var maskiner, der indgår i dine hænder efter dit behag. Du opirrer dem til vrede og tager ofte modet fra dem. Du giver dem ikke kærlighed og hengivenhed. Kærlighed afføder kærlighed, hengivenhed afføder hengivenhed. Den ånd du viser mod dine børn vil spejle igen på dig.