By Xiaowen, Spain

Parents all wish their children to have good prospects and become successful in the future. Therefore, they make their children attend all kinds of extracurricular classes to develop their various skills, so that their children can rise up high in society in the future. However, reality is usually not as we hope it will be. After much effort, they not only don’t get their deserved rewards, but on the contrary they make their children live in pain and depression. As a result, their relationship with their children become more and more estranged. I used to be one among them. Fortunately, God’s salvation came upon me and made me find the correct way to educate my child.

After I got married, I gave birth to a lovely son. When he learned to speak, I began to teach him to read and recite poems. When he reached school age, I put all my effort into his studies and bought a lot of learning materials for him. Every day after school, when my son was doing his homework, I would coach him by his side. If he gave wrong answers to any questions, I would give him a lot of similar exercises to practice and repeat them until he gave them all right answers. Every time after he finished his homework, I would give him some extra assignments to complete. In every exam, if he wasn’t the best in class, I would scold him. Later, when my child looked at me, his eyes revealed his fear and unease. Seeing this, I felt painful and wanted to comfort him. But when I thought that all I did was to let him live a better life in the future, I would restrain myself and continue treating him severely, believing that he would understand one day. When he was in third grade, taekwondo classes were offered in our town. I thought: If my son has a special skill, he will have more space to develop. So, I made him take taekwondo class. This way, his time was fully occupied with his study and taekwondo. He said cryingly that he didn’t want to take taekwondo lessons. So, every time I sent him there, he pursed his lips and looked very unhappy.

Because I was busy with work and had no time, I asked my husband’s parents to ferry my son to and from school. However, when I came back from work and went to fetch him from my parent-in-law’s house, he avoided me and was unwilling to go home. Once, I didn’t fetch him for several days and had thought he would be happy to see me. Unexpectedly, he said to me unhappily, “Why are you here? I won’t go with you. Go away! I don’t want you to come here.” I asked him why, and he said he wasn’t willing to stay with me. Gradually, I found he smiled less and less. In the past, he would tell me what happened at school, but now he didn’t want to tell me anything. Sometimes, I wanted to talk to him, but he told me not to bother him with the excuse of having a lot of homework. I felt there was an invisible wall between us, and the intimacy between my son and I disappeared. Thinking that I paid so much effort in order for him to have good prospects, but I never expected that he not only would not understand me, but instead we became estranged from each other. I felt sad and troubled, not knowing why this happened. When facing such a relationship, I felt helpless.

Afterward, I was fortunate to accept God’s kingdom gospel. One day, I saw these words of God, “Everyone starts planning as soon as they have children: I want my child to receive what kind of education, attend what university, and then find a good job, and have a stable footing and status in society. That is, the first thing to have in life is knowledge, an academic degree, and then one will have status and power in society. That way, they will have living capital throughout their lives and power in the world, making it easy for them to survive and make a steady living. They won’t have to worry about food, clothing and shelter in the future. … People all hope that their children can be successful. Everyone hopes their children can go to a famous university, then take up advanced studies, earn a degree, and afterward stand out among others and gain a firm foothold in society. People all have this viewpoint and all want their children to pursue higher education because of the saying: ‘The worth of other pursuits is small, the study of books excels them all.’ Furthermore, competition in this modern society is especially intense. If they don’t have a university degree or have a firm foothold in society, making a living becomes a problem in the future. This is everybody’s thinking and point of view. That is, what you learn and what kind of educational background you can achieve will decide your livelihood, your future. In other words, people intend to rely on this thing to survive throughout life, and they see it as especially important. That’s why everyone sees receiving a high-level education and getting into a top university as the number one most important thing for their children.” After reading God’s words, I understood: Over these years, I have been living by Satan’s poisons, such as “Knowledge can change your fate,” “The worth of other pursuits is small, the study of books excels them all,” and “No pain, no gain,” so I forced my son to acquire knowledge, bought him various learning materials, sent him to training classes, and so on. All this made him overburdened at such a young age. Also, when he didn’t come top in exams, I even scolded him. This caused him to be afraid of even seeing me and he was under great pressure when he was with me. So he was reluctant to come home. Not until now did I realize that the reason why I brought him so much hurt was because I relied on Satan’s poisons to educate him, so that both he and I were tired. In the past, I thought educating him like this was good for him, and was in order to let him have good prospects and gain status in society. Now, I see all I did is no good for my child but is obviously a torment for him. This is Satan’s deception and affliction! My child, of this tender age, should have freedom, vigor and vitality, but he seems gloomy and is distant from me. Only at this moment did I realize that we both were victims poisoned by Satan. It is God’s words that let me have some discernment of satanic poisons and the wrong way of educating my son. I decided not to force my child to study and I would read more of God’s words and find a way to practice in God’s words.

One Sunday afternoon, I was going to attend a meeting. Before I was leaving, I exhorted my son to finish his homework. When I came back home from the gathering, I saw my child was watching TV and thought that he had finished his homework. I didn’t imagine that after supper, he would say, he hadn’t finished his homework yet. Hearing his words, I became angry, thinking, “On weekdays, you finish your homework late. So, you have no time to review your lessons. Today is Sunday, but you still didn’t hurry up with your homework and then review. This way, how can you do well in your exams?” The more I thought about it, the angrier I became. Just when I was about to scold him, I thought of my previous painful experience. So I hurriedly came before God and prayed to Him, asking Him to quiet my heart so that I wouldn’t rely on corrupt satanic disposition to educate my son. After my prayer, I saw a passage of words of “Sermons and Fellowship on Entry Into Life”: “What is the point of view of some people who still want to make their children successful now? It is Satan’s point of view. You have Satan’s point of view and the way you are going is also Satan’s way. Where are you pushing your children to? Are you not pushing them to hell? You have died and not been saved and your children have also died and not been saved either. You have not brought your children to the ark. Noah worshiped God. In that era, he was a righteous man and was saved. When God wished to destroy that era, God was righteous and said: Noah is a righteous man. I cannot let Noah perish as well, I must save him. God instructed Noah to make an ark. Noah was a righteous man and God wanted to save him. His children also benefited by association. Why did they benefit? Because Noah also made his children worship God and made them believe in God. Although they did not have such strong faith, Noah led them in this way and brought them before God and regardless of the outcome, Noah fulfilled his duty and God saved them too. They benefited from their association with Noah. Is that not the case? How do you view your children now?”

After reading this passage of fellowship, I was suddenly awakened: Although I realized that “The worth of other pursuits is small, the study of books excels them all” is Satan’s poison and it corrupts us humans, my viewpoint is still unchanged—I still hope my child can have a bright future. However, Noah not only listened to God’s words and built an ark, but did his utmost to bring his children before God. Finally, when God destroyed the world with a flood, all eight of his family members survived and got God’s great salvation. Noah was the one who was really responsible for his children’s prospects. At this time, I thought of myself: I clearly know that God has expressed words and done work to save us mankind, and this is the last salvation God bestows on us corrupted mankind. Once God’s work of bringing salvation to people comes to an end, those who don’t get God’s salvation and still live under Satan’s dominion will be laid low by the great disasters of the last days. Though I clearly know God’s work, I don’t bring my child before God in order for him to be saved by God but still employ the methods Satan uses to educate him. I’m totally leading him to Satan’s path and ruining his opportunity of being saved by God. If it is really for the good of my child, then I should educate him according to God’s words so that he cannot be poisoned and devoured by Satan’s evil trends. Only this is leading him to the right path. Thus, I didn’t scold him any longer. I prayed to God and made up my mind to lead my child to take the right path according to God’s words.

Later, with regard to my child’s academic grades, I no longer forced him as long as he tried his best. In our free time, we would read God’s words and fellowship together. Gradually, my child kept no secrets from me and there is more laughter and chatter in my family. I never expected that when I educated my child according to God’s will, he was the best in almost every exam. More importantly, from God’s words my child understood what positive things are and what negative things are. Once, my son told me that his classmates usually asked him to go to Internet cafes to play games, smoke, or engage in a gang fight, but he refused them. This is because, after reading God’s words, he knew these things are used by Satan to corrupt and lure man and make man degenerate, and that they are Satan’s tricks. Hearing what he said, I kept giving thanks to God in my heart. Because I knew this is God’s salvation for my son and me. Now, I don’t have to care about my son’s future any more. All the glory be to God!