Parents: The Greatest Impact of All

"In the sun-spattered study at Elmshaven, the California home of Ellen White, Arthur Whitefield Spalding received what he always felt to be his personal "great commission." Mrs. White, a silver-haired widow in her eighties and the acknowledged prophet of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, had called the young man into her study to discuss an issue that would shape his future.

The year was 1913. For the past eight months Arthur, a writer, had been living in the White home working on two book-length manuscripts Ellen White had asked him to write. Now the editing was finished. Arthur would be leaving the next day. Mrs. White handed the finished manuscript to him.

"Well done, Brother Spalding," she told him. "And now--" She paused and leaned toward him. "I want to talk with you about the importance of the work to be done for parents in the church. You are a teacher. You are also a father. Your work as a father is the most important educational work you can ever do. The work of parents underlays every other. Let the ministers do all they can, let the teachers do all they can, let the physicians and nurses do all they can to enlighten and teach the people of God; but despite all their efforts the work done by the parents will have the strongest influence on the church." She paused again. "Oh, how I wish," she continued, with an expressive lifting of her hands, "that I could go out as I used to and stand before the people. I would teach them of the great importance of training their children for God."

"But, Sister White," Arthur Spalding spoke up, "You have taught them. You have counseled them and they can read it in your books." "Yes, I know," she answered, "It is written there. But what good will it do if our people don't read it or understand it or, most important, don't follow the counsel?" "Do you mean that teaching parents how to train their children is the most important work we have?"

"Oh, yes," Mrs. White answered emphatically. "We have not begun to touch it with the tips of our fingers." Arthur Spalding had a great concern for the proper training of children. But Spalding looked up startled at Mrs. White as she continued: "Isn't there some way you can reach parents, Brother Spalding? These children should be a great army trained to work for the Lord; they could finish God's work on this earth in a short time, and then Christ could come! You must speak to the children and the parents too. Yes, and write for them. I feel God is calling you to this work." The prophet's eyes were far away as she spoke again, as if in answer to his unspoken thoughts. "There is a great work for you, Brother Spalding. God has not only given you a talent for writing, but He will give you a talent for speaking. You must develop it; you must instruct young parents from the pulpit, giving them concrete instruction from the Bible and from my books. Don't you feel God calling you to this work?"

"Sister White," he said in a clear distinct voice, "if you feel God wants me to do this work, I will accept it." He smiled, shaking his head. "But I am no natural speaker. You must pray for me. Not once, not twice, but every day, so long as you shall live."

"I will do that," she promised. As she turned to gaze through the windows to her left, he saw the troubled look leave her eyes. "Give them lessons from the great book of nature, Brother Spalding," she said. "It's all there in God's handiwork. The strength of the mountains, the song of the birds, the blossoming of each rose---how I treasure them all. And the peace that comes over one's soul as the sunshine plays among the leaves of these mighty oaks. There is still much beauty in the world, sin-ridden though it be."