9 Oct 2020

Sabbath School for Adults: Education: Lesson 2: The Family


Friday
October 9

Further Thought: Read Ellen G. White, “Preparation,” pp. 275-282; “Cooperation,” pp. 283-286; and “Discipline,” pp. 287-297, in Education.

“Upon fathers as well as mothers rests a responsibility for the child’s earlier as well as its later training, and for both parents the demand for careful and thorough preparation is most urgent. Before taking upon themselves the possibilities of fatherhood and motherhood, men and women should become acquainted with the laws of physical development . . . ; they should also understand the laws of mental development and moral training.”—Ellen G. White, Education, p. 276.
“The work of co-operation should begin with the father and mother themselves, in the home life. In the training of their children they have a joint responsibility, and it should be their constant endeavor to act together. Let them yield themselves to God, seeking help from Him to sustain each other. . . . Parents who give this training are not the ones likely to be found criticizing the teacher. They feel that both the interest of their children and justice to the school demand that, so far as possible, they sustain and honor the one who shares their responsibility .” —Ellen G. White, Education, p. 283.

Discussion Questions:

•  Whether we have children or not, we all exist in some sort of domicile, and we all interact with others, as well. What have you learned from this week’s lesson that can help you in interacting with, or even witnessing to, others, whether in the place where you live or elsewhere?"

•  We tend to view education as a good thing. (After all, who can be against education?) But is this always the case? What might be examples of education’s having been perverted and turned into something bad? What can we learn from those negative examples that could help us make education a good thing?

•  As stated in Wednesday’s study, we all have been given the sacred gift of free will. Sooner or later, when children become young adults or even adults, they will have to make their own decisions regarding the God whom they had been taught about all their young lives. Why must all parents—and anyone, really—who seek to witness to others and to teach others the gospel, always keep in mind this crucial truth about free will?

Inside Story

Australian Risks All in Africa

By Vania Chew


Ettienne McClintock, 51, wasn’t taking anything for granted in Ethiopia.The 3ABN Australia radio host was preaching in Shisho, a rural town located 20 miles (35 kilometers) from Awassa, the second-biggest city in Ethiopia, as part of 2019 Total Member Involvement meetings organized by the East-Central Africa Division. Electricity was intermittent, and he spent the first two nights presenting in the dark.
Despite the technical challenges, more than four hundred people were attending the outdoor meetings. The crowd was far bigger than the church could handle, and Ettienne was preaching from a makeshift shelter with plastic sheets for a roof.
Ettienne was worried as he prepared for the third meeting. Although a rented generator provided power, rain began to fall just 30 minutes before opening time. He hoped people wouldn’t be deterred from attending.
The rain stopped by the beginning of the meeting, but rain clouds filled the sky. Ettienne was barely 15 minutes into his sermon when the rain started. As the downpour intensified, people left the meeting. Although Ettienne had some protection in his makeshift shelter, his audience was sitting in the open air. “The church elders and I had prayed for the rain to stay away, and now the rain had come back,” Ettienne recalled. “We had to do something. But what?”
Suddenly it came to him. Every evening, he had been sharing about God’s power over sickness, sin, and death. But God also had power over the weather. He could pray for the rain to stop. But what if God chose not to stop the rain? His message would lose credibility, and people might stop attending.
At that moment, 1 John 5:14 flashed into Ettienne’s mind: “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us” (NKJV).
"Ettienne prayed silently, “Lord, I believe, but please help my unbelief.” Through his interpreter, he invited the audience to pray with him for the rain to stop. Moments after he said, “Amen,” the rain stopped. It didn’t rain again for the rest of the program. After the sermon, about two hundred people came to the front to ask for prayer. There were people kneeling everywhere,” Ettienne said. “As we knelt in the dirt, we prayed a prayer of thanksgiving and dedication to God.”Seeing half of the audience kneeling on the ground,
Ettienne remembered his family and friends praying for his meetings in Australia. He thanked God for their prayers. “God gave me a new experience,” he said. “Up until that point in my life, I took low risks for God with low rewards. This was a high risk that made me feel uncomfortable and vulnerable, but the reward was amazing.”

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