Parent and Child Volume III., Child Study and Training

by Mosiah Hall

HABIT CONTINUED

Right Habits Must Be Acquired Early; Wrong Habits Are Broken Only Through Tremendous Effort

Whatsoever the parent desires in his child in the nature of attainment or skill, of character or ideal, if not foreign to the nature of the child, may be realized through attention to habit. But the training in right habits should be accomplished during the golden age of childhood when body and soul are plastic and impressions are easily made. Too early the character hardens like cement and thereafter becomes well nigh impossible to change. Think how difficult it is for the adult, but how easy for the child, to acquire skill in music, or facility in speaking a foreign language. With respect to moral virtue and spiritual sentiment, whatsoever good fruit you look for in the man usually appears as seed and flower in the child.

Among the habits that should be impressed early, habits that are absolutely essential to success in life, are the following:

1. Promptness and regularity.

2. Obedience to right and justice.

3. Truthfulness and honesty.

4. Thoroughness.

5. Industry or the habit of work.

6. Persistence.