conclusion the article stated: “Perhaps the most striking theme to emerge from all the scientific data is that establishing a pattern of love and trust and acceptable limits within each family is what really counts, and not lots of technical details. The true aim of discipline, a word that has the same Latin root as disciple, is not to punish unruly children but to teach and guide them and help instill inner controls.”

They Hear What You Say, They Copy What You Do

An article on discipline in The Atlantic Monthly was introduced with this statement: “A child can be expected to behave well only if his parents live by the values they teach.” The article proceeded to show the value of inner controls: “Teenagers who behaved well tended to have parents who were themselves responsible, upright, and self-disciplined​—who lived in accord with the values they professed and encouraged their children to follow suit. When the good teenagers were exposed, as a part of the investigation, to problem teenagers, their behavior was not permanently affected. They had far too securely internalized their parents’ values.” It proved to be as the proverb says: “Train up a boy according to the way for him; even when he grows old he will not turn aside from it.”​—Proverbs 22:6.

Parents who tried to instill true values in their children, but which they themselves did not follow, had no success. Their children “had not been able to internalize those values.” The study proved that “what made the difference was how closely the parents lived by the values that they tried to teach their children.”

It proves to be as author James Baldwin said: “Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.” If you love your children and you want to teach them the true values, use the best method of all: You be the example of your own teachings. Do not be like the scribes and the Pharisees that Jesus condemned as hypocrites: “Therefore all the things they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds, for they say but do not perform.” (Matthew 23:3) Or like the ones the apostle Paul questioned accusingly: “Do you, however, the one teaching someone else, not teach yourself? You, the one preaching ‘Do not steal,’ do you steal?”​—Romans 2:21.

Today many dismiss the Bible as outmoded and its guidelines as impractical. Jesus challenges that position with these words: “All the same, wisdom is proved righteous by all its children.” (Luke 7:35) The following accounts by families from many countries prove his words true.

Raising Families Worldwide​—Parenting With Love, Discipline, Example, and Spiritual Values

PARENTS from several countries have sent in reports on their successful rearing of children from babyhood through the teen years. All of them are Jehovah’s Witnesses, and therefore their reports stress the need for attention in the four areas listed in the title above. The excerpts reproduced here reflect only a few different aspects of the family training they followed.

From Hawaii

“As the Bible tells us, love is the ‘greatest’ quality. Love in all its precious facets must radiate throughout the home and family. Carol and I have shared this divine quality in our marriage. We are close. We like to be together. I cannot overemphasize my belief that the major key to successful child-rearing is a happily married couple.

“I remember to this day the powerful feelings that welled up in my heart during the days and weeks after