What have we done with the child untrusted to us?
 

According to Emmanuel, youth can be compared to a hopeful departure boat to an important trip. "Childhood is a preparation, old age will be the arrival at the port", added the well-known spiritual teacher, who was, as we know, the coordinator of the work of psychic Chico Xavier.

Much has been written in this magazine about the role of parents and the importance of the task before them in reincarnation program to those whom God has entrusted to their care, about which we read in the main spiritist work the following question:

582. Can it consider fatherhood a mission? "It is with no possible defense, a real mission. It is both very great duty and which involves more than the man thinks his responsibility for the future. God placed the son under the guardianship of parents, so that they indicate him on the path of good, and made their work easier giving to the son a weak and delicate organization, which makes him suitable for all impressions. There are many, however, who would take care of plumb trees in his own garden and make them bear good fruit in abundance, than to form the character of his child. If this child succumbs because of their fault, they will bear the grief resulting from this fall and share the sufferings of the child in later life, for not doing what was within their reach for it to move forward on the road as well." (The Spirit’s Book, issue 582.)

A better understanding of the mission given to parents it can be assessed reading the following excerpt from one message written by the Spirit of St. Augustine and published in The Gospel According to Spiritism:

"Oh spirits! Now understands the great role of humanity; understands that when bring forth a body, a soul that embodies it comes from space to advance; look for your duties and put all your love into that soul get closer to God, so that the mission you are trusted and which receive reward if faithfully obey. The care and education that shall give him will help its improvement and its future welfare. Remember that every father and every mother God will ask: What have you done with the child entrusted to your custody? If because of your fault he kept late, you shall see him, as your punishment, among the suffering spirits, when depended on you to be happy. So yourselves, harassed with remorse, you will ask to be granted to repair your fault; you will request, for you and for him, another incarnation in the midst of better care and that he, full of recognition, reward you with his love. (...)

"The task is not as difficult as it may seem to you. It does not require knowledge of the world. It can perform it as ignorant as the wise, and Spiritism makes easier its performance, stating the cause of the imperfections of the human soul. Since little, the child shows good instincts and bad that brings it from its former existence. Studying it parents should apply themselves. All ills arise from selfishness and pride. Peek therefore parents minor’s telltale signs of the germ of such vices and care to fight them without expecting to launch deep roots. Do as the good gardener who cuts the defective shoots as he sees the point in the tree. If you let them develop selfishness and pride, do not be surprised to be later paid with ingratitude." (The Gospel According to Spiritism, Chapter XIV, section 9.)

Reading the above lessons, brought to us by the two most important works of the spiritual doctrine, it does not cause any strangeness in the familiar warning that Ecclesiastes, referring to youth of all ages, consigned:

"Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth, and recreate yourself your heart in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and the sight of thine eyes: but know thou that for all these things will bring you God for judgment.

Away, because the wrath of thy heart, and removes evil from your flesh, because adolescence and youth are vanity.

Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, before the evil days come and the years draw nigh of which thou may say. Have no pleasure in them." (Ecclesiastes 11:9 to 12:1.)

In the face of such clear and profound advice, it behooves us as only ask: - What have we done with the son that God entrusted to us?