103: O handmaid of God!… To the mothers must be given the divine Teachings…
O handmaid of God!… To the mothers must be given the divine Teachings
and effective counsel, and they must be encouraged and made eager to train
their children, for the mother is the first educator of the child. It is she
who must, at the very beginning, suckle the new-born at the breast of God’s
Faith and God’s Law, that divine love may enter into him even with his mother’s
milk, and be with him till his final breath.
So long as the mother faileth to train her children, and start them on a
proper way of life, the training which they receive later on will not take its
full effect. It is incumbent upon the Spiritual Assemblies to provide the
mothers with a well-planned programme for the education of children, showing
how, from infancy, the child must be watched over and taught. These
instructions must be given to every mother to serve her as a guide, so that
each will train and nurture her children in accordance with the Teachings.
(“Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá” [rev. ed.], (Haifa:
Bahá’í World Centre, 1982), sec. 113, p. 138) [103]