.
That's a great deal on thank you. I just go down
all my I'm okay I feel here I'm here and thank you they're good for you
Make a strong one. Popeye.
Popeye don't eat any carrots. He eats spinach.
Well, we don't have any spinach, so eat your carrots.
I don't like carrots.
Don't force him on you, Miss Dale, if he doesn't like them.
She says it's easier for us to learn algebra.
I'm not forcing him on him, but he's got to eat something.
Pass your ketchup, Lynn.
I don't like carrots and spinach.
You're going to eat those carrots if I have to stand over you with a club.
Say something to him.
Huh?
Leave him alone. Besides, these things do have kind of a funny taste.
I don't like them too much either.
Now look, young lady, don't you start on me.
Leave him alone, Estelle. You're always on.
Always what? You're always in the newspaper. Why don't you...
I'm trying to read a couple of ball scores.
And I'm trying to get two kids to eat a meal it took me an hour and a half to fix.
If you'd fix normal food instead of some nutty recipe.
Nutty recipe? There's nothing wrong with this recipe. I got it out of the modern home.
Oh.
He's scared to make me sick.
Shut up and eat your carrots.
Leave him alone, Estelle. I'm warning you.
Don't you threaten me, Arnold.
Oh, why can't we just once have a normal meal without all of these arguments?
It's the same thing.
Come on, Lynn. Sit down.
I want to sit down.
You're the one who's going to be...
I don't know anything except what I know.
They could be crazy.
I've never heard Marge cry ears out of such a small woman in my life.
Leave us alone.
Stop screaming.
Bring Starfy where he took off with...
Lay off of him and lay off of me.
You lay off of me? I'm tired and I'm tired of...
How would you handle this situation?
Heh heh.
Wrestling with mealtime and other problems can get dreadfully sticky at times.
It's a manifest fact that we are creatures of extreme.
Invariably, we suffer from the pearl of the pendulum.
Nowhere is this more evident than in family discipline.
Too often, as parents, we assume the role of a Simon Legree.
We nail the kid to the floor every time he squeaks.
We make a federal case out of every misdemeanor.
Or, on the other hand, we become overly permissive,
paralyzed by our child's behavior,
scared to death to lay a hand on him for fear of permanently damaging his psyche.
If Junior decides to throw a brick through a plate glass window,
don't stop him.
After all, you're liable to curb his genius for throwing bricks.
In the midst of the reality of home life,
we need an authoritative base for daily disciplinary decisions.
Let's examine a slice of Scripture that sets forth the revelation of Christian discipline.
Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 4.
The book of Ephesians tells you how to live a heavenly life in a hell-like world.
The last three chapters of the book introduce us to God's orthopedic clinic.
How to walk by faith when there's a war on.
Paul underscores a series of family relationships, relationships that create responsibility.
One is the relationship and responsibility of parents to children.
Listen, Angie fathers, stop provoking your children to anger,
but bring them up in the chastening and instruction of the Lord.
Mark it well.
This command is addressed to a father, not because discipline is his exclusive role,
but because it is his established responsibility.
What could be worse than, you just wait till your father comes home
and the child waits with great expectation.
This does not mean that the father is to do all the disciplining,
but he is responsible for all that is done, or not done.
Stop provoking your child to anger.
How do you provoke to anger?
By either over-disciplining or under-disciplining.
And interestingly enough, they both produce the same result, insecurity.
Paul offers a workable option, bring them up.
How do you do that?
By chastening and by instruction.
Every competent physician practices two forms of medicine,
corrective medicine and preventive medicine.
Every good parent practices two forms of discipline, corrective and preventive.
Let's diagram the relationship between the two.
In the center, we have corrective discipline.
Is that essential?
Absolutely.
Someone asked the mother of evangelist Grady Wilson,
did you ever spank your son?
Did I ever?
I had a strap in the kitchen which hung under the motto,
I need thee every hour.
Unfortunately, too many parents know only this one form of discipline.
Corrective discipline must always have a context.
It is reinforced and made workable by preventive discipline.
Do you play with your child?
If you don't play with him, you have no right to spank him.
But I'm his parent. I can do what I want.
Right, but you can't guarantee the results.
Some time ago, I was wrestling with my son Bill.
We had been dislodged from the living room where it all began.
My wife is very strange.
She does not appreciate a heated wrestling match in the living room.
Imagine that.
My boy got me in a hold and I wanted to teach him how to break it.
So I pivoted.
Unfortunately, I got too much leverage and he went sailing through the air like a missile.
I was positive I would be tried for child brutality.
He bounced on the unyielding ground, jumped up and said,
Boy, Dad, that was terrific. Do it again.
Now the same child would have dissolved in tears if I had spanked him lightly on the bottom.
What's the difference?
It's all a matter of relationship.
Relationships create response.
The dad who corrects me is also the dad who wrestles with me, concludes the child.
One message reinforces the other.
Do you listen to your child?
I didn't ask you if you talk to him.
I know you do that.
But when was the last time you threw yourself across your daughter's bed and said,
Honey, tell me what happened today?
And you listen, really listen, with interest and personal attachment.
Do you spend time with your children?
It's not how much, but what kind.
Do you love every minute of it?
Or is it a chore, a bore?
Do you fix his broken toys?
Mend her doll's torn dress?
You see, Paul is saying discipline is not something you do to a child, but for a child.
What are you doing for yours?
May I suggest some requisites for Christian discipline?
Practical principles for applying God's word to human experience.
First, don't use comparison with other children.
Kimberly, why aren't you good like Jennifer?
There's one intelligent answer to that question.
I'm not Jennifer.
My wife and I have four children, and I never cease to be amazed at how different they are,
even though the product of the same home and parents.
Handle your children as persons, not products.
Besides, it's most unbiblical to teach your child to keep his eyes on other people.
That can be lethal.
Second, don't make fun of a child, especially his weaknesses.
The male of the species is a master with the needle.
Arriving home from the office, he's heard to bella,
well dear, what burn-off ring are we having for supper tonight?
And that really produces a betty cracker every time.
Narcasm is like sulfuric acid to human relationships.
I have seen a child with a mild speech problem, occasional stuttering,
develop a severe disability because a Ph.D. father and a highly educated mother
mimicked their son every time he stuttered.
His parents had the dubious distinction of permanently handicapping their son.
And mind you, their son felt called to preach.
It's very easy to recognize failure when dramatized in the extreme,
and especially in the life of another.
What you cannot see is what you are doing every day to develop non-correctable patterns.
Three, don't use bribes and rewards.
Son, if you keep quiet in church today, daddy will buy you that bat you want.
Pop thinks he's solving a problem.
Actually, he's creating a greater one.
All true discipline has as its goal self-discipline,
the development of internal control.
Some years ago, I was being entertained in a home
with a very bright-eyed grade schooler sitting across the table.
Her mother gave her more mashed potatoes than a professional football player could have eaten.
Then began what I have termed Operation Roe Barn.
Sally, eat your mashed potatoes.
Sally, would you please eat your mashed potatoes for mommy?
Sally, eat your mashed potatoes!
Sally, if you don't eat your mashed potatoes, you can't have any dessert.
I couldn't take my eyes off Sally.
Sure enough, before long, mother took the mashed potatoes away
and brought Sally an enormous portion of ice cream.
And I thought to myself, Sally's smarter than her mother.
She's a better student of her mother than her mother is of her.
Sally learned to use rewards as a club to browbeat her mother to obey her.
Fourth, don't be afraid to say no.
Many parents with whom I have counseled confess that they were afraid to carry out
what they knew was best for their child.
And I asked, afraid of what?
They said I feared my child would turn against me,
that he would think I didn't love him.
Your primary concern, my parent friend, is not what your child thinks of you now,
but what he will think of you twenty years from now.
You will never lose a child by doing the right things for him.
Intelligent love is always unconditional.
You may not like what they do, but you always love them,
no matter what their response is.
And sometimes, like the surgeon, you have to hurt in order to heal.
If you love your child, you will discipline him.
If you do not discipline him, you do not really love him.
Let's look at the positive side.
First, impart the expectancy of obedience.
Some parents never expect their children to obey, and they're seldom disappointed.
My younger son was playing with a friend outside my study window,
and I heard this unearthly screaming, Johnny!
But Johnny never flinched.
My boy said, Johnny, your mother is calling you.
As if he needed the information.
Yeah, I know.
Johnny said, totally ignoring his mother.
This went on for four or five times each time the decibel level rose considerably,
until finally she cut loose, Johnny!
And as calmly as I'm talking to you, I heard Johnny say to my son,
I gotta go now.
Johnny had been down that road before,
and he knew exactly when his mother meant what she said.
A father of a delinquent boy in the city of Dallas shouted,
that boy can't do anything right!
I said, sir, as long as you continue to believe he can't, he won't.
Are you in your child's back or team?
Get off his back.
Get on his team.
Second, allow the child to express his own viewpoint.
My students asked me to make a tape of one of our family councils.
We happened to be discussing the problem of tidiness.
Now I realize this is not a problem for most of you,
but there are times when our house seems to resemble Tornado Alley.
In the course of the discussion, my children were confessing the sins of their sister Beverly,
at the time she was about four years of age.
She jarred the discussion with,
But Daddy, you didn't lower it.
Do you know what she's talking about?
Do you have closets in your home?
Recall how high the clothes rod is,
especially in terms of a four-year-old.
I had promised repeatedly,
Bezels, one of these days Daddy will lower it,
so you can hang up your dresses by yourself.
But I never did.
We were expecting a child of four to do something that was absolutely impossible for her to do.
And furthermore, we made no provision to help.
Much discipline is arbitrary and without value,
because it presupposes a maturity the child does not possess.
Third, don't be afraid to admit your mistakes.
I arrived home about 8.30 one night after a long day of teaching at the seminary.
When I walked in the front door, it was a clear case of homicide.
My two boys were at it again, so I moved into action.
Disciplined the older boy, obviously the aggressor.
And as I went into my bedroom, my lovely wife said,
Sweetheart, you missed.
How's that?
Let me tell you what happened before you arrived.
And of course, this completely changed the picture.
So I had to do what I think is very difficult for any parent, apologize.
I went to the kitchen where my older son was doing the dishes, still sobbing,
and said, Bob, I'm sorry.
I goofed.
I acted too soon and without all the facts.
Will you forgive me?
I'll never forget him patting me on the shoulder and saying,
Sure, Dad, that's okay.
We all make mistakes.
We sure do.
Even parent.
Your child does not expect you to be a perfect parent,
but he does expect you to be an honest one.
Secure enough to say, I made a mistake.
Fourth, remember, discipline is a long-range process.
Casualties are essential to growth.
When my wife and I were married, we were given a lovely set of pottery.
Beautiful.
In time, our four children arrived, and we had a critical decision to make.
Will we keep the pottery intact and have children who do not know how to wash and dry dishes?
Or will we rear four children who can wash and dry dishes and, in the process, lose a few?
If you want to know which route we took, come see the one remaining remnant in our china closet.
Frequently, we view experience merely in isolation, not in relation.
Our child fails, and we immediately extend the act to a point of perversion.
In reality, it's a part of a growth process, in which children must be allowed the luxury of a mistake.
When I was a boy, I loved to play checkers.
In fact, I fashioned myself to be something of a champion checker player.
There was a man in the community, an elderly man, who was purported to be,
but in my naiveté, I felt the reason he was is he never played me.
One day I was hanging around, and the traffic was not too busy, and he said,
Son, how would you like to play checkers?
Before he could get the words out, I was sitting on the keg, setting up the checkers on the board.
We exchanged several moves, and then he fed me a checker and said, jump me.
And then another, and another, and I thought, this is easier than I expected.
As if it happened yesterday, I can still remember the puff of smoke from his pipe,
and the wry smile that broke out on his lips, as he took a checker and went,
King me, king me.
Would you believe it? With one king, he wiped every checker I had off that board.
And I got a liberal arts education regarding checker playing.
No good checker player minds losing occasional checker, as long as you're headed for king territory.
Did you as a parent lose some checkers this past week?
The real question is, where are you headed?
Are you headed for king territory?
Do you see your child in terms of his problem, or his potential?
Do you see him in terms of what he is, or in terms of what he is to become,
by the power of God at work, in him and in you?
This Peace Don't Leave New York
Hi, I'm Howard Hendricks. My favorite comic strip is Peanuts. The team was playing the
game of the year. It was sheer disaster. Charlie Brown summons his teammates to the mound for
a high-level conference. How could we be losing 168 to nothing when we're so sincere? That's
our dilemma. We're so sincere, but all too frequently we're losing the game. A thoughtful
businessman expressed it, I feel like a one-armed paper hanger suffering from a severe case
of ivy poisoning. I'm trying to put the paper on the wall, but I'm clawing my life to shred.
I'm a businessman living in a rat race society. I'm a Christian trying to make an impact on
my generation for Jesus Christ. I'm active in a local church. I'm a parent. I'm a husband.
I'm bombarded with options. But the question nags. Who is responsible for Christian education
of my children? Is it the church or the home? The Christian home. Problems and priorities.
I hope the change doesn't jar you. Actually, it's an improvement. Now let's get down to
serious business. A number of years ago while pastoring a church in the city of Fort Worth,
Texas, a woman, a mother of five children, came up at the conclusion of a morning worship
service and said, Pastor, I want you to know that every time the doors of this church are
opened, I will guarantee that my five children will be here. I was so excited in my pastor
role naivete. In fact, I shared it with my wife, but for some strange reason, she didn't
get as excited as I was, and I was soon to discover why. This was a fraud, a fraud being
perpetrated by many a Christian parent who in effect takes his child to the door of his
church and deposits him there and says, here, you lead my child to Christ. You teach him
the word of God. And in so doing, he feels he has shed himself of the responsibility
God has placed at his doorstep. And then when the product does not turn out, then he has
some convenient dumping ground on which to place the blame. The church is not and can
never become a substitute for the home. There is no substitute for a parent. The bulk of
revelation regarding rearing children is addressed not to the church, but to the parent. I want
to borrow a message, one delivered many hundreds of years ago, but as relevant as your morning's
newspaper. Relevant because it was revealed. It's found in Deuteronomy chapter 6 verses
4 through 7. Let's take just a moment to reconstruct the historical backdrop. The children of Israel
were wending their way through the wilderness and came to a place called Kadesh Barnea.
Actually, just a wide spot in the road, but a critical point because of a decision they
made there, a decision which determined their destiny. As a result of unbelief, a failure
to move in when God commanded them to go, an entire generation perished in the wilderness.
Now the children of Israel are perched on the threshold of entering the land. And Moses
delivers his magnificent obsession, the obsession of obedience. Significant to me that high
on the priority list of the series of addresses is the paramount importance of the home. Let's
take just a moment to get an overview of the passage and then look at it in detail. There
are two primary means of communicating spiritual convictions, which Moses underscores in this
passage. First, God's truth must be a thing of the heart. Then God's truth must be a thing
of the home. Let's look first at the responsibility of God's truth gripping the heart. There are
two strands to Moses' argument in verses four and five and six. First, revelation demands
a response. And secondly, relationship determines reality. In verse four, we read here, O Israel,
Jehovah our God is one Jehovah. That's the great Old Testament Shema. That's the doctrinal
affirmation of Judaism. But doctrine is dynamic. Revelation demands a response. The moment
God says something, man is obligated to do something. And the response is found in verse
five. And thou shalt love Jehovah thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul
and with all thy might. The response is to be one of love. And the greater the relationship
of love with the living Lord, the greater the relationship with the family. You see,
my friends, you cannot impart what you do not possess. There must be first of all a
personal relationship to the living Lord as a parent. This becomes the basis of communication
to the child. A number of years ago when I was ministering in Mount Hermon, California,
the conclusion of one of the sessions, a woman came up. She had punctured several conversation
groups. We were talking together in a discussion. She moved into the midst of this group, placed
her hand directly in front of my face and said, Professor Hendrix, I said, just a moment.
And then she continued to persist. And finally I said, Madam, what is your question? Well,
she said, Professor Hendrix, what I would like to know is what can you tell me that
will help make my children more patient? I don't know if it's ever occurred to you that
even preachers have temptation. Fortunately, on this occasion, I resisted. But actually,
the answer to that question is very simple. You want your children to be more patient?
Ask God to make you more patient. You want your children to be more thoughtful? Ask Him
to develop you into a thoughtful person. I used to pray the prayer, Lord, change my children,
and nothing happened. And then I began to pray, Lord, change my children's father. And
to the extent that God moved into my life and brought supernatural change, then I saw
the most dramatic revolutionary changes in the life of my children. But you will also
note in this passage, relationship determines reality. In verse 6, these words which I command
thee this day shall be upon thine heart. You see, my friends, you communicate not by what
you say, but by what you are. What is it that disgusts you most about your children? The
fact that they remind you so much of yourself. Knowledge must be translated into experience.
Let's suppose that I were to tell you at the conclusion of the meeting I was planning to
sell a bottle. This has hair restoring oil in it. Now, please don't laugh, because this
is a very serious matter. Let's suppose I were to tell you this was a special concoction
of Texas herbs. I'm going to sell it for $2 a bottle, guaranteed to put hair on your head.
How many of you would buy a bottle? Well, there's one man here. Let's face it, some
of the rest of you need it more than he does. Guaranteed to put hair on your head only $2
a bottle. You know, this is the most skeptical audience I have ever spoken to. Most of you
would say, look, Hendrix, bend over. If that stuff is so good, you get hair on your head
and we'll buy a carload of the stuff. We'll franchise it for you in this area. But often
this is exactly what we're trying to do in our homes. We are trying to communicate that
which we do not possess ourselves. And it's impossible to share with others that which
has never really worked in our own life. Now, in this passage, we've seen, first of all,
the fact that God's truth must be a thing of the heart. That's true because revelation
demands a response and because relationship determines reality. But it is also true, Moses
says, God's truth must be a thing of the home. And mark the connection. If it's not in the
heart, it will never be in the home because that is where the heart is revealed. It's
in the home where the master's torn off. It's in the home where reality is seen for what
it is. It's relatively easy for me to come here and fool you and pull the wool over your
eyes, but I cannot fool my wife and four children. They know if I have the real disease or not.
One of the commonly asked questions I receive is this, why is it that I have failed? I've
done everything that people have told me to do and yet I've blown it. My friend, perhaps
the answer is found in Deuteronomy 6 and verse 7 where Moses says, and thou shall teach them
diligently unto thy children and shall talk of them when thou sittest in thine house and
when thou walkest by the way and when thou liest down and when thou risest up. There
are two words you want to underline, not only in your Bible, but in your mind. Those words
are teach and talk. Teach conveys the idea of formal instruction. Talk conveys the idea
of informal communication and both are needed in the home if we're going to communicate
our convictions to our children. Someone has called the home the world's greatest university.
A thousand times a day to the spiritually sensitized parent, God provides an opportunity
to relate the truth of His word to the life and the experience of a child. Nothing phony
about this. You don't need to invent those relations. Why is the home the key to spiritual
learning? The answer, it provides a natural and reality-oriented environment, the place
where a realistic philosophy of education can be carried out. The home is sliced with
reality. The best place to teach reality is in a reality-oriented sphere. Now there are
four spheres emphasized by the four words which we read in our passage. Sit, walk, lie
down, rise up. You communicate first of all when you are sitting. An outstanding couple
in the city of Dallas left business, went into vocational Christian work and a great
personal sacrifice. One night at family worship, Timmy, the youngest boy, said, mommy, do you
think Jesus would mind if I ask him for a shirt? Why, of course not. So she wrote in
the little prayer request book, shirt for Timmy, and added, size seven. You can be sure
that every night Timmy saw to it that they prayed for the shirt. Don't forget mommy,
let's pray for the shirt. Every night they prayed for the shirt. Weeks they prayed for
the shirt. Then one day she received a telephone call from a Christian businessman in downtown
Dallas who was in the clothing business. He said, I just finished our July clearance sale
and knowing that you have four boys it occurred to me that I have something you might use.
He said, could you use some boy's shirts? She said, what size? He said, size seven.
What would you have done? Well, most of us would have taken the shirts and we'd have
stuffed them in the bureau drawer and made some casual comment to the child. Not that
wise set of parents that night is expected. Don't forget mommy, let's pray for a shirt.
Timmy, we don't need to pray for a shirt. We don't. No, the Lord has already answered
your prayer. He has. That's right in this previously arranged time he went out, got
a shirt, brought it in, put it on the table. Timmy's eyes were like saucers. He went out,
bang, ow, bang, till he found like twelve shirts on the table and Timmy thought God
was going into the shirt business. But you see there is a boy in Dallas by the name of
Timothy who believes there's a God in heaven interested enough in a boy's needs to provide
a shirt. Your kids know that? These are the opportunities strategically arranged by the
Spirit of God to relate truth to the life of a child. And then Moses says, when you're
walking, when you have those opportunities of strong interpersonal relationships with
your children, these are the times that ought to be capitalized on for communication.
A number of years ago I came home from the seminary. Rather late I had to speak at a
banquet across town and as my car drove into the driveway my lights fell upon my boy's
bicycle tire, flat as a doornail. We have a motto in our home, tomorrow we get organized.
And I had said, son, one of these days we're going to fix that tire. And I knew that since
I was leaving for a week of ministry it was either now or never. So I tore in, fixed the
bicycle tire, took off across town, got to the banquet about 20 minutes late. And the
dear MC had ulcers on his ulcer by the time I arrived. He was really shook up. Where in
the world have you been? I said, I'm awfully sorry but I had a flat. You had a flat? I
thought you had a new car. He said, I did. It was my boy's bicycle tire. Boom! This
boy's cork went off. And quite frankly he gave me a portion of his mind I don't really
think he could afford to lose. And after he got through, I hope graciously, I assure you
firmly I said to him, my friend, did it ever occur to you that on certain occasions it's
far more important that I fix my boy's bicycle tire than that I eat your meal? And I went
away from ministry and as always I look forward to returning home. When I got home I said,
hey Bob, let's go play ball. And we took the ball out and threw it around and then we took
a little walk through a wooded area not too far from our home. We stopped by a little
creek to throw some stones in and I said, hey Bob, do you love me? He said, I sure do
Dad. He said, that's wonderful. Why do you love me? Why do I love you? Man, I don't know.
You know, how philosophic can you get for eight? Well I said, pal, you never want to
love anybody or anything without a reason. Frankly I forgot all about it. Must have been
a half an hour later suddenly he turned around to me and said, hey Dad, I got a reason. I
said, a reason for what? Why I love you. Oh, I said, really? Why Bob? He said, because
you play ball with me and fix my bicycle tire. You know my friends, my children are not impressed
by the fact that I travel back and forth across America in preaching. You know my friends,
my kids are not impressed by the words that very easily cascade from my lips. They are
only impressed by the reality of Jesus Christ in my life. And that comes, that's communicated
to them in the process of these strong interpersonal relations. And then it's interesting, Moses
says, when you retire, you know it's been an exhausting day. Done a lot of work around
the house, you're just shut. You're just about to drop off and your teenage girl comes rushing
into the bedroom and says, hey mom, guess what? You say what honey? Sally dropped out of school
today. Oh really? Why? Well, she's expecting a baby. You know many times it's when questions
or comments like this are brought up that you have the strongest opportunities from
an educational point of view to relate the truth of God on that particular subject. Then
it's not sermon 794J, but it's the type of thing that comes through in terms of something
she's plugged into at the reality level. But then Moses also says, when you're rising up,
man, father of four came to see me some time ago. He's having extreme difficulty with his
teenage son who's sort of kicking over the tracers. And I appreciate and can identify
with his problem. And he walked into my office and said, what can I do to get the relationship
back? And I said to him, what does your boy like to do? Well, he loves to go fishing.
I said, when's the last time you've been fishing with him? Oh, it's been years. I said, then
why don't you ask him if you can have a fishing trip with him? So he goes home and he announces
to his boy, son, next Saturday, we are going on a fishing trip. His boy says, dad, you
may be going, but I'm not going. Dear pop, just about let him have it. You're not going.
How come? Oh, he said, you remember dad, many years ago, I wanted to go fishing with you
and you were too busy. Now you want to go fishing with me and I'm too busy. So what's
your problem? You see, my friends, you cannot plug into a person's life in terms of your
timing. You need to relate truth in terms of the timing and need of the child. Moses
has some intensely practical counsel to give concerning communicating God's truth. It must
first be a thing of the heart because revelation demands response. Relationship determines
reality. But it must also be a thing of the home and it will never be in your home until
it's in your heart. Is God's truth in your heart, in your home? A.V. Lunacharsky, first
Commissar of Education in the Russian Republic following the revolution, paraphrased a Russian
proverb in these words. We can mold a child of five or six into anything we want. At the
age of nine or ten, we have to bend him. At the age of sixteen or seventeen, we must break
him. And thereafter one may well say, only the grave can correct a hunchback. Have you
evaluated your priorities lately? Are you relying upon the church to do your work for
you? There is no substitute for a parent.
A.V. Lunacharsky, first Commissar of Education in the Russian Republic following the revolution,
paraphrased a Russian proverb in these words.