mother's milk

Just thinking about motherhood and parenting and I found these amazing quotes. Please have a look - I know its a lot
I have noticed how much milk is mentioned. Granted, milk is a meta phore for many things, but Ithink there is also a literal meaning at times. I know not everyone can breastfeed and so this all is not in stone, but I love how the role of mothers is elevated to such a high station, and how its like thier milk is a part of training and building their foundation - both physically and spiritually. It says that a child, when breast feeding is like a tender branch tht can be molded any way. I think this is very true, considering how I nurse Marcel and how much influence I have over him. As I wean him, he is becoming more defiant.or independant, and testing boundaries. I really feel the connection here, and I see how the mother has such a powerful influence, especially as the baby is nursing...very interesting dont you think?
The father's role, and the responsibilities of those who dont have children, are also explained very clearly, I think this is wonderful in thinking about how to raise our kids, how we value future societies and community.

O My Lord! O my Lord!

I am a child of tender years. Nourish me from the breast of Thy mercy, train me in the bosom of Thy love, educate me in the school of Thy guidance and develop me under the shadow of Thy bounty.

(Compilations, Baha'i Prayers, p. 36)


" Unless the child, in his earliest years, be carefully tended, whether in a material or a spiritual sense, whether as to his physical health or his education, it will prove extremely difficult to effect later on.

(Compilations, Lights of Guidance, p. 293)

"While the children are yet in their infancy feed them from the breast of heavenly grace, foster them in the cradle of all excellence, rear them in the embrace of bounty. Give them the advantage of every useful kind of knowledge. Let them share in every new and rare and wondrous craft and art. Bring them up to strive, and accustom them to hardship."

(Compilations, Lights of Guidance, p. 293)


If the mother be ignorant, even if the father have great knowledge, the child's education will be at fault, for education begins with the milk. A child at the breast is like a tender branch that the gardener can train as he wills.

(Compilations, The Compilation of Compilations vol II, p. 368)

For mothers are the first educators of the child, and every child at the beginning of life is like a fresh and tender branch in his parents' hands.

(Compilations, The Compilation of Compilations vol. I, p. 284)

If it be considered through the eye of reality, the training and culture of daughters is more necessary than that of sons, for these girls will come to the station of motherhood and will mold the lives of the children. The first trainer of the child is the mother. The babe, like unto a green and tender branch, will grow according to the way it is trained. If the training be right, it will grow right, and if crooked, the growth likewise, and unto the end of life it will conduct itself accordingly.

(Abdu'l-Baha, Baha'i World Faith - Abdu'l-Baha Section, p. 399)


Hence, it is firmly established that an untrained and uneducated daughter, on becoming a mother, will be the prime factor in the deprivation, ignorance, negligence and the lack of training of many children.

(Abdu'l-Baha, Baha'i World Faith - Abdu'l-Baha Section, p. 399)

Fourth: Everyone, whether man or woman, should hand over to a trusted person a portion of what he or she earneth through trade, agriculture or other occupation, for the training and education of children, to be spent for this purpose with the knowledge of the Trustees of the House of Justice.

(Baha'u'llah, Tablets of Baha'u'llah, p. 90)

Unto every father hath been enjoined the instruction of his son and daughter in the art of reading and writing and in all that hath been laid down in the Holy Tablet.

(Baha'u'llah, Tablets of Baha'u'llah, p. 128)

It is the duty of all to look after the children. Those without children should, if possible, make themselves responsible for the education of a child."

(Abdu'l-Baha, Abdu'l-Baha in London, p. 91)