John R. Rice Quotes of the Week

I remember in a revival campaign there was a brilliant ten-year-old girl in the fifth grade. She was smart and cheerful and happy, but she was not saved. I spoke to the mother about it. She said, "You know, with my little girl, everything Mother does is ideal. She will do anything I want her to do. I don't think I ought to influence her unduly on whether she wants to be a Christian or not. I will let her decide that for herself."
I said, "All right. Then if she wants to get drunk, you will just say, 'That is all right; just decide for yourself.' Wouldn't that be silly? If she wants to grow up to be a street-walking harlot, you won't care; you just leave it for her to decide. I say that anybody who talks like that is silly. You are not sensible. What does God give a mother influence over her children for if not to use it for God and for good? You are going to answer to God for that girl."
That night I preached and they both came, the mother with tears, leading her ten-year-old girl, coming to trust the Saviour. I say that dads and mothers are going to give an account to God for their children. - John R. Rice

Somebody said, "Well, you can never tell how children are going to turn out."
Mrs. Rice and I just decided we would turn ours out ourselves. We would not leave it to the public school. We would not leave it to the general crowd. We would set out, by God's grace, to teach them the Word of God and win them for Christ, and we did. - John R. Rice

You say, "Oh, I hope school will start soon. I want to get them out from underfoot." In the summertime it is, "Let's get them to camp. I don't want them around here." That is a silly business. The plain truth is, you can make children so they will be a joy to have around and the kind that you will always be sorry to see leave. - John R. Rice

Population explosion? There are not too many children of the right kind. There are not too many children who are raised for God and grow up as Christians and get their education and have good reputations and happy marriages and make good in the world. There are not too many of that kind. And God is going to hold you to account for your children. - John R. Rice

God wants you to raise your children for Him. And you can do it. You are going to have to set good examples at home and leave off the habits that are wrong. Quit the quarreling and fussing, husband and wife, and set out to have discipline like God commands plainly in the Bible. With love and prayer you can do it, and God will bless your family. Your children should be brought up in the knowledge of the Lord and the fear of God and with joy and peace, too, day by day. - John R. Rice

A Christian must be different. Fix this in your mind, that this world is not for God and not for Jesus Christ. The world around us - unsaved people - we love them. Our fathers, our mothers, our neighbors, our friends - we love them. There is much to admire in them. God wants them and we want them, but we just as well face this fact, that people around us who are unconverted live in a different world. They are headed for a different destiny. They serve a different god, a different master; and a Christian is not to be like the world. - John R. Rice

The Bible says, and sensible men have long since found, that the prodigal way ends in the hogpen and a broken heart and famine and trouble. So a Christian is not to be like this. If you are going to be happy, if you are going to be a good Christian, if you are going to win others, if you are going to serve God and represent Jesus, you have to be different from this wicked world. That means the way you live, what kind of company you keep, what you eat or drink, what you read, the way you talk. Salvation ought to make a difference with a Christian. - John R. Rice