the challenges and opportunities of a changing world. We note also the pressures that children and young people feel from the surrounding culture and especially from their peers. Even such positive changes as increased freedom and equality for women may cause new tensions as working parents seek to provide for children the caring atmosphere that was once the primary responsibility of an at-home parent and the extended family.

To watch the spirit of children, to nurture them in Gospel Love, and labour to help them against that which would mar the beauty of their minds, is a debt we owe them, and a faithful performance of our duty not only tends to their lasting benefit and our own peace, but also to render their company agreeable to us.

--John Woolman, 1758

It is the responsibility of the family, however constituted, to nurture and reinforce our children's fundamental spiritual life and growth. Family members need to value each other's feelings, thoughts, and questions, in addition to loving each other. Such a foundation gives children assurance and security to order their relationships with God, with others, with nature, and with themselves. Respectful communication between family members, seasoned with a sense of humor, fosters self-respect and consideration for others, even with the youngest children.

When children learn to pray within the family, prayer becomes a precious part of their daily lives. Speaking to God in their own way, they learn that answer to prayer comes in ways that are sometimes unexpected. Through daily devotions and quiet waiting upon the Spirit, parents help their children to grasp Friends' approach to religion and to feel God's love. Experiencing the essence of worship is also fostered through the whole family's sharing of attendance at meeting.

There is no generation of young minds that finds the truths and realities of religion easy of apprehension. Faith is never ready made; it must always be built. The building process is easier in some

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