We should teach them to accept everything we require of them as for their good.
I have heard it said by some that we should require nothing of children which they cannot understand; we should explain and give a reason for everything we desire them to do. I warn you solemnly against such a notion. I tell you plainly that I think it is an unsound and unscriptural principle. No doubt it is absurd to make a mystery of everything we do, and there are many things which it is well to explain to children, in order that they may see that they are reasonable and wise. But to bring them up with the idea that they must take nothing on trust — that they, with their weak and imperfect understandings, must have the “why” and “wherefore” made clear to them at every step they take — this is indeed a fearful mistake and likely to have the worst effect on their minds.
Set before them the example of Isaac, in the day when Abraham took him to offer him on Mount Moriah (Gen. 22). He asked his father that single question, “Where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” And he got no answer but this: “The Lord will provide Himself a lamb.” How or where or whence or in what manner or by what means — all this Isaac was not told, but the answer was enough. He believed that it would be well because his father said so, and he was content.