Love Your Children Enough to

(Prov 22:15 NLT) A youngster's heart is filled with foolishness, but physical discipline will drive it far away.

Here Solomon brings up something that is not popular today: physical discipline in parenting. The Good News Bible translation of this verse reads, "Children just naturally do silly, careless things, but a good spanking will teach them how to behave." Believe me, Solomon was not an advocate of child abuse, and quite honestly, no one in his day would have confused what he is saying with anything other than parenting. While it is flat-out wrong to abuse a child, we cannot fail to correct them under the guise of 'political correctness.' Today it seems like people want to accept anything and everything, as if everything is right and nothing is wrong.

No, our Heavenly Father parents us (spiritually) and He expects us to parent our children spiritual and naturally. While parenting is very rewarding (I have two children) because you realize the Father has entrusted you with the well-being and developmental responsibilities of other human beings, it can also be a time consuming, emotion stirring, and heart draining experience. But we, as Godly parents, we must parent, no matter the cost in time, energy, and effort.

We were all born after Adam (with a sin nature) and we must therefore be Born-Again after Jesus (in righteousness). Children have a natural tendency to say "No" and to do things that will be harmful for them in the long run. In chapter 13 Solomon said, "Those who spare the rod of discipline hate their children. Those who love their children care enough to discipline them" (v.24). That's strong language, but the Bible does not pull any punches here. If we love our children we must correct them when they are going astray. And don't wait until it's too late either. In chapter 19 Solomon said, "Discipline your children while there is hope. Otherwise you will ruin their lives" (v.18). You don't want to wait until your children are adults to begin to discipline them, because by then they may not hear what you have to say. They need to know early off in their development that they have parents who love them enough to correct them. And this leads us back to physical discipline, because you can't have an hour-long conversation with a little child. When I tap my little granddaughter on the hand for doing something wrong, it registers with her little mind in a way that a five-minute conversation will not. I am not talking about abuse, but rather discipline, performed in love. Love is the key to all of this. None of this matters if it is not done in love.

On the flip side, if we fail to properly discipline our children and we allow them to grow up without boundaries or consequences, not only will we be accountable to God for our neglect (some day), but we will also have to deal with the unruly children (today). Modern daytime talk shows don't have to look very far to find children who were not ever truly parented and the results can be devastating; for both the parents and the children.

So what does this mean? Simply put, it means that if you love your children you will discipline them; and while this may include some form of physical correction, it is definitely NOT limited to it. Take the time to parent your children, no matter how much it costs you. In the end, your labor will not be in vain!

Father, thank You for giving me the wisdom and insight to provide my children the training, correction, and discipline they need to develop into the men and women You have called them to be. I love my children JUST they way they are, but I also love them too much to leave them without correction. I declare, by faith, that you give me creative ways to reach my children, so that they can understand right from wrong, so that they prepared them for their life's assignment, and so that I am able to stand before You with clean hands. I will not neglect my part in their development! In Jesus' name. Amen!