Discipline

Those who spare the rod of discipline hate their children.

Those who love their children care enough to discipline them.

Proverbs 13:24 (NLT)

 

I know I am getting older. Maybe wiser. So, you can write me off as out of touch today, if you wish.

 

One thing I notice more today than a few decades ago is how little, as a whole, parents discipline children. Parents do yell at them. We have always done that. But discipline is another matter. Yet God says that withholding discipline is hatred for your children. I am not sure what God says about the efficacy or advisability of yelling. We can substitute lecturing for yelling if appropriate. I was good at both.

 

Yelling and other forms of "persuasion" are really more an expression of a parent's anger or frustration. It is about the parent. And, sometimes, things get so exasperating that yelling may be a necessary outlet. Discipline is about the child.

 

Discipline is training or instruction. We all need this. For whatever reason, we were born selfish. Parents (community?) are given to children to instruct them in the ways of life. The point of discipline is to help a child become a caring and successful member of the abundant life community. Discipline is done so a child will thrive. Discipline involves repetitive training both by word (but not too many or too loudly) and example (parents may go overboard here.) These are words of our baptismal promises. In our case, we train children to become Christ, mainly by being Christ in their lives.

 

It seems easy to let things go and hope for the best, letting the child avoid any little pain of being reined in or limited today. It seems easy but it is hatred for that child. Easy often has more to do with we who parent. We want it easy. Kids are not easy. They are an enormous undertaking. We need each others, and God's, help.

 

Consider today, what disciplines do you place yourself under? Are you willing to love your child so much that you maintain a firm, yet loving hand and place limits on behavior? Will you let others help and help others in the honor of raising a child?