Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. - Proverbs 22:6
Christian
educator and author Howard Hendricks cautions parents not to bribe or threaten their
children to get them to obey. What they need is firm, loving, and at times painful
discipline.
Hendricks recalls being in a home where a bright-eyed grade-schooler sat across the table
from him.
"Sally, eat your potatoes," said her mother in a proper parental tone.
"Sally, if you don't eat your potatoes, you won't get any dessert!"
Sally winked at Hendricks. Sure enough, mother removed the potatoes and brought Sally some
ice cream. He saw this as a case of parents obeying their children rather than
"Children, obey your parents" (Ephesians 6:1).
Many parents are afraid to do what they know is best for their youngsters. They're afraid
their children will turn against them and think they don't love them. Hendricks says,
"Your primary concern is not what they think of you now, but what they will think 20
years from now."
Even our loving heavenly Father's correction is painful, yet afterward (perhaps years
later) "it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness in those who have been trained
by it" (Hebrews 12:11). As loving parents, dare we have less long-term vision than
our heavenly Father has?
-JEY
As parents we must have this goal:
To teach our children self-control;
For firm and loving discipline
Can keep them from the ways of sin.
-D.
De Haan
The surest way to make life hard for your children is to make it soft for them.