Joyful Home-Part 9

Prov 29:15 15 The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.

NO DAYS OFF

Raising Children means that parents must always be teaching. You do not get days off or time outs. For some parents, this can be exasperating. For some children, this can be exasperating. The job of parenting never ends. You don’t get breaks and you shouldn’t want them.

Why is this the case? Because you never know what is going to happen next. If you decide to have parenting free times or discipline breaks, your offspring may not comply. In fact, they have such amazing natural psychological abilities, that they know when you are heading out for a coffee break and plan their little bits of misbehavior or rebellion at precisely that time. Instead of being constantly frustrated by this, godly and mature parents ought to be amused.

Because you never get to lay down your mantle as parent, it is important that you always be prepared to do the job. Must parents be perfect then? Far from it. We are humans, just like our children. We are sinners, just like them. But we need to understand that because the task of parenting is so daunting, it is important that we be more mature, read this sanctified, than our children. We need to anticipate what is going to happen, sinful stuff, and plan for it. That way, when it happens, and it will regularly, it does not catch us off guard and throw us into the kind of tantrum that we are in need of correcting.

Those of you who have been to Walmart or McDonalds know what I mean. The lady’s kid acts up in a frightful manner. The mom asks him to stop. Three seconds later, when said tot knowingly ignores his mother, she flies off into a tirade that is far worse, and if she only knew, much more embarrassing than the child’s initial behavior. But many feel sorry for the mother when they should feel sorry for the child.

So, in order for parents to be able to discipline effectively, it is vital that they already be disciplined themselves. At least, in the area that they are currently trying to teach the child. Parents must be honest to teach to the children not to lie, self-controlled to teach them not to throw tantrums, joyful and content to teach their children the same things. Remember, you CAN get the children to buckle under to your demands. That is no great talent. You are bigger than they are. But what you cannot get them to do is to “do as you say and not as you do.” The children will follow your example, not your words.

This leads us into our next topic. That parents must be spiritual in order to administer discipline. Parents must be spiritual spankers.