Discipline

I debated even blogging about this. But then I thought, this is about the kids and our desires for the kids, so why not. Perhaps it will bringing about some discussion, I'm OK with that.

Let me begin by telling you a story. Some time ago, Ron and I had guests in our home for dinner. They had children and so we were sitting at the table eating and the kids were at a separate table. One of our children (I honestly don't remember which one), did something that was not acceptable (again, I don't even know what). Ron got his attention and told him to stop, then continued with our conversation. Ron looked over a few minutes later and discovered that he was again doing the same thing. So...Ron excused himself and took our son into another room to paddle him. When he returned, our company started in. "Why would you spank your son for such a minor thing?" "It wasn't that big of a deal". Ron's response was, "You're right, what he did was not a big deal, however, I didn't spank him for what he did, I spanked him for his disobedience."

He went on to explain. If we don't require our children to obey us now, how will they ever learn to obey their Heavenly Father and have a relationship with Him. Our desire, as parents, is to see our children in relationship with their Creator. We want them to have a deep and personal relationship with Jesus Christ. If we don't give them tools now, how will they ever be in that relationship with him?

So, when we discipline our children it is not out of a desire to be in control of them or have some kind of power. We discipline our children out of our love for them. We want them to be obedient. We require them to be obedient to us now. Praying in our hearts that one day they will be obedient and discover all that Jesus has in store for them.