Foolish Children

A youngster’s heart is filled with foolishness, but physical discipline will drive it far away.

Proverbs 22:15

SARAH, A TODDLER, spotted her father’s toolbox, opened it, and spread the tools all over the floor. She thought they looked beautiful and ran to find Daddy. “Look what I did!” she told him.

Daddy wasn’t pleased. He gently warned her to put all the tools back and never to do that again. “Next time, I’ll have to punish you,” he told her.

Sarah obeyed, and soon the mess was cleaned up.

On another front, seventeen-year-old Joseph came home one day with some things he thought looked beautiful: a tattoo on his back and a stud in his nose.

“What have you done?” his mother cried, horrified. Joseph explained, “Everybody has them. They’re cool.”

“We already told you that you couldn’t do this,” his mom responded. He was instantly grounded.

While all parents won’t deal with such infractions the same way, the problem is pretty much the same: children do childish things. They don’t think logically about many things that seem so appealing.

How does a parent deal with such foolishness? Laugh it off? Or shrug and wonder what can be done?

No. The Bible says to discipline your children if you don’t want them to repeat their foolish decisions. How that discipline is carried out is rather broad and may be different for different personalities and situations.

Develop your own discipline policies and responses before God. But remember that just letting your children do as they want will lead only to ultimately dangerous behavior patterns. God promises to work through your discipline and give your child a chance.