Discipline

Discipline

Discipline your children while there is hope. If you don’t, you will ruin their lives.

Proverbs 19:18

In a scene from the classic children’s book Black Beauty by Anna Sewell, a boy attempts to jump a pony over a gate. When the pony doesn’t jump, the boy impatiently beats him with a whip. These jump attempts and subsequent whippings are repeated several times, and the boy finally hits the horse on the head. Having had quite enough, the horse puts down his head, throws up his heels, and hurls the boy into a hedge of thornbushes. A man who observes this incident reports the whole situation to the boy’s parents. The mother’s reaction is, “Oh, poor baby,” while the father says, “This isn’t the first or second time he’s done that to our horse—this is a good opportunity for him to learn a lesson.”

It’s good for us mothers to be empathetic to the pain and feelings of our children, but when children are experiencing the natural consequences of their destructive behavior, it’s not healthy to protect them from those consequences. If we do, we’re basically encouraging more of the same behavior in the future.

Part of our role as mothers is to help our children see that their behavior, good or bad, has consequences. And it’s much better for them to learn that in the small things now than to experience great difficulties with higher authorities down the road.

God,

We ask for great wisdom in teaching discipline to our children. Please help us to find a healthy balance of truth and grace as we interact with them. Amen.