Alright, tonight I'd like to touch on a subject that is very controversial for a lot of people. But, as with all controversial topics, it needs to be talked about......
Spanking.
In today's Culture, children are rarely spanked. Instead they are given various forms of other punishments, like the famous "time-out". Which of course consists of sitting somewhere for a certain period of time to "think about what they did."
Often, spanking is demonized and labeled abusive, possibly carrying the consequence of Child and Youth Services coming to your home and taking your kids away. I have a simple question to ask; what happened to discipline?
In my grandparents' day, no one called spanking abusive, it was punishment, the consequences for doing something wrong. And if you go back further, (if anyone watches Little House on the Prairie), you still see spanking. The Bible clearly commands us to spank, which is back even further.
So, is it just that we today are so much smarter than people way back then, or, are parents neglecting their duty when it comes to disciplining their children? Lets look and see.
"Do not hold back discipline from the child, although you strike him with the rod, he will not die. You shall strike him with the rod and rescue his soul from Hell." ~Proverbs 23;14
Here Solomon tells us not to withhold spanking from our children. When we spank, we are doing our child a favor-saving his soul from hell-teaching them that there are consequences for wrongdoing. And it serves as a reminder next time the child goes to misbehave.
The Bible tells us whom God loves he chastens, and we are told to chasten our sons. Remember that we are called to be like Christ-who is God-and he did nothing wrong. There is no injustice with God. There is no un-fairness or cruelty with God. So if he is commanding us to spank, then it is not wrong.
"He that spareth the rod hateth his son, but he who loveth him chastiseth him betimes"~Prov. 13:24
"Chasten thy son while there is still hope and let not thy soul spare for his crying"~Prov. 19:18
Many parents have said they love their child too much to spank. God tells us if we do not spank, we do not love them at all.
People need to learn to distinguish the difference between abuse and discipline. Which brings us to the next part of the discussion. There is a right and a wrong way to spank.
I see parents smacking their kid on the top of the head, screaming and yelling at them, and yanking their arms, before turning them over their knee, giving them a good paddling, and then continuing to yell some more. This, dear readers, is not the Biblical way to spank.
God tells us to discipline, but he also gives us a command:
"Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord."~Ephesians, 6:4
"Ye Fathers, provoke not your children to anger"....~Colossians, 3:21
We are to spank our kids in a way pleasing to God, and it is to be used along with Godly teaching, so they understand that this is not an abusive act. It is what God commands.
I once read part of a book by a Christian author, who talks about this subject, and I agreed with him when he said;
"When we spank our children in anger, we are doing it to fulfill our own selfish needs, and not punishing our children as servants of God."
When parents spank while they are angry, yelling at their kids, roughly yanking them about, spanking them and sending them to their rooms afterwards, they are sinning themselves. Instead, parents need to calm themselves, take the child to another room, and tell them what they did wrong, and now they must be punished because God says they must. After the child has been spanked, they should be allowed to cry, and then, the parents needs to read the verses about punishment to them, and then pray with them to ask God to help them behave better the next time. Then, they should be hugged, told they are loved, and all should be forgiven. That is Biblical punishment.
But this is rarely done, and all people see is the yelling and the child crying, and it is labeled abusive. When done properly, it is anything but abusive. Is the child going to like it? Of course not! They're not supposed to. Its punishment.
Parents need to stop being cowards, and take up the responsibility of properly disciplining their kids. What God says is far more important than what ungodly people in our Society say.
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