A word of advice to everyone.

[Willowbirch]

For ages, people have been getting beaten till they can’t sit down as children, and you know what, it makes them stronger! The kids who didn’t get beat, like royalty for example, where nothing but lazy, inbred, and incompetent! This is one thing everyone, Baptist, Methodism, Catholic, everyone, can agree on. Unless you’re a Kennedy, and your parents can PAY your way out of trouble, beat your kids, they will thank you for it!

I fully agree that parents should practice corporal punishment. (NOT capitol punishment, there IS a difference, folks!)

My general view on the subject: Discipline is an act of love toward your children. If you love them, you won't spare the rod. I think some parents can over-exert their powers in this way; not all discipline is loving and justifiable in the sight of the Lord, its child abuse. Children are a great gift to us from God! (And NO, there is no return receipt.) We should instruct them to the best of our abilities (that's all we can do anyway!) but not be abusive. My uncle would beat his children for the slightest offenses, leaving welts on their bodies; in his anger he once dumped a pot of boiling spaghettie on his two-year-old daughter because she was crying in her highchair. This type of abusiveness is a little more extreme than some, of course.

If you spank your child, is that abuse? It depends on why you're spanking! If you hit for no reason, yes!

But if this punishment leads them toward godly character and loving obedience, it will hurt the child much more if you neglect this discipline.

[Willowbirch]

Every parent is going to have doubts about their parenting skills. And why not? It isn't like they get a free trial before they have to do the real thing! Parents are human, they make mistakes, and often they don't have a clue what they're getting into.

My mother often groans, now, about what a terrible mother she was. How she spanked too hard, too much, lost her temper, didn't know how to raise kids, etc. I don't understand why she worries. She did her very best to give me the most excellent childhood I could have. I don't remember "abuse", if that's what it was at all. My good memories are so rich that they drown out a lot of my mother's "mistakes".

Sometimes I remember her shouting and smacking and all that good stuff; but for every painful memory there are five or six sweet ones. I remember the mom who played "pirate" and made me clothes, who sat on the porch swing with me in the afternoons and sang a "daddy-come-home" song until I could spot his car in the distance. She must've done something right, because the only thing I can see of her throughout my life is Love.

Okay, now I'm crying, big ol' baby  

[ollie]

If you love someone because they're good to you, great! That is the proper response - but it doesn't become "unconditional" until you love them when they don't return the affection, even when they go so far as to harm or kill you.

Just my li'l view on things.

And also commands given by Jesus Christ:

Matthew 5:43.  Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
 44.  But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
 45.  That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
 46.  For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
 47.  And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?
 48.  Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

[Reba]

nothing on earth warms like the love of a child


nothing on earth hurts like the rebellion of a child


i have been the  baby ,kid, teen, parent, grandparent raising the kid, Now  THANK GOD i am just grandma.

Each stage of life has its blessings and trials.



spanking?

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

Eph 6:4
And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.


 The scriptures show a GODLY balance

[ollie]

nothing on earth warms like the love of a child


nothing on earth hurts like the rebellion of a child


i have been the  baby ,kid, teen, parent, grandparent raising the kid, Now  THANK GOD i am just grandma.

Each stage of life has its blessings and trials.



spanking?

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

Eph 6:4
And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.


 The scriptures show a GODLY balance

Good post.

The Godly balance seems to be the missing element in todays
life styles.