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Spare the Rod?

If you’ve been around long enough, you’ve seen that things change from generation to generation. Things that were important and obvious to one generation are often not to the next. One of those big shifts is in the area of disciplining our children.
Those of us who grew up in the self-esteem generation, the participation trophy generation, tend to be soft and lax when it comes to disciplining our children. We don’t want to hurt “dair widdle feewins.” The older generation had no problem hurting your feelings and your hind end. Punishment was often swift and thorough.
My granny loved to use a switch when I got out of line. My dad preferred a belt. My principal preferred a paddle. Remember back when kids could get paddled at school? I heard a comedian do a prank call the other day to a parent pretending to be a new principal who was going to give their son a paddling, and that parent lost his ever-loving mind. He blew his stack and threatened to come whoop the principal if he dared to lay a finger on his son. That’s today’s generation. With the older generation, you would have gotten paddled at school and then whipped when you got home for getting paddled at school.
So, what’s changed? Well, we’ve lost the Bible. The Bible plainly teaches us to discipline our children and encourages us to spank when necessary. Listen to Proverbs 13:24, “Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.” We know that proverb better as “spare the rod, spoil the child.” Listen to Proverbs 23:13–14. It’s even more emphatic, “Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you strike him with a rod, he will not die. If you strike him with the rod, you will save his soul from Sheol.”
Some of you are thinking, “That sounds so archaic, so barbaric.” You know what it actually sounds like? It sounds biblical. And whatever the Bible says to do is wise and good. So, discipline your children. They are depending on you.
Change begins in you!

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