Monday, May 2, 2011

Governing the Home with Godly Discipline



There is much to be learned about the topic of parenting--volumes and libraries have been written on the topic. It is hard to persevere in our parenting at times and we must not give up. I enjoyed reading the following this morning and thought I would share it with you:

 It is not to watch children with a suspicious eye, to frown on merry outbursts of innocent hilarity, to suppress their joyous laughter, and to mold them into melancholy little models of octogenarian gravity. And when they have been in fault, it is not simply to punish them on account of the personal injury that you have chanced to suffer in consequence of their faith, disobedience, unattended by inconvenience to yourself, passes without rebuke. 

Nor is it to overwhelm the little culprit with angry words; to stun him with a deafening noise; to call him by hard names, which do not express his misdeeds; to load him with epithets which would be extravagant is applied to a fault of tenfold enormity; or to declare with passionate vehemence, that he is the worst child in the world and destined for the gallows. 


But it is to watch for the first risings of sin, and to repress them to counteract the earliest workings of selfishness; to repress the first beginning of rebellion against authority; to teach an implicit and unquestioning and cheerful obedience to the will of the parent, as the best preparation for a future allegiance to the requirement of the civil magistrate, and the laws of the great Ruler and Father in heaven.

It is to punish a fault, because it is sinful, and contrary to the command of God, without reference to whether it may not have been productive of immediate injury to the parent or others.

It is to reprove with calmness and composure, and not with angry irritation,---in a few words fitly chosen, and not with a torrent of abuse, to punish as often as you threaten, and to threaten only when you intend and can remember to perform; to say what you mean, and infallibly do as you say.

It is to govern  you family as in the sight of Him who gave you authority, and who will reward your strict fidelity with such blessings as he bestowed on Abraham, or punish your criminal neglect with such curses as He visited on Eli.


- A Mother's Treasury

From the book Verses of Virtue: The Poetry and Prose of Christian Womanhood



We must remember though that children are sinners, and that they WILL sin. It is also our part to show also grace, mercy and love much in the same way the Father has shown us (yet also with the love of discipline). We will not have children that will cheerfully obey every time, but we should work on teaching children not to rebel against authority and to obey  God. It is not okay for a child to yell "why?" or stomp their feet to a parent's command sighing or rolling their eyes, I believe this is what they are referring to in regards to cheerful and willing obedience.  Not perfect little robots, mind you, but sinners who need to learn the ways of self government. There is so much  more on parenting, more than you could ever explain or share in one post. With 8 children, parenting opportunities never cease and I pray that the Lord would give both my readers and myself wisdom and perseverance for the great and noble task at hand.


 Motherhood is blessed and we will be honoring mothers here at A Wise Woman Builds Her Home all week in honor of Mother's Day! We want to encourage you here and keep the grand vision in front of you...


Will you join us?






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