31 Day Challenge, Proverbs Chapter 13

I am loving the discipline this is giving me to actually write in my blog everyday!

On to Chapter 13!

V. 24 “If you refuse to discipline your children, it proves you don't love them; if you love your children, you will be prompt to discipline them.”

I love this verse because it gives me the right to beat my children!  HA HA HA, just kidding!

It does not give me the right to beat my children but it does give me instruction to give consequences for their actions.  Children need to learn the difference between right and wrong.  The home is the best place to learn that.  Too often as parents we want to protect them and guide them through life and then they move out to go to university and they discover a cruel world that they can no longer be protected from.  Home is a safe place to learn how to fail and make poor choices. 

I worked as an Educational Associate at a school for a couple of years and it was a learning experience to see the behaviour of some parents.  One day after school the phone rang in the Resource Room.  I answer the phone to hear an irate parent telling me that their child came home from school today and lied to them and they wanted to know what I was going to do about it.  I am not a person who often find themselves speechless but this was one of those rare moments.  I thought they were joking, but they seriously wanted to know what the school was going to do about this situation.

I believe I told them that it was their job as a parent and that we would help the student academically but this issue was theirs to deal with at home.

I have been involved in the school system and as a Pastors wife and I often wonder why so many parents feel like everyone else should be teaching their children morals and values.  As a parent, I take that responsibility very seriously, I want my children to learn from me and I hope that the outside influences (school and church) are reiterating the same things that I am teaching them.

I believe that my children know that when we discipline them it is because we love them.  Funny thing is, today we had to discipline our oldest and she is subject to consequences for her actions.  We have certain family rules and she broke one;  therefore she has consequences.  She is not in favour of the consequences, but we as parents are hoping that she will learn this lesson and we will not have to go through this again.  Tomorrow is the day of  the consequence, I am praying for strength so that I can hold her to the consequence that we have chosen.  Which as parents can be difficult but a lesson needs to be learned.  I would rather her learn that lesson now in the safety of a loving home, then in a unfair world that may hand out an even greater consequence.

Parenting in tough.  This afternoon we were discussing licenses with our children.  How you need a license to drive a car, and another to ride a motorcycle and another to drive a boat.  Even though I am old enough to drive all three I can only legally drive a car.  The reason you need a license for each one is because they are all different and you need to prove that you are capable and responsible to drive each one.  Then I turned to my husband and said, “What if we needed a license to have children?”  He turned to me and said, “Neither of us would have passed.”  Honestly, how many of us would, it is trial by error and a lot of prayer that we are able to parent.

“Discipline doesn't break a child's spirit half as often as the lack of it breaks a parent's heart”