Proverbs 29:15: The rod and rebuke give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.
Insight
Discipline is the order of God’s government. Parents are his dispensers of it to their children. Let correction be first tried, and if it succeeds, let the rod be spared. Without a wise and firm control, the parent is miserable, and the child is ruined. “Subdue the wills of your children most tenderly if you can. But if not, your duty and your love require measures that shall enforce obedience. A very young child puts forth perhaps his first approaches to sin in acts of cunning and rebellion. 1
Application
Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Hebrews 12:9–11
Thank God that He loves you enough to correct and chasten you. Notice the results. Now follow His instructions as a parent. It is your job. No one else has been given that task. If left undone, your child will end up in the courts and before a worldly judge.
Motivation
Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6
When child training is avoided, we raise an adult devoid of responsibility. – TWEET IT
Prayer
Father, please help me to fulfill my godly calling as a parent.
1. Bridges, C. (2001). Proverbs. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.
