Thought for the Day

The old saying, spare the rod, spoil the child, is based on today's proverb. God is love. He is our model of loving behavior. Hebrews 12:5-6 instructs us not to despise God's chastening, for He disciplines everyone that He loves and scourges those He recognizes as sons. Anyone that is not disciplined by God is not really His child (Hebrews 12:8). He disciplines us because He hates sin and the destruction it works in us. The tiniest trace of sin is like a single deadly cancer cell, which multiplies and devours a person's life.

Just as God's discipline demonstrates His love for us, we also demonstrate our love for our children by disciplining them. Those who love their children view them as among God's most important blessings to them. They prize their children and are careful to teach and equip them not only to live in the world, but also to live for eternity.

Parents that love themselves more than their children either provide no discipline at all or discipline that is slack or inconsistent. There are numerous symptoms of self-love in our societies. These symptoms are displayed in fathers or mothers that abandon their families to "find themselves;" in parents that value their career advancement, money, or material things above spending time with their children; in spouses that cheat on their partners and destroy their family for the sake of their own pleasure. Selfishness is seen in those who think that disciplining their children too much of an effort (requiring too much time, energy, and attention); and also in those who have "more important" things to do.

In order to discipline one's child, one must discipline oneself. Parents who do not discipline themselves to curb their selfishness have no interest in disciplining their children. Selfishness is at the root not only of many parents' pursuit of pleasure and self-aggrandizement, but also various substance addictions. Jesus said that in the last days the love of many would grow cold because lawlessness would abound (Matthew 24:12). The widespread use of drugs throughout many nations of the world has given rise to a type of lawlessness perhaps unparalleled in history. Families are at the foundation of every nation; but the heads of many families - the parents - have become shockingly lawless. Drug-addiction causes frightening numbers of parents to murder their children by abuse or abortion, or to neglect, or abandon them. One of the most fundamental forms of love: that of a parent for a child, has grown cold in our generation.