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God did what?

Posted February 6, 2008

Daily prayer: Dear God, help me love my children enough to help guide their choices and discipline them with love and compassion when I need to. Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts: we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple. Psalms 65:4

When I was a child in sixth grade my class was filled with some unseemly characters. Some of the kids in my class were pretty tough. They picked on kids, heckled them, called them names and bullied them physically, me included.

I remember there was a paddle hanging over the door in the classroom that had a quote on it that said something to the effect of ‘If you choose to misbehave, I am the tool used to help change your mind.’ Who ever thought of a paddle as a tool? At least that’s what I thought at that age, it did work though. Especially when my teacher actually took it down and used it. That paddle was definitely an effective tool.

As the years have passed I have had many choices to make, choices that I didn’t like sometimes. Choices have been made fore me as I make them for my children. Caused for behavior has been around for hundreds of years and until the rise of the American Civil Liberties Union and the Department of Social Services it was not held in bad social repute.

As a parent it is difficult sometimes to make choices for our children and even to reprimand them because of the criticism parents take for which method of discipline to use.

God said happy is the man whom God chooses to call unto himself. The Bible minces no words on the subject. God loves us and has chosen us to make choices and discipline our children in accordance to his guidance. He loves us and disciplines us just as we love our children and discipline them.

I’m not sure that telling our children to be happy in our choice to discipline them will go over very well now, but we need to remember our children need guidance just as we need guidance from God.

Don’t be afraid to discipline, if we love our children we will help them make choices, even when they don’t like it.**

**Please don’t think that I condone beating children, because I don’t!!!!! God has mercy on us every day so we must remember that to get mercy we must give mercy. Children need our loving guidance not physical abuse or public humiliation. Discipline does not mean inflicting pain.

Don't forget to check out Jennifer Jones Mommy Blog for a lighthearted look at raising her son, Gus.