Proverb for the Day

"Chasten your son while there is hope,
And do not set your heart on his destruction."
--Proverbs 19:18

Many of today's parenting books tell us to be our kids' "friend" or to not spank or whatever. Do you realize that goes against scripture?! We are to chasten our children because we love them and want the best for them. When we neglect our responsibility to teach them right from wrong and obedience, then we are setting them up for failure (destruction). How are they going to learn the grave need to follow the rules (whether they are God's rules or man's) if we do not train them properly.

I am currently reading What the Bible Says about Child Training by J. Richard Fugate. I am currently half way through the book, but will be starting over tomorrow. I have been trying to just recap what has been said for Chad, but realized that he just needs to hear it as well. Fugate looks at scripture and the original meaning of the words and explains what they actually mean. I think this is very important and eye opening. I am going to start over and read it out loud to Chad so we can then discuss what we've read. We don't want our children to fail. We don't want to doom our children's futures. We want to chasten them while there is still hope.