You Bought What?!

Something To Think About, Are we upset in the wrong direction?

Breaking Bad is one of the most popular series on television.  It's the story of teacher who becomes a major force in the methamphetamine market.  I've never watched the show, but critics say it is well done.  It has received a number of awards. A toy company recently decided to make action figures of the main characters in the series.  The model of the main character, Walter White comes complete with a gun and a duffle-bag full of money and blue crystals. At first the dope dealing dolls were carried by Toys-R-Us, but after a petition stirred up negative publicity, they pulled them from their shelves.  I'm not sure if it is the official version, or a bad Breaking Bad toy, but I found Walter and Jesse, complete with hazmat suits, on Ebay. At first, like the Florida mom who started the petition drive to get Toys-R-Us to stop selling the dolls, I was upset with the retailer.  After I thought about it a while my thinking began to shift.  I still don't think it is a good idea, on any level, for a retailer to sell such a product.  However a bigger question began to loom in my mind.  Instead of asking, "Why would anyone sell that?"  I began to ask, "Why would anybody buy such a thing?"  Especially, "Why would any parent buy such a thing for their child?" Dad, Mom, retailers aren't responsible for the spiritual, ethical, moral health of your children.  You are. It's Something To Think About.

To Spank or Not to Spank . . . ?

Something To Think About, Parenting

Some recent incidents involving well-known athletes and their children have once again brought the debate concerning the corporal discipline of children to the fore.  Retired NBA star Charles Barkley commented on the uproar.  His comments might not have been as carefully articulated as one would want, but the bottom line point he made is worth considering.  Barkley grew up in an environment where parents spanking their children was a common means of discipline.  The implied question behind his comments is, "What would you rather have, what we have now, or a situation in which children were actually loved and disciplined by parents who were constructively involved in their lives?" More than half a century ago I was raised in a home where corporal punishment was part of the means by which my parents sought to impart discipline, self-control, and the knowledge that actions have consequences to me.  With complete conviction I say, I was not abused.  I am a better man because of that up-bringing The Book of Proverbs speaks of the "rod" nine times.  At least five of those are related to the discipline of children.  (13:24, 22:15, 23:13-14, & 29:15)  Some interpreters have adopted creative ways of explaining away what these texts appear to say--appropriately applied corporal punishment is, or at least can be, a good thing.  I don't think they succeed.  The rod is what the rod is. Supplementing these references from thebook of wisdom is this word about the only perfect father, "WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES.”  (Hebrews 12:6)  Check out that word translated "scourge." The text goes on to specifically speak about how the Lord's discipline is unpleasant.  We might consider ourselves abused when we are in the midst of this discipline, yet, if we endure we reap the good result. Are there children who are abused by misapplied, extreme, or perverted forms of discipline, so-called?  Yes, and we should make no room for such behavior.  When we follow the popular knee-jerk line of thinking, however, that all forms of discipline that involve physical pain are wrong we heap abuse on many more children, and even on society at large.   It's Something To Think About.

It's HARD!

Why are parents so unwilling to encourage--is "force" to strong a word--their kids to do hard things? I'm talking about everything from cleaning a room, to eating vegetables, to dealing with a painful social encounter.
I fear the answer stares back at us from the mirror. I don't expect my kids to do anything hard, because I'm not willing to do anything that measures beyond a "3" on the diff-i-cult-o-meter. Hebrews 12: 4-11 gives the perfect example of parenting. It comes from the perfect Father.
Read it. The text is full of hard things. Our heavenly Father brings the difficult into our lives because He loves us.

When we say we aren't going to make our child do something that he or she ought to do, because it is hard, can we really say we are doing it because we love them? Or is it possible that we don't make our kids do the hard-but-right because it is hard for us to do so?

I fear that an honest--and therefore painful, another hard thing we tend to avoid--examination may reveal that the reason we are not willing to require the difficult but right in the life of our child is because we have abandoned that in our own life long ago.

Child discipline begins with self-discipline.

It's STTA.