self sets the example and reveals the nature of discipline. The Apostle Paul wrote, “ Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honor thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise; that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth” (Eph. 6:1-3). To deprive children of that discipline which will bring them to the place of obedience is to do them irreparable harm for time and eternity. Some one has well said, “ If more of our boys wore stripes while children, fewer of them would be wearing stripes after they got to be men.” Theodore Roosevelt once said, “ If you are going to do anything permanent for the average man, you must begin before he is a man. The chance of success lies with working with the boy and not the man.” A boy was asked why a certain tree in the garden was crooked. He replied by saying, “ I suppose somebody must have stepped on it when it was a little fellow.” We are not to hamper nor pamper our children, but we are to deal wisely with them, and when necessary, discipline them for their own good as well as for the glory of the One who entrusted them to us. All of us as parents need to give heed to Parental Demeanor Paul’s injunction to Timothy in I Tim. 4:12 applies just as much to parents as it did to the young preachers of the Gospel. Paul wrote, “ But be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.” We must never get away from the fact that our children will talk as we talk, they will walk where we walk, and they will act as we do. “Mom and Dad did it” is an excuse often upon the lips of children, and if not expressed audibly, it remains in their thoughts. Knowing the power of example our Saviour said to His disciples, “ For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you” (John 13:15). By washing the feet of His disciples, the Lord Jesus was showing them how they should be willing to humble themselves and to take the place of servants. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him” (John 13:16). Lastly, I wish to have each one regard with utmost concern Parental Devotion God calls upon every parent to provide a home for his child. The Scriptures say, “ Behold the third time I am ready to come to you and I will not be burdensome to you: for I seek not yours, but you: for the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children” (II Cor. 12:14). Just as the risen Saviour has gone to prepare a home for His children, so all of us should seek to provide the right kind of a home for ours. All of us need to stop and to consider the unconscious influences at work either for or against the home. A little Scripture motto which hung on the wall of the kitchen in my boyhood home made a profound impression upon me. It was a simple statement ornamented with little blue forget-me-not flowers and framed in gold. It was taken from John’s epistle, “ God is love.” If, as a child, I repeated that text once it must have been hundreds of times. A wise and godly mother placed it there not merely as a decoration on the wall, but as a testimony for the spiritual well-being of her brood. It is a grave responsibility to be a Mom or Dad. It is a wonderful privilege, too; and it will be a most blessed experience for the parents who, with Joshua, say, “ as for me and' my house, we will serve the Lord.”
Parental Diligence God has not left parents in the dark as to that which must diligently concern every one of us. Possibly the reason we have on our hands an unruly, an unsettled, and an ungodly generation is that we have been loathe to do what God has commanded us to do. We read, “ And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up” (Deut. 6:6-7). The pity is that we give greater diligence to a hundred nonessentials and neglect the most important of all, namely, the Word of God. Through His servant Moses, God was laying down the method by which children were to be reared. Solomon wrote, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old he will not depart from it” (Prov. 22:6). There is nothing said about training up a child in the wisdom of this world, but rather in the wisdom of God which reveals “ the way he should go.” There are undoubtedly millions of homes in this nation which do not possess a Bible, and on the other hand there are millions of homes which possess the Bible but never read it or teach it to the oncoming genera tion. The New Testament is equally clear concerning our diligence in relation to those whom God has put into our hands. Paul wrote, “And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4). This is not the task of a day. It is line upon line, precept upon precept, day by day, and hour by hour. Every sensible parent realizes it takes time and patience to comply with these divinely-given instructions, but our diligence will be well rewarded in the end. Next, as parents we need to give serious thought to the matter of Parental Discipline Some one asked a farmer how he was able to produce such beautiful sheep. His reply was a classic for parents: “ I take care of the lambs.” Taking care of lambs involves more than merely feeding them day by day. Every shep herd realizes that certain disciplinary processes need to be pursued if his lambs are to become the kind of sheep he desires. The problem of discipline is a difficult one and calls for careful and prayerful consideration and especially so in the light of God’s Word. I know full well that the methods of child-training have undergone many radical changes within the past few years. The method of self- determination has been substituted for the old and out moded method prescribed by Solomon. The modem theory is that a child should not be restricted nor restrained, but must be allowed to do his own choosing. Corporal punishment has been ruled out likewise and is looked upon as a relic of the dark ages. God said, “ Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying” (Prov. 19:18). The chastening of children on the part of their parents must be the correct method of dealing with them since it is the method pursued by our heavenly Father for the well-being of His children. “ . . . My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons” (Heb. 12:5-8). God Him
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MAY, 1962
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