judgment df a husband who didn’t love his wife.’ ” Oh, my friend, how tragic this picture, the home of a minister of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. We need to remember that romance is a tender flower which can die very quickly. We ought to be careful to make love to our wives; take them out to dinner; give them a box of candy; take them some flowers; court them. If we love one another we won’t be living in a continual state of bickering and quarrelling. A child in the home sees much more than we realize. They understand whether we really love one another or not. Mary must have loved Joseph, and Joseph must have had a great deal of understanding love for his wife. Do you husbands love your wives and do you wives love your husbands? Is there an atmosphere of love together in the home? In this atmosphere we are ready to discipline them in love that has a solid and a firm foundation. Chapter Nine E very parent needs to understand that love without discipline is pure sentiment. Discipline without love is tyranny. They both need to be com bined into one individual who, him self, has been dedicated to the Lord. A father or mother in the home have the ideal circumstance in which to dis cipline, guide and direct a child. This is the manner in which God ordained that the home should be established. Because the parents provide for the child they establish a real understand ing. They are able to gain confidence and acceptance. Discipline can natural ly follow. How many of our discipline prob lems are accentuated in the home if there is not real love, if the child feels he is deprived of the normal affection and attention the father and mother should give him. It may be the father is too busy. Perhaps the mother has
too many outside activities. The moth er may be so concerned about the tasks of life that she is irritable in the pres ence of the children. Sometimes this is true when a child is bom late in life. There was a little son born into a certain home who was totally rejected. The boy grew up with all kinds of inner frustrations and problems. He didn’t feel wanted. One reason for the juvenile gangs is because they are seek ing for a sense of belonging. It is a need every human being experiences. If a child is a part of the home where father loves mother and mother loves father and together they love the child, then this is the foretaste of glory and harmony. There is nothing so wonder ful in all the world as a loving home where Christ is honored and where we live as joint heirs of the grace of God together. In such an atmosphere dis cipline is not only accepted, it is readi ly expected; it is what the child wants. There was a little girl who was guilty of stealing. She also had some other bad moral problems. When coun seled, the pitiful lass said, “Well, at least when I do these things my mother beats me. Then I get her attention.” You see, a little child understands that he needs discipline and he wants this. No child lives normally in a society in which he is permitted to do anything he wants to do. If a child never learns the “No” of an earthly parent, it is difficult for him to understand thè “No” of the society in which he lives. We, as parents, need to lay down the guide lines. We should lay down a line to the right and a line to the left and then say to our children, in effect, “You can wobble around inside these two walls but over this side you do not go.” Moral values are not something one learns automatically. We all must leam that the good brings its rewards, and that the evil is punished. There are certain ethics and traditions by which all must abide based on laws, culture, heritage and divine sovereignty. The Scriptures deal with this constantly. The Lord spoke to the young lad Samuel, “Behold, I will do a thing 13
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