of the people would be taken out. The first basic rule for all disciplin ing should be love. This atmosphere is where you mean what you say and where you say what you mean. There are certain traditional patterns of con duct in our social fabric which every child has to learn to face. This same thing is true in the kingdom of our Lord. Too many correct their children making disciplinary threats but never carry them out. Riding along with a friend, the fa ther told his young son, “Now, I want to talk to Dr. Smith. Please don’t turn on the radio!” The boy commenced to turn it on, so the father turned it off. But the boy just as promptly turned the radio back on. The father admon ished, “Son, I told you not to turn that radio on.” This went on nine or ten times, but still the father did nothing. We must teach consistency to our children. If you don’t go to work and do your job can you go to the pay master and get your check? If you happen to go through a stop sign re peatedly and the officer says, “Don’t do that, you will be tagged if you do it again.” Does he merely warn you again if the incident recurs. In society, when the law says you cannot, you dare not do it without an according penalty. Children don’t always have to be nagged or “yacked” at. All that is re quired is a consistency. In our home, whenever father called, the children came. I would step outside and let our “family” whistle go. All over the neighborhood one could hear little voices, “Coming father.” They knew if they didn’t come then they wouldn’t play tomorrow. That doesn’t mean you have to scream at your children. It is a matter of being firm and keeping your word. We have a lovely Christian teenage daughter to whom we frequently say, “Elizabeth, you are a pure joy and de light to your father and mother.” When she was a little child she used to whine for things. I would ask her, “Does whining get you anything?” She knew from experience that it didn’t. But, it still took her a while to learn this. She 14
in Israel, at which both the ears of every one that hears it shall tingle. In that day, I will perform against Eli all things which I have spoken con cerning his house: When I begin, I will also make an end.” Eli was the preacher and had two sons who were wicked men. Instead of disciplining his sons he reaped a whirlwind of tragedy to himself as well as to the house of Israel. The Lord continues, “For I have told him that I will judge his house for ever for the iniquity which he knoweth; because his sons made them selves vile, and he restrained them not. And therefore I have sworn unto the house of Eli, that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be purged with sacri fice nor offering for ever.” May God help us to so live as Christ would have us live that it would never be true in our lives. Chapter Ten T here are several basic psychological principles involved in disciplining children. T he basic, undergirding framework would be that our love and discipline is a reflection of the char acter of our Lord Himself. The Scrip ture tells us that we are to train up a child in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. God manifests His judg ment against sin and wickedness. God is not a sentimental Being. He loves us enough to die for us but He is not a permissive Being. The Scripture states, “Whom the Lord loveth he chas- teneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.” The discipline we mani fest to our children must reflect the judgment of our Lord. As a father I am standing in the place of my heavenly Father before my children reflecting the character of the Lord. If you were to empty our mental in stitutions, our juvenile institutions, our correctional institutions of all who had come from permissive homes where fa thers and mothers permitted them to do anything they wanted, eighty per cent
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