Disciplining Children In Christian Homes

By Author: Johnson Philip
Total Articles: 90
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Since God is vitally interested in every individual, we expect that in his sacred Word He will surely give us guiding principles to govern or direct personal lives. Since every individual starts his life as a child dependent on parents, guiding principles on rearing children are also to be expected. there is no doubt that such scriptural principles will be the best possible ones, and also that replacing any of them with any other principles will only result in damage to the children and parents.

The Bible has numerous instructions to give on child-rearing, and the discipline to be administered. However, they are so much different from the present humanistic concepts that most of the young couples will be shocked to read them. In fact the last one century of evolution and humanism has replaced our spiritual thinking with so much of man-oriented principles that many people have lost the right perspective about rearing and disciplining children. In fact it is not difficult these days to meet Christian parents who sincerely believe that their humanistic beliefs on discipline have come from the Bible. Since the humanistic ...
... and biblical principles rest upon completely opposing foundations, there is not way to reconcile them with each other.

Humanism and all its doctrines are based upon the assumption that man is the end result of evolution, and also that he is inherently good (or even divine). So the humanistic principles of child rearing are directed at perfecting this 'good' which is inherent in man. Bible, however, depicts man as a totally fallen and depraved person, dominated by his sin nature will fully dominate his thinking by the time he is mature. Since his fallen nature has a natural enmity towards God, any child who is not brought up in the way outlined in the Bible is any child who is not brought up in the way outlined in the Bible is bound to end with great hostility towards things spiritual and good.

The fruits of the humanistic principles of child rearing is already visible in many godly families. They are loosing their children to the world one by one. More and more children from good Christian families are rejecting spiritual values, and are ending up in completely helpless and hopeless condition. They do not know what stability of life means, and they do not know how and where to get help. They know that their life is breaking apart, but they do not know what to do. Their parents have failed to communicate or instill divine values in their hearts, so their life is drifting from coast to coast due to the ever-changing values of this world.

The ability to distinguish between what is right and what is wrong, the ability to choose what is right, and the ability to stick with it is not easy. It comes only with lifelong training from godly and spiritual parents. Without such a background a person has no sure foundation to make a choice. However, a person cannot avoid making choices and judgments in life. The whole life is full of choices and decisions, and a person who has not got the proper training in these matters will never have the discernment to chose the right. This is one reason why many children coming from godly families make fatal choices, contrary to the expectation. They become careless and drop out of their studies, they end up with all types of wrong friendship and alliances, and they even try to run away from homes. To them their pursuit of what they desire is the right thing to do in life, without ever knowing that even right things obtained in wrong ways will make one miserable. They do not know that only those things are right which come in the right way and also that only those things will have a lasting value which have come to them in the right way.

Bringing up children in a Godly manner, and in the way that the Bible describes is not easy in this generation. There are too many allurements which try to take them away from paths of godliness, making the task difficult for the parent. Nor is it easy to apply biblical system. However, the best gift which Christian parents can give to their children is not anything which money can buy. Rather, it is a package of godly instruction, discipline, and values which will be the best gift for them.

Slogans of the age, and evolution-motivated principles of child rearing will produce only grief in the end. But the application of biblical principles will mean life both to the parents as well as to the children.
Dr. Johnson C. Philip is a scientist and an acknowledged blogging guru having a worldwide following.