Christian Living

Spare the rod, spoil the child.  Proverbs 13:14 "Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him." 

This morning on TV, some modern, worldly thinkers railed against spanking your children. One of them Augustly said that spanking harms your child, that when they are older they will become violent, and will spank their own children!  She offered alternatives – time outs and otherpsychobabble advice.  

This is an example of the division between the world and true Christianity.  

I can remember only two occasions when I had to spank my daughter. One occasion, I remember occurred as a result of direct disobedience. She was only three or four years old, and, despite my numerous pleas to stop repeatedly opening and slamming the refrigerator door, she persisted. I gave her a few smacks on the behind. She stopped and didn't do it again. On another occasion – I don't remember what she was doing – but after I spanked my daughter I said "you have a bad habit of..."  Shortly after that, she contritely said "I'm sorry I havebad habits." My mother, who was very close to my daughter, once spanked her, of which I approved. My mom taught her impromptu Bible lessons. 

My daughter turned out well. She did well in school, respected authority, didn't get in trouble at school or with the police, didn't do drugs or get drunk, didn't have a baby out of wedlock...  She doesn't go around beating people up if they slight her or say something she doesn't like. She graduated college, has a good job, where she has a lot of responsibility. When layoffs came, my daughter survived, as she took initiative and did exemplary work. 

I've heard horror stories about parents whose kids abuse drugs, and who have kids who have died from an overdose. I read on an online newspaper recently that a guy in his early 20s died from an overdose, and his parents demanded that the school district do something about it.   

Preventing problems begins in the home. You decide to take your kids to a good, Bible believing church, what your kids learn in school, and any interaction with the police. At a DARE program held at my daughter's school, Officer Brian showed parents a triangle, the relationship between home, school and the police. They need to work together, Officer Brian said, with parents taking responsibility for their kids.  

The worldly, government war on drugs isfailing. The people running the anti-drug programs have the wrong foundation, an ungodly one. They say that drug addiction is a disease, and have made druggies victims. They channel Curly of The Three Stooges when he chirps "I'm a victim of soy-cum-stances!" 

Decades ago, I didn't pursue a possible opportunity to become a drug rehab counselor at a methadone clinic where I worked as a "patient monitor". A counselor there met me after work at the bar next door and brought learning materials to get me interested in counseling at the clinic. The material knocked the Christian precept of the total depravity of man (The "T" in the Calvinist's TULIP). I remember reading that the minister is wrong in saying one's drug abuse is sin and that the "client" asthe patientswere called at the clinic, shouldn't feel bad about what he/she is doing. This is not Biblical. 

Decades after I worked at the clinic, at a high school reunion I learned that many kids I grew up with, lots of them who had gone to the clinic, died from a drug overdose.  

The concept of self-esteem is not Biblical. Modern psychology, as father of the Biblical Counseling Movement Jay E Adams points out, has us believe we are better than we think. We will never overcome our problems if we don't see sin soberly, confess it, and ask God for help.  

The Bible has the answers for living. It is the manual for human living. We become dysfunctional when we don't follow God's precepts and only become whole when we are restored to the way He made us. Following His ways is howto overcome the evil, the dysfunctionality of this world. 

God, not humans, knows what's best!