Usually I post a question posed by Brooke McGlothlin from the coinciding chapter in her book "Praying for Boys" at the mid-month mark...
This month i'm posting a couple paragraphs from the book "Heartfelt Discipline" by Clay Clarkson instead. It provides the same type of "discussion" as Brooke's questions.
"Even when it is not associated directly with discipline,
gentleness is a recurring idea in the New Testament.
Jesus is described as "meek" when entering Jerusalem as King
(Matthew 21:5),
and He earlier used the same word to declare
"blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth" (5:5).
Paul cites the "meekness and gentleness of Christ"
as his model and spirit in admonishing others (2 Corinthians 10:1),
names it twice as qualification for spiritual leadership
(1 Timothy 3:3, Titus 3:2),
and requires it in confronting those in opposition to a leader's teaching
(2 Timothy 2:25).
Finally, Peter says that a "gentle and quite spirit...
is precious in the sight of God" (1 Peter 3:4).
There is an indisputably large body of New Testament teaching and
examples that commend gentleness as a hallmark quality of being like Christ
and being a mature believer. By comparison, the teaching on physical discipline
in the Old Testament, an equally indisputably harsh and un-gentle practice,
is so scant as to be nearly nonexistent.
Any Christian parent who honestly and openly looks for biblical guidance
on childhood discipline simply cannot ignore the weight of
New Testament teaching.
If you want to be like Jesus to your children in your discipline,
then you must take seriously the biblical admonitions to gentleness,
and honestly question any method that does not allow for gentleness."
No comments:
Post a Comment