Proverbs 13:24 He who spares the rod hates his son,
but he who loves him is careful to discipline him.

Talk about something that has been discarded from society! This verse has been paraphrased as, “He who spares the rod spoils the child.” (I had thought that phraseology was in Proverbs, but it appears I have no room to look down on people who think things are in the Bible that aren’t!) However, the original is actually more hard-hitting, no pun intended, because it so clearly links discipline with love. This is expressed from a slightly different angle in Proverbs 3:11-12, which is in turn quoted in Hebrews 12. That passage is focused on our response to receiving discipline, but this verse is from the perspective of the parent. I was raised in the days of Dr. Spock, but thankfully his books didn’t become popular until I was slightly past them. He himself later regretted the train wreck that he had unleashed on society, and what a train wreck it has been! I touch on parenting in my premarital counseling, and young couples are often amazed at first, but then accepting and understanding of the reality that without boundaries, children are unsettled and insecure, of their parents’ love or much of anything else. Parental discipline is a sign of love, of caring, and the Japanese translation of this verse says we have to work at it. It can be easier at the moment to ignore the bad thing your child is doing, but ignoring it will reap an unpleasant harvest later on, for you and for the child. Parenting is hard work! However, for those who put the right effort into it, it is richly rewarding.

My younger daughter waited 10 years after marriage to have children, in part because she said she didn’t want to go through what she felt she and her sister had put her parents through. However, once she had a child, she said, “If I had known children were this much fun I would have had them much sooner!” Today she is doing a very good job with two sons, and it makes a daddy proud. That family will be coming for an extended visit in a couple of weeks, so the benefits of loving discipline will be put to a 3-week test! However, as a grandparent I am to support and supplement parental discipline and not supplant it. I’m not to break the boundaries set by the parents. I will have plenty of opportunity to express love within those boundaries, and my desire and aim is that the boys understand that love comes from their Heavenly Father, who loves them more than their parents and grandparents combined.

Father, thank You for Your gracious blessings in every area, including discipline. You know as well as I do how I’ve resisted Your discipline at times. Thank You for Your patience with me. Help me be an undistorted channel of that love to those around me, both my physical family and others, so that all may be drawn close to You to love You in return, for Your pleasure and glory. Thank You. Praise God!