My almost three year-old, red-headed, full-of-mischief son giggled, put his head down, and ran lickety-split toward the corner by our house and a busy roadway. The noise of traffic ruled screaming stop irrelevant.
I sprinted for the foolish little one and snatched him off his feet just before his foot touched the black asphalt of the dangerous intersection. And I paddled his three-year-old bottom, with my hand, all the way across the lawn and inside our front door!
Was that child abuse? I hoped it was a shock and awe maneuver that would teach him never to run into the road again. And it worked.
“Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; the rod of discipline will remove it far from him” (Proverbs 22:15 IISB).
But in these “Y and Me” generations, is spanking really the issue? Or are far deeper issues driving this controversy?
During the past forty years our nation and its people have experienced an evolving spiritual abortion. A painful ripping away from God’s parameters, leaving us running the highway of life with no boundaries, no rules, no conscience.
We never gave a second glance to consequences or Pandora’s brimming box of angry lies and deception eager to rush in and fill the God void left by our rebellion. We reveled in the new found freedom—If it feels good—do it. Whatever it is. Just like Adam and Eve did in the garden. Until…
In the early 70’s a new way of child-rearing swarmed the nation. Dr. Spock and doctors of the same philosophy wrote numerous books with the notion children should be allowed to express themselves. “Let them draw on the walls,” he touted. “No spanking, just time-outs.” And many free thinking young adults chose to parent in the light of this new found wisdom.
But was it wisdom?
Infiltrated with this feel good-do it brand of education, schools took up the mantra that resulted in the mind games of situation ethics—the situation you’re in determines the ethics you use. And we never recognized the deception digesting our educational system.
My children went through a harrowing year in Longwood, Florida, being exposed to the survival games and magic circle foolishness taking place in our tax payer funded public school. Along with many parents, we filed suit against the school board and had this evil cut out of our system. But it was a nation-wide subterfuge, a rout of God and conscience and morality were tossed out the window.
When Rowe v. Wade became the law of the land we allowed the most awful form of child abuse to become the law of the land. Moms and Dads could legally kill their babies in the womb. And kill we have, to the tune of fifty-five million innocent babies. For years. Never realizing, at the moment of legalization, the soul of our nation underwent a massive spiritual abortion. An abortion from which we are hemorrhaging—bleeding out—and will die.
“Behold, children are a gift of the Lord; the fruit of the womb is a reward. So are the children of one’s youth. How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them…” (Psalm 127:3-5a IISB).
So is it any wonder we have scores of children, abused by parents who consider them a nuisance, not a gift from God. And why should they? These parents have no use for God or His Word.
Truth of the matter is, these parents need a good spanking. A spanking which they never received because the fad of the day said, “Let the little darlings express themselves.” And they’re still venting their own consequences of deception.
Our highways have lane laws, speed sanctions, and all kinds of other rules meant to keep us safe while zipping down the highway at 80 mph. But if one car fails to obey the laws of the road a catastrophic-life-claiming crash will surely occur.
Nationally we reject God’s laws for life, then wring our hands over the calamity of consequences this violation brings upon our land, our families and our lives. We have come full circle and are now left holding our frustration, our anger, our rebellion, and we have no place to go.
The world is exploding around us and the feel good lie isn’t working. We’re left with the ashes of broken relationships, and the reality of our unquenchable anger, frustration, and fear. So to spank or not isn’t the real question, is it?
That afternoon so long ago, as I held my sobbing child on my lap, pondering how different the outcome might have been, I cried with him.
On the hillside overlooking Jerusalem two thousand plus years ago Jesus cried. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not have it” (Luke 13:34 IISB).
I’m sure He looked down through the ages and saw the horrible consequences of my sin and your sin, and knew that’s why He had to die.
If you’re His child, you’ve been to the cross and your name is inscribed on His hand and you have access to God’s Throne for forgiveness and mercy. If you’re not yet His child, there’s still room on His hand and at the cross just for you.
So shouldn’t the real question be, “Where do we go from here?” And the only true answer is, “To the cross or to God’s Throne pleading for His mercy and grace or for the salvation, healing, and transformation only He can give.”
“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him; for those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives” (Hebrews 12:5-6 IISB).
Next week we’ll talk more about this when I write Citizens, Christians, Coward – Can’t I Be All Three?
Very wise. Very insightful.
LikeLike
Holly, thank you for reading and responding. Writing is often a lonely job. But you know that, don’t you?
DiAne
LikeLike
I think the spanking vs. not spanking debate would be less muddied if people stopped using the word ‘discipline’ when they strike their children our of anger and to assuage their own feelings versus truly focusing on a lesson for the child.
LikeLike