Discipline, Faith, and Taming the Tongue

These posts are blasts from the past, reproduced here from an old blog system.

Hebrews 12:1 Discipleship Moment

Posted on June 6, 2014 at 11:35 PM

Here is a discussion starter for you with your child... this one is appropriate for younger kids, but definitely very relevant for the older kids in your family!

Hebrews 11:1 - Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, proof of things not seen.

Discipleship moment: What is faith? Is it at ALL a feeling or desire? How can it be had when you don't 'feel' it? What moments in your life have required you to trust in something you couldn't physically see? (The younger generation has a very hard time resisting what they 'feel' like doing or not doing rather than doing what they know to be right... partly because so many people don't know what is right!)

Why should we watch what we say?

Posted on June 3, 2014 at 11:20 PM

It is so easy to slip up in what we say, and it's a good idea to help our children understand that what we say matters! A slip of the tongue here, too much information there, and before you know it… your mouth has made a mess of things! Our words can bring a lot of healing… or a lot of hurt. The Scripture says that the tongue is “set on fire by hell” (see James 3:1-6 for more on that) and in Matthew 12:36-37, Jesus says that people will have to give an account for every careless word they have spoken! It’s good to know that God’s grace covers our silly mistakes, but we should also take our responsibility as believers seriously and be careful what we say!

Discipline

Posted on May 26, 2014 at 9:35 AM

I love discipline, and especially what it does for the life of a believer! In Hebrews 12:11 we are told that discipline is unpleasant at the time, but produces a crop of righteousness for those that are trained by it! But, discipline is difficult to do (Hebrews 12 never says that it's only unpleasant for the child... I think it's failry unpleasant for the parent to administer it!). Here's a few tidbits to think about when disciplining your children in the home.

Parents are admonished in the scripture to not neglect the discipline of their children, but are also warned not to exasperate their children, either. Telling your child that something will happen and then not bringing that to pass or having unrealistic or unspoken expectations that the child must live up to can both lead to exasperation for a child: they cannot possibly succeed or trust their parent to be their ally under such circumstances! On the other hand, screaming at a child instead of disciplining them, threatening them and not following through with the consequence as promised, and giving in to their wishes just to keep the peace are indicative of a lack of discipline in the home and will produce a child that is rebellious against authority. They will be unresponsive to the parent in particular since children will not trust their parent to hold to their convictions or do what they say.