THURSDAY August 19, 2021
A Father’s Loving Discipline
And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.
Ephesians 6:4
A Christian father has been given many important responsibilities in regards to their children’s upbringing. He must nurture, discipline and instruct them. This is what God commands.
Fathers must not provoke their children. The word provoke means “to arouse to anger by provocation or to exasperate.” In context, this Scripture is actually a warning to fathers against the iron handedness that eventually breaks the spirit of a child. This can happen if the father makes unjust demands from a child, or uses unreasonable severity in his discipline. He will frustrate a child and provoke them to anger.
When discipline is needed, a father should not abuse his children. Abusiveness can happen when a father speaks to his children in a derogatory manner. When he continually criticizes and defames a child by telling them they will never amount to anything, they will become angry, disillusioned and emotionally damaged. If a father is constantly putting down his children, yelling, cussing and calling them “Stupid,” he can destroy a child. He may even cause them to walk away from God.
Neither should a father hit a child with his hand on the head. The hand was made to show tenderness, not to hit, but to show love. The feet were made for walking, not for kicking and abusing a child. God expects fathers to lovingly discipline their children. Use the Scriptures to explain to a child what they have done wrong and why they are being chastened. Fathers need to lovingly care for their children. Never provoke your children!
We can never afford to forget that we teach our children to call God, Father, and the only conception of fatherhood that they can have is the conception which we give them. Human fatherhood should be molded and modeled on the pattern of the fatherhood of God.
~William Barclay~
For more from Raul Ries, please visit SomebodyLovesYou.com!
