The missing Pow -Pow-Pow crisis

One day as a youngster in high school a friend of mine and I were in study hall in a big auditorium that was similar in design to a movie theater with a stage and seats for about three hundred students. Our seats had fold-up desktops in them and study hall was designed for well…studying. I never did develop much of an interest in studying and always thought of study hall as a great way to cut up. This day my buddy and I were in engaged in a little gambling exercise. We were flipping coins and catching them and then without looking at them we would put them on our arm. We would try to guess heads or tails and the winner won the coin. It was great fun; that is until I flipped one rather high and the study hall teacher caught it mid-air. (I still do not know how that big man sneaked up on us like that without our seeing him or someone tipping us off.)

Our punishment was to receive a paddling with a wooden paddle in front of the entire study hall. We went up on stage bent over and grabbed our ankles and POW! POW! POW! Ouch it still hurts to think of that one and it was doubly bad because the entire study hall was rolling in laughter as the teacher demonstrated what happens to those who like to cut up instead of study in study hall. Unbelievably I got another one later in the day in my shop class. Being an amorous kind of guy I decided to weld my initials along with my girlfriend’s on the welding table. I thought it was a very nice gesture and the welding bead was well formed, but my shop instructor was not impressed. He being a shop instructor had a very well made custom paddle complete with a hole in it. POW! POW! POW! I had bruises for a week and actually decided to be good for a few days.

Not long ago I visited some of New York City’s School cafeterias. It was unbelievable. The kids were the unruliest kids I have ever seen. They did not empty their lunch trays in the garbage and place the trays in a stack; they just threw the entire tray along with its contents on the floor. A cafeteria worker was sweeping the trays and garbage along the floor like a zombie as if she did not even notice. The kids were dressed like gangsters some with long shorts that looked like they were designed for someone ten times their size that exposed their backside. Tattoos, piercings, nasty hair including blue, fluorescent maroon colors and of course dreadlocks and grimy clothes were just half of it. To describe them as unruly would actually be a compliment. They were surly, disobedient, loud, obnoxious; we witnessed a fight(I have run out of adjectives or is it adverbs? I guess I should have studied more and flipped coins less.)

If these kids were to receive a paddling with a rather large custom paddle with a hole drilled in it for special effects today, the ACLU and the permissive parents and a bevy of NY lawyers would sue the ever loving heck out of NYC. It would be on CNN and the rest of the media and bleeding hearts would bleed blue blood and cry real tears over this serious crisis. The real crisis is that parents and schools no longer discipline kids and many of them are turning into little monsters. If this continues what will the world be like in another decade or two?

The Bible has much to say about discipline and kids. Spare the rod and spoil the child is one that comes to mind, but there are plenty more. We were born with a sin gene and obedience and good behavior are not innate; they must be taught. Yes, even my darling little grand-daughters are already learning that it is more fun for someone to hold them, rock them, tickle them, make stupid little cooing sounds and talk baby talk to them, and make a big deal over them their every waking moment. If they do not get what they want, they have learned that they can scream bloody murder and we will all come running to pick them up. Their favorite time to do this is whenever we sit down at the table to eat a meal. Could it be that they might become spoiled if this continues? I have instructed my son about this matter, and he has been duly warned; he is also well-versed in the axiom that grandpas and grandmas are exempt from applying such discipline.

Herein lies the crux of the matter, how can a loving parent discipline the child that they love so dearly? Worse how could any grandparent in their right mind discipline a child whom they love? Could we be expected to hear a baby cry and after checking to see that they have not done something and their diaper is in order and that they are not hungry or hurt that we just let them howl?

The Bible states that if you love your child you will discipline them. As a matter of fact the Bible states unequivocally that our heavenly Father will discipline us if we disobey His rules and he is our example of how to raise children and everything else. The ACLU will not win that battle. “Train up a child in the way he should go and when he grows old he will not depart from it”; “Blows that hurt cleanse away evil”, “Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child. The rod of correction will drive it far from him”, so the Bible states. I have not found a reference in the Bible for administering a “timeout” or taking away a favorite toy for a while, or saying “No” over and over, and over and over, and over and over,… and over. Could it be that maybe, just maybe, this will not send the right message?

Proverbs:13:24
He who spares his rod hates his
Son,
But he who loves him
disciplines him promptly.